Objective points for Force India in Shanghai

The Sahara Force India team started the season well by finishing in the points in both Australia and Malaysia. Vijay Mallya, the team principal, wanted to congratulate his drivers and set the same goal for this weekend in the Middle Kingdom: «It is encouraging that we were able to score points in these two races, and this will be our goal in China. I must congratulate Paul and Nico for their excellent races in Malaysia. They are only in their second full season in Formula 1, but they have shown maturity in difficult conditions.»

Paul di Resta, who scored 8 points in two races, believes that the entire Force India team is delighted to have achieved a good start to the season because it hasn’t been easy with such fierce competition: “I think the whole team is thrilled to have nine points on the board after two races, and it was important to score points in an unpredictable race like Malaysia. We’ve seen how close all the teams are this year, and scoring points isn’t easy, so it’s great to start this way, especially as we want to continue on this path.”

Nico Hülkenberg agrees with the Scottish driver, the field is probably tighter than ever this season and having managed to take advantage of it is a good thing because the hierarchy is not yet fully set: « We are only at the start of the season – we’ve only had two race weekends, so we still have to wait and see (what the hierarchy will be). Given that the midfield is very compact, no one can afford to rest. We all have to work hard to improve performance, and with 18 races still to go, there’s time for that.»

In order to improve the performance of the VJM05 and thus progress, Team Force India is working hard as Vijay Mallya stated: Regarding the development of the car, the Silverstone factory continues to operate at full capacity to enhance our performance. The first two races have provided us with a lot of information to work on, and we will use this for the upcoming races.

Nico Hülkenberg is not particularly looking forward to the Chinese Grand Prix as the German driver is not a die-hard fan of the track, even though he acknowledges there should be some spectacle: «(China) is not my favorite race of the year, but they’ve done a good job building impressive facilities and it’s a fun track. It is difficult to predict what our performance will be here, but given that the lineup is very tight at the moment, I think there will be a great show to follow.»

Paul di Resta finds the layout of the Shanghai International Circuit interesting because it is different from other tracks, particularly with turn 1, which is very special: « The track has some unusual spots. Turn 1 is very long and it feels like it will never end. The key to taking it well is to maintain a lot of speed as you enter the corner. You also have to be careful with one of the biggest bumps of the year at the entry, which makes it challenging.»

According to the Scottish driver, this is the corner where drivers should be able to overtake as well as at the end of the straight, notably thanks to the contribution of DRS: « The best chance (to overtake) is at turn 1 or the tight hairpin at turn 14, which widens at the entrance and makes defending very difficult as a result. We also saw the usefulness of DRS last year, which helped produce a great race, and it should be the same this year.»