Force India will keep updating its 2015 car in order to protect its fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
Having finished sixth last season, Force India is in a strong position to improve on that result as it currently sits 17 points clear of Lotus having scored points in eight of the last nine races. While, team principal Vijay Mallya says the pace shown by the car at the last two rounds is encouraging, he does not want Force India to ease off on development this year.
“I’m feeling optimistic as we approach the final couple of months of the season,” Mallya said. “In Singapore and Japan we continued to show competitive pace and, despite missing the chance to score with both cars, we remain in a solid fifth place in the championship.
“Russia will give us another chance to unleash more potential from the B-spec car. Even at this late stage of the season we continue to bring new parts to the car thanks to all the hard work back at the factory.
“There’s every reason to believe we can be competitive in Sochi and we expect to be up there fighting for good points.”
Before the Japanese Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg had scored just once in four races as Sergio Perez impressed, but Hulkenberg says he was been encouraged by his sixth place at Suzuka.
“The result in Suzuka was just what I needed after a few unlucky weekends since the summer break,” Hulkenberg said. “We had good pace, we did our homework and we achieved all we could from the race. It was very satisfying to see how competitive we were and that’s given me a confidence boost for the races to come.”
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