The Force India team penalized by the new Pirelli tires

There are signs that don’t lie: the Nürburgring signaled the end for Force India’s streak of five Grand Prix with at least one driver in Q3 and six Grand Prix in the points, making the Indian team the “best of the rest,” alongside the quartet of heavyweights Red Bull/Ferrari/Lotus/Mercedes.

The two stablemates, Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil, both mentioned during the descent from their single-seater last Sunday issues with tires and balance during the race, with even a strategy change mid-race for the German driver, resulting in an additional pit stop.

The concurrence of the arrival of the new rear tires with Kevlar belts (in place of steel) introduced by Pirelli for this specific Grand Prix highlights a possible mismatch between the design philosophy of the VJM06 and the new Milanese compounds, which will change again from the next Grand Prix in Hungary to a new hybrid solution. This is at least what Robert Fernley, the team’s deputy director, boldly claims:

The VJM06 was entirely designed around the technical specifications of the (Editor’s note: first) Pirelli tire. These new tires are very different, and we have to restart the development work to adapt to them, whereas we had planned to focus more on the 2014 season car. Other teams will be affected, as this is not a trivial change. There will be winners and losers. We are clearly losers; now it remains to assess to what extent.

The ability of Force India to preserve its tires until now was undeniable, as evidenced by the recent 56-lap stint (out of 70) by the Scottish driver in Montreal on medium tires, while Romain Grosjean at the wheel of his Lotus, another car also known for being very gentle on its tires, was unable to replicate and had to stop 14 laps earlier.

« We will take advantage of the upcoming tests at Silverstone. Fortunately, since the weather was very good at Nürburgring, we have quality data to work with. »