Sahara Force India F1 Team Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley says the squad are well prepared ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, whatever the conditions.
Like most other teams today, Force India opted to cram as much of their weekend programme into the Free Practice 1 session as they could, just in case it ended up being the only dry running they would experience this weekend.
Fernley confirmed they were also able to test some of the new aero updates they had brought along this weekend in that session, and they are working as expected.
“Another disrupted day with the heavy rain limiting our programme this afternoon and both cars completing just a handful of laps.
“Fortunately we had a dry morning session where we elected to bring forward some of the data gathering we would normally carry out during FP2. We combined this with some component testing of our new aero updates spread across both cars.
Despite the disrupted running on Friday, with a rain hit and truncated second practice, the Brit is confident the team will be competitive in both dry and wet conditions, and are well set for qualifying and the race.
“The red flag and the light rain at the end of the morning compressed the session, but we are not in bad shape and have a reasonable amount of data to help us prepare for qualifying and the race.
“We went out in the wet conditions this afternoon just to get an idea of how the wet tyres are performing. Both drivers were happy in the wet and I think we are well prepared whatever the weather brings tomorrow.”