Tag Archives: Force India

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley believes that the team can target Williams next season, given that the Grove outfit is also a Mercedes customer.

Force India achieved its highest ever World Championship placing this year, having formally secured fifth place in Brazil. It had previously finish sixth on three occasions, although under its previous identity of Jordan the Silverstone-based team finished as high as third in 1999 and fourth in 1998, as well as achieving fifth in 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2001.

This year’s result gives the team guaranteed extra funding from FOM for next year, while more useful support will come with the Aston Martin deal, if and when it is confirmed.

“It does show that there has been a genuine step-up,” Fernley told this writer. “Our powertrain is probably the best in the business, so I don’t think there are any issues there. And I think chassis-wise we are a genuinely top four or five car. To take the next move into the top four requires another step, but we’ve got the assets to do it today.

“What we have to look at is setting our sights on whether or not we can compete with Williams, because they are a similarly-funded team with similar assets, albeit a bit more in-depth because of the amount of investment they’ve put in over the years. Clearly we want to close down on them. I think we’ve been chipping away at them over the second half of the season.”

Fernley says that switching the wind tunnel programme to the Toyota facility in Germany was a key factor in this year’s performance, and he stresses that it was important to get that transition out of the way well before teams start preparing for major aero changes in 2017.

“It’s the result of enhancing the aero programme in Germany. I think you’re seeing the results of that coming through now. For us it was very fortunate to do it last year, because this year it would have been very difficult with the new regulations coming in 2017. We just got the timing right for the first half of the season.”

Meanwhile in the short term confirmation of fifth place will allow the team to do a little more development work at the final weekend of the season.

“I think it allows as more freedom for Abu Dhabi. I think you can afford to do a little bit more testing work in the sessions and things like that. Whenever you do testing in FP1 and FP2 sessions you tend to compromise the race set-up or the qualifying set-up.”

Regarding the status of the Aston Martin deal he said: “I don’t think we can offer a better package to Aston. The decision now is between their shareholders and the Force India shareholders.”

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley says his team can be satisfied with successful “damage limitation” over the first four races.

The VJM08 was completed late and did very little testing, and the team looked set for a tough start to the season. However a double score in Melbourne and then eighth place for Sergio Perez in Bahrain left the team just a point behind Lotus and Toro Rosso in the constructors’ table, and eight points behind Sauber.

“We set out obviously to try do damage limitation in these first four races,” Fernley told this writer.. “And I think the efforts of the team to get a good qualifying position in Bahrain gave us an opportunity, and we took it with both hands.

“And that means after four races we’re pretty well on a par with all our competitors. Given where we were after the Barcelona test I think I would have taken it! We’ve got Lotus, Toro Rosso within a point of us, and Sauber a few points away. We’re in good shape from that point of view, so the damage limitation programme has been delivered.”

Perez and Nico Hulkenberg ran different strategies in Bahrain, and Fernley says that the German actually helped his team mate by holding up his rivals.

“Nico didn’t have the best of starts, he lost a couple of places. He had a reasonable first stint and we decided that a three-stop was right for him, but we couldn’t quite deliver the performance that a three-stop was going to need.

“However, sometimes running a three and a two as alternative strategies can benefit the other car a little bit. I think Nico did a good job for us in the first stint which probably helped Checo come through as well, as he backed up three or four cars for a while. That’s not taking anything away from what was a perfectly executed drive from Checo.”

Fernley says that while updates will be in the car in Spain the main package is still in schedule for Austria: “There are bits and pieces coming, but none of it will add a huge amount of performance. It’s more a case of preparing ready for the package coming in Austria.”

Marussia’s application to run its 2014 car this season was rejected by the F1 Strategy Group because it lacked substance and had compliance issues, according to Force India team principal Robert Fernley.

It’s understood that one of the compliance issues related to the fact that the letter came from team CEO Graeme Lowdon, and not from the administrator, as should have been the case.

The brief letter also contained little or no information about the team’s future plans, such as a possible new owner or investor, or any intention to ready a 2015 car. As such some of those present at the meeting, including Bernie Ecclestone, did not believe that the team – whose Banbury factory has been sold to Haas – had a chance of mounting a credible entry into the 2015 championship.

In order to grant permission to Marussia, unanimity was required. Force India was the first to vote, and as soon as the team responded with a ‘No’ in effect it didn’t matter what anyone else had to say. It’s understood that others also expressed opposition, as would other teams not represented in the meeting, such as Sauber and Lotus, who would have had a vote had the matter proceeded to the F1 Commission. Apparently the discussion on the subject was relatively brief.

“The strategy group was faced with an application for Marussia’s 2014 cars to compete in the 2015 championship,” said Fernley. “During the meeting it emerged that there were compliance issues and that the application lacked substance. Equally, the speculative application submitted contained no supporting documentation to reinforce the case for offering special dispensation.

“For example, no details were supplied of who the new owners would be or the operational structures that would be put in place. Given the lack of information, uncertain guarantees, and the speculative nature of the application, the decision was taken that it is better to focus on ensuring the continued participation of the remaining independent teams.”

The Strategy Group includes Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Williams on a permanent basis, as well as the next best placed constructor, which this year is Force India. Each team has a vote, while the FIA has six votes and Formula One Management has six votes.

Those at the meeting included Ecclestone, Jean Todt, Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda (Mercedes), Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier (McLaren), Sergio Marchionne and Maurizio Arrivabene (Ferrari), Christian Horner (Red Bull), Claire Williams (Williams) and Fernley.