Force India consolidates its fourth place in Austria

Sahara Force India had an uneventful race in Austria, gaining only one position thanks to Max Verstappen’s retirement. After the sparks in Baku, the drivers managed to avoid each other on the track. However, the team’s management’s heart rates must have increased at the start when there was a back-and-forth between the two drivers, who started one behind the other.

Esteban Ocon thought he had done the hardest part by taking the lead at the first corner. Nevertheless, he made the wrong choice at the third corner when he tried to pass Lewis Hamilton on the outside: « I got a good start and gained a few positions but I was behind Lewis arriving at the third corner and was squeezed. So I had to ease off and lost speed. »

On the contrary, Sergio Perez was pleased to have been able to overtake his teammate by diving inside: « I got a good start but was passed by Esteban and Lewis at the first corner. Fortunately, I managed to overtake both of them at the third corner to regain my starting position. »

However, he was never able to seriously threaten Romain Grosjean, particularly due to the ultra-soft tires at the start of the race: « I suffered a lot from graining in the first stint but after the pit stop, I was able to settle into my rhythm but it wasn’t enough to attack Grosjean. We had the same pace, we couldn’t get closer. »

However, Esteban Ocon believes that the team could have adopted a better strategy as he found himself threatened by Felipe Massa at the end of the race: “I don’t think we took the right strategy because I lost a lot of time to Massa after my stop. We need to look at what happened and see what we could have done differently.”

However, in the end, the team achieves a good operation as it increases its lead over Williams by another seven points and arrives home in a comfortable fourth place in the Constructors’ standings.