Paris: It has been an impressive turnaround in fortunes for Force India. From struggling to scoring points in the first five races (in the first race in Australia both Force India drivers were promoted to 9th and 10th places after Sauber drivers were disqualified for technical infringements), the Vijay Mallya-owned team has registered consistently strong performances in both qualifying and race day since the Monaco GP where Adrian Sutil finished 7th.
"The key moment was the exhaust blown diffuser that we inroduced at Barcelona. Till that point, the exhaust we were using was slightly less aggressive than the 2010 concept," Dominic Harlow, Director of Circuit Engineering said in an interview, while explaining the team's recovery from a not-so impressive start.
Barring the double points-scoring finish at the Australian GP due to the disqualification of two Sauber cars and a 10th place in Malaysia, the team had nothing to show in the points table till Monaco. However, in Monaco, the race weekend after Barcelona, Adrian Sutil finished an impressive 7th. "It was quite encouraging. We were extremely please that the new upgrade had started showing results," Harlow remarked.
Considering the lack of a convincing performance till Monaco, the fifth race of the season, Harlow admitted it was a bit of a relief to see the car performing better after the introduction of new exhaust blown diffusers.
Following his heroics in Monaco, Sutil had another strong weekend at the European GP in Valencia where he finished in 9th place. ''Though there was a fairly late change of philosophy on arodynamics, our development plan always had updates coming through. Since Valencia, one of our cars has always been in Q3 in qualifying. The recent performance is an endorsement of what we are doing in the factory,'' Harlow pointed out.
The last two races in Germany and Hungary were a clear indicator that the team was fit, fighting and consistent. At Nurburgring, Sutil qualified in 8th place and finished an impressive 6th giving the team its best result of the season so far. A week later in Hungary, Sutil again qualified in 8th place. However, it was his teammate Paul di Resta, who despite qualifying 11th, finished in 7th place.
The remarkable thing about the races in Germany and Hungary was that Sutil and Di Resta respectively managed to beat the Mercedes factory team drivers, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and the highly rated Nico Rosberg.
Though delighted with team's recent performance, Harlow however contends that a lot of work needs to be done on aerodynamics to close the gap with the top runners. ''That will come through research and hard work in the wind tunnel. There is not one concept or area we are focussing on,'' he said.
Harlow said that the target for the remaining season is to keep scoring points and improve on championship standings. "At the same time, the design and development of VJM05 for 2012 is equally important. ''We cannot compromise 2012 for 2011," he added.
About the upcoming races, Harlow sounded confident of the team doing well. "Spa and Moza are high speed circuits where we have done well. Considering that we have performed creditably at a slower track like Hungary, we should be able to adapt to the other tracks as well," he said.
Harlow added that the focus of the team was to constantly improve the aerodynamics performance and look after the tyres in all conditions.
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