Friday: Force India thinks they can fight for points

Force India knew upon arriving in Singapore that it would have difficulty replicating its top-notch performances from Spa-Francorchamps and Monza. The team’s car, the VJM02, still suffers from a deficit in aerodynamic downforce compared to the other cars on the grid, despite all the upgrades brought to Singapore.

Nonetheless, Adrian Sutil is positioned a tenth away from the top 10, indicative of a place in Q3 during qualifying. The German manages to cope with the lack of grip of his car at the cost of incisive driving. As for Vitantonio Liuzzi, he continues his learning process on this very technical track where it is absolutely necessary to be confident in order to skim the walls at every moment. The Italian is one second behind his teammate, but that was already the case in Monza on the Friday session. Liuzzi then significantly improved his times during qualifying and the race.

Adrian Sutil – 12th and 12th:

I have been quite happy with the car but it’s hard to judge the rear end grip as we still have some graining issues, particularly with the super soft tires. We still have a lot of work to do but it’s only Friday. I think we can do much better and get closer to the front. I believe I could certainly have done a faster lap time but the traffic was really dense. I still believe we can get into the points and we always want to be in the top 10 in qualifying, which is obviously our goal for this weekend.

Vitantonio Liuzzi – 18th and 18th:

« Everything went well today. The most important thing for me was to learn the circuit and get used to the track, the bumps, and the curbs, and I think we are heading in the right direction. We struggled a bit with the balance, which didn’t help, but we did a lot of tests and tried to understand the tires. I think we are on the right track and will be much better tomorrow. We have a lot of work to do as we are not yet satisfied with the balance, but we have all night to think about it! »

Dominic Harlow – Chief Engineer

For the start of free practice this Friday, the track here in Singapore was dusty. Therefore, grip was precarious with some oversteer. The goal for the initial installation work was the car’s balance and also involved stabilizing the various systems of the single-seater for race conditions. Tonio used the first session to familiarize himself with the circuit, as he had never driven here before, and Adrian tested some development components. In the second session, our tire comparisons and installation work continued. There is always plenty of room for improvement, but our performance seems promising.