Sunday: the safety car ruined Force India’s hopes
Force India was hoping to score some points at Suzuka this weekend, but it was not to be. The strategies of Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta were thwarted by the safety car intervention. In the final laps, both drivers - on medium tires - could not compete with drivers on soft tires. They ultimately finished just outside the points in 11th and 12th place.
Adrian Sutil – 11th
« To be honest, I feel we were unlucky today not to finish in the points. My start was excellent, even though I had to ease off a bit because Kobayashi had a bad start and so I couldn’t capitalize on my good start. But after the first few laps, I was ahead of the (Lotus) Renault drivers and had a good pace. I think what really broke my race was the safety car intervention because I had just made my second pit stop and so lost positions. In terms of strategy, we had to make three stops because tire wear was really too high. At one point, ninth place seemed within reach, but in the end, we lost out to the drivers who only made two stops and had the benefit of soft tires at the end of the race. »
Paul di Resta – 12th
I really got off to a great start, I passed on the outside and gained four positions – I was ahead of the Renaults and Kobayashi. I was on a good pace but the safety car shattered our strategy because it was our fastest part of the race and it was important to try to create a gap. It helped the cars that were on two stops because they caught up with us in the last laps and it was very difficult to defend. As we approach the final four races of the season, we know we’re going to have a very tight fight with the teams around us. Sauber seemed very competitive here and Renault seems to be back in good shape, but we’re going to try to fight again in Korea.
Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
We approached today’s race thinking we could fight for points, but in the end, the race circumstances were not in our favor. As for the strategy, we had covered our bases and the two great starts from our drivers worked in our favor. We knew we were on the edge in terms of tire wear, but we had good pace and were able to create a gap with the cars on medium tires at the start of the race. The problem turned out to be the safety car intervention, which completely nullified our advantage and put the cars back on two stops during the race. We tried to score some points nonetheless, but it was impossible to compete against the cars on soft tires at the end of the race. So we leave Suzuka a bit disappointed, but we will focus on the positives to try to live up to our potential in Korea.
