Assessment: Force India did not perform as well as expected!

Force India has regained a semblance of form over the past few races. The team is taking advantage of the misfortunes of certain leaders and especially the underperformance of Toro Rosso to make it into Q2 in qualifying and aim for 10th to 15th places in the race.

Adrian Sutil thus inherits a very good first stint but can only secure the 17th position at the finish, overtaken in the race by Hamilton, Piquet, and Buemi. As for Fisichella, he faces a reliability issue, with the brakes being the cause.

The Italian had experienced the same issues in free practice yesterday and on Friday, but even by completely changing the system before the race, it did not prevent a retirement. The team is now waiting for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, at home, to improve their performance with some updates.

Adrian Sutil – 17th:

« Maybe we expected more starting from 15th on the grid. I lost a few places at the start but was able to recover them quickly. The race pace was quite good and I had some exciting battles with McLaren and Brawn GP. The issue with Barrichello wasn’t significant. He just touched me in a corner when we were fighting together, but I was just defending my position. It was an interesting race with good pace and balance. Only the result could have been better… »

Giancarlo Fisichella – Retirement:

« I had some problems with my brakes this weekend. We changed the whole system to see if there would be a difference, but in fact, it was worse and the car was handling poorly. I made a good start and then as the laps went by, the brake pedal was working less and less, and I had to pit. We tried to restart but it was too risky and we gave up. It’s a shame, I was just missing a bit of luck this weekend… »

Vijay Mallya – Director

« We expected a bit more from this weekend, but overall, I think the performances solidified our level from Monaco. We made it to Q2 for the second consecutive time and Adrian [Sutil] drove extremely well, especially in his first and second stints. Unfortunately for Giancarlo [Fisichella], he had to retire very early due to a brake problem, which we had experienced before. We can be encouraged by these performances, but we expect a lot from the updates coming to Silverstone in a few weeks. »