Force India needs more improvement for a points finish in Abu Dhabi GP – Formula 1 news
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg believes that the team needs to make more progress in order to attain a points finish in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this Sunday.
Hulkenberg finished twelfth in the first practice session and thirteenth in the second one on Friday. His teammate Paul di Resta did not drive in the first session being replaced by Jules Bianchi but finished at fifteenth position in the second session.
“I think it's still difficult to know where our performance level is right now, but we probably need to raise our game and improve a bit overnight if we want to challenge for points,” said Hulkenberg who has been scoring reasonable points for his team in
the last three Grands Prix.
The driver also expressed his concerns regarding the balance of his car but was fairly satisfied with the practice sessions.
He said, “The balance is not perfect just yet so we need to work tonight to get the car closer to the sweet spot. Apart from that we got through the programme, collected all the tyre data and so it was a fairly normal Friday.”
Di Resta stated that the practice sessions gave them enough opportunity to explore the track and how their car worked on it. He said that they also collected data about the tyres and will be working to extract maximum advantage out of them. He thinks they
need to put in a lot of effort before the race takes place this weekend.
The remaining races in this season will be Hulkenberg’s last with Force India before he leaves to join Sauber F1 for next year’s season. Hulkenberg says the decision was tough and he was impressed by Sauber’s podium finishes despite the fact that Force India
has been more consistent in the second half of the season. His teammate has not supported his decision but the driver has been appreciated by team principal Vijay Mallya for recent performance.
Force India is currently standing at seventh trying to overtake Sauber’s sixth on the constructors’ grid and Hulkenberg insists that he is still committed to his current team to achieve that until the end of this season.
Tags: