Force India Can Claim 4th Place in 2015 Formula 1 Championship with B-Spec Car
Force India aren't supposed to do things this way.
The plucky little team, with their plucky little car, are meant to get their points on the board at an early stage, taking advantage of any unpredictability at the start of a season to make a head-start before dedicating the second half of a campaign to defending their position.
It is a philosophy they have perfected in recent times, equaling their best-ever finish in the constructors' standings in the last two years.
After eight races of 2013, Force India were fifth in the championship with 59 points and a best finish of fourth, while at the same stage in 2014, they were as high as fourth having registered 87 points and their first podium finish in almost five years.
The problem with such an approach, however, is that when the time comes for the team to defend, they are often found defenceless.
Their lack of resources and financial muscle in comparison to the teams they race alongside across the first half of the season means they lose out in the development race to those who can buy their way out of trouble.
The top-five finishes of spring and early summer become fights for seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th by autumn, and a season that once promised so much—and should still be celebrated—is tinged with disappointment and ultimately defined by missed opportunities as Force India are once again put in their place.
Sixth place.
This year, though, the team have reversed the trend and sacrificed short-term pain for long-term gain, an enforced change but one that could, after years spent knocking on the door, see Force India finally break into the elite.
In pre-season, Bob Fernley, the deputy team boss, told Sky Sports' Pete Gill that "cash-flow issues" had impacted the development of Force India's 2015 car, forcing Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to take to the track in an interim machine.
As Hulkenberg told Auto Motor und Sport (h/t Planet F1), this meant the team were very much in damage-limitation mode in the first phase of the campaign, but their wariness was misguided.
Despite scoring just 31 points in the opening eight races of 2015, Force India are currently in the position you have come to expect from them at the halfway stage: fifth, very much in the midst of the midfield battle yet close enough to those ahead to frighten the weakest of the established front-runners.
Their ability to scoop a respectable amount of points even at their weakest makes you wonder just what they can achieve with a heavily revised version of the VJM08, which after being delayed several times made its first appearance at the post-Austrian Grand Prix test and will make its race debut in this weekend's British GP.
The B-spec car, developed at the Toyota wind tunnel previously used by Ferrari, includes upgrades to "the floor, adaptations to the chassis, some parts of the rear of the floor and the diffuser," as Perez told Sky Sports' James Galloway.
Defined by a unique nose design, which features two nostril-like air inlets, the car—much like the twin-tusked Lotus of 2014—is a reminder of the technical excellence existing along the pit lane and should give the team a strong chance of overhauling Red Bull Racing, who currently hold a 24-point lead over Force India, to claim fourth in the championship.
Force India's midseason slump has usually taken over in Belgium and Italy—the team have failed to finish higher than seventh at either event in the last two seasons—but this time they should be at their peak at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, where their aerodynamic upgrades will enhance the effect of their Mercedes power unit.
The effect of having a relatively strong car at most of the remaining 11 races, especially the power-dependent circuits, should also be visible among team members, who having been accustomed to looking over their shoulders toward the end of a season for so long will now have a fixed target, a chance to operate adventurously and aggressively.
Hulkenberg and Perez, more than anyone, will benefit from that and revel in the opportunity to produce eye-catching drives at a time of year F1's "silly season" comes to a close.
Their promising starts to 2014—the German's 10-race point-scoring streak, the Mexican's third-place finish in Bahrain—almost counted for nothing when they became victims of the team's loss of form in the second half of the season.
Without the machinery at their disposal to maintain their performance levels, both men were forgotten when the driver market exploded last October and were overlooked by the likes of McLaren and Ferrari.
If Perez and Hulkenberg can string together an impressive sequence of results in the coming months, however, they could put themselves in serious contention for seats at Ferrari—both men are dark horses to replace Kimi Raikkonen—and Williams, who may be forced to find an alternative to Valtteri Bottas.
"Force India's B-spec car has made an immediate step forward, says Nico Hulkenberg http://t.co/ol3YLU2e17 #f1 pic.twitter.com/az97pi8MYO
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 3, 2015"
With Red Bull and McLaren—two of the teams to have kept Force India out of the top five in recent seasons—both weakened by fundamental engine-related issues with Renault and Honda respectively, there is seemingly nothing they can do to stop Force India slotting behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams.
It is ironic the financial shortcomings that prevented the team from making a sustained bid to finish fifth (or above) in years gone by could, due to this long overdue but major midseason upgrade, be exactly what allows Force India to join the elite in 2015.
The economic rewards for such an achievement could mean Force India will no longer have to split their seasons in two and allow them to be competitive from start to finish.
The glass ceiling is waiting to be shattered.
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