Sahara Force India F1 Team Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley was pleased with the squad’s overall performance at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, and was happy to score a double point finish, in what was an accident packed race.
“We made the most of an incident-filled race to score points with both cars.”
Fernley felt the full wet tyres were the correct option for the start of the race, but says they had anticipated the rain to last a little longer than it did, which forced them to pit drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, much sooner than they would have liked.
Nevertheless, the Brit was happy with all of the pit walls strategy calls during the race.
“We started on the full wet tyres, which were the correct tyres for the early laps, but the rain eased off sooner than expected and the track came towards the cars on intermediates.
“We had to react quickly to the various safety car periods and the pit wall made the right calls to ensure we were always on the right tyres for the conditions.”
Despite their good judgement however, both Perez and Ocon lost track position at the second safety car period, but fought hard to recover those places, ending the race in fifth and tenth place respectively.
Having started the race from twelfth and fourteenth on the grid, Fernley considers the weekend a successful one for Force India.
“We lost out during the second safety car period, which cost both drivers track position – Esteban more so than Sergio. From there both drivers recovered ground, but it wasn’t easy to overtake.
“Sergio had a long battle with Sainz and Esteban was fighting with Magnussen and Grosjean. Considering where we started the race, to come away with eleven points is a very satisfactory end to the weekend.”
