The Sahara Force India F1 Team‘s deputy team principal Robert Fernley expects their new floor to help solve their aerodynamic difficulties.
Despite both cars finishing in the points at all three of 2017’s races so far, the team had expected more pace on track.
According to Fernley, the disappointment is due to a correlation error between the wind tunnel and track, but he expects the floor, which will form part of their Spanish weekend upgrade package, to put things right.
“We know exactly what it is, Andy [Green, technical director] and the team have determined that there’s a correlation issue, we knew that in Barcelona testing,” he said.
“The effects were identified, [solutions] put in place and it’s just a production process and it will hopefully bolt on in Barcelona and we can go toe-to-toe again as opposed to having to defend.
“It’s related to our aero platform. The problem is that you pick one bit up and it affects different areas and you’ve got to go back through it, correct it and then produce the new part for it. The new floors and things will be available for Barcelona.”
Fernley also revealed that the VJM10 is suffering from other issues, mostly identified during the recent Bahrain testing. They are hopeful things will have been improved prior to the Russian Grand Prix.
“Yes, there’s a whole number of other issues as well, it’s a major upgrade, but part of that upgrade will also be the correcting of some of the issues that we had or we identified in Barcelona [testing],” he continued.
“The drivers say they have instability and it’s stalling and [downforce is] coming in and out and it’s slow to medium corners.
“Bahrain highlighted it particularly, Russia will probably do the same but we can do some testing.
“We won’t solve it, but we might be able to mitigate it.”
