The post-race celebrations at the Sochi Autodrom following Sergio Perez’s excellent podium finish showed just how much the result meant to the whole Sahara Force India team, according to Team Principal Dr Vijay Mallya.
Perez secured only the teams’ third ever top three finish in Russia, after capitalising on a last lap clash between Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, but Dr Mallya believes the result was well earned thanks to the hard work put in by the team in developing the b-spec VJM08 this season.
“We travel to Austin full of energy and optimism following Checo’s fantastic podium in Sochi,” said Mallya. “The car was strong, our strategy was good, and Checo didn’t put a wheel wrong.
“You could see from our post-race celebrations just how much the result meant to everyone in the team and it’s a welcome reward for everybody’s hard work this year. It’s very satisfying to get some more silverware for our trophy cabinet at Silverstone.
“Over the winter I said that the target was to achieve podiums in 2015. That may have seemed like an over-optimistic objective, but ever since the introduction of the b-spec car I knew that we had the potential to do something special.
“We may have had a little good fortune in Sochi, but I believe you make your own luck and we worked hard to seize the opportunity and bring the result home.”
Dr Mallya believes there is a lot of positive energy within Force India, especially after their excellent run of results where at least one of Perez or team-mate Nico Hulkenberg has finished inside the top seven in the past five events.
“There is a lot of positive energy in the team at the moment,” added Mallya. “We’ve confirmed both Nico and Sergio for next year and that continuity is important for us. They are very closely matched and they push each other hard.
“I believe that having healthy competition within the team is a good thing and will help drive the team even further forward.”
