Force India is delighted with its drivers
With 59 points collected by its two drivers - Nico Hülkenberg and Paul di Resta - Force India is doing better than in 2011 at the same time and is not far from Sauber in the championship. Enough to be satisfied with the duo formed by the German and the Scotsman and to approach the rest of the championship with optimism.
Beyond the battle between Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, and Lotus, another fight is taking place a little further down the hierarchy between the Sauber, Williams, and Force India teams. Currently, it’s the Swiss team that is faring the best, thanks notably to the two podiums achieved by Sergio Pérez in Malaysia and Canada. Williams, on its part, collected 25 points in one go in Barcelona. Force India is not lagging behind either, as it has scored more points than in 2011—59 compared to 32 at the same time last year—but it was missing a truly remarkable result.
In Belgium, she was close thanks to Nico Hülkenberg who was in second place after a few laps. The German driver eventually finished just off the podium and scored 12 points for the 4th position, which marked his personal best result and allowed Force India to move ahead of Williams in the Constructors’ Championship, while closing the gap to 21 points to Sauber, who left Spa empty-handed despite a strong overall result seeming within reach after qualifying.
« I think Nico did a great job. We never had any doubts about him, and with Paul, they are equal. It’s great to have two wonderful drivers pushing the limit, » rejoices Bob Fernley, co-director of the Indian team to our colleagues at Autosport.
Fernley hopes to capitalize on the Spa result in the upcoming races: « We probably need to do a bit better in qualifying. But the main problem we have is managing to convert that into a race result. At Spa, we had the perfect balance and hope we can continue in this direction at Monza and Singapore. »
This is not the first time Force India has managed to stand out at Spa-Francorchamps. We remember that in 2009, Giancarlo Fisichella secured the pole position and climbed to the second step of the podium behind Kimi Räikkönen and his Ferrari. The same year, they left Monza with 14 more points in their pocket.
