2017 Force India F1 Team - Mercedes

[IamLegend]

Perez admits FI is slower then TR & Haas -
http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/190 ... rosso-haas

FI has already achieved 'Best of the Rest' status; they need to focus on next goal to crack top 3. It's going to be extremely difficult but they have to make required resource,structural & budget changes.There is a high chance that rules are going to be more or less same for 2018. FI can start building/experimenting for 2018 even at the expense of 2017.
With Paddy at Williams & high budget of Renault; both teams will start dominating midfield very soon.

By quicker he meant in qualifying because on raceday we could see the pace and it was good. Although I'm a bit perplexed by what Perez is says, it doesn't make sense. He says there's a lot of understeer in the car due to the rear, does that mean they are lacking frontend downforce or that the packaging in the rear is too heavy/bulky? Or it could be they are both interrelated, either way I don't understand how he could attack so well in the beginning of the race if the car was heavy compared to both the Toro Rossos', IMO he's just bluffing.

[NAPI10]

China & Bahrain will tell real story....anyways they have to increase upgrade speed this year.

[Sidhartha.techie]

The thing is the Car is heavy, the upgraded parts will be brought to Bahrain. As far as I know Force India are lacking in two field which is affecting the performance, the most major part is that due to the extra weight they are unable to balance the car due to lack of ballast ans the second major problem is they are lacking rear downforce and it's not working the way they want it to.

[Enstone]

Abou this rear downforce probem, wich creates oversteer... i'm wondering if this + the overweight is not due (partly) to the engine.
Mercedes admitted that their car is suffering also of overweight ! (still the crankshaft problem encountered during pre-season test ?)

[vas_04614]

China is front limited circuit.

So I assume strong front end is more important than rear end. So they may do better in China

[Enstone]

If you struggle with the rear of the car, it will affect handling/motricity and even rear tyres degradation, no matters the circuits configurations.

Last year at Shangai they were struggling, and they don't had this kind of problems so difficult to say if this circuit will suits them most than the others (imo this circuit doesn't fit SFi package).

[Sidhartha.techie]

Well Force India have been good at one thing (of many), that is they have (in the past seasons) consistently pickup points and stay within the striking distance of the team in front until their package improves, if they manage to pickup more points in china, it would be awesome.

[Enstone]

The fact is that SFi have some genius race strategist and do some proper pitstop.

They've picked up some good points even if in terms of race pace they were at the same level as Renault and behind STR (according to Perez and datas).

This undercut from Ocon on Hulkenberg was just excellent, but whe should keep in minds that Ricciardo/Grosjean had some problems so in normal conditions Perez would have been 9 and Ocon out of the points...

Rumors from Japan, Honda wants to set up their own F1 team... and buying Force India to do so : http://f1express.cnc.ne.jp/f1/index.php ... _id=287884

[dren]

Yup, just posted it in the Mclaren - Honda thread. I'd like to see them come back and beat Mclaren.

[dren]

Well Force India have been good at one thing (of many), that is they have (in the past seasons) consistently pickup points and stay within the striking distance of the team in front until their package improves, if they manage to pickup more points in china, it would be awesome.

Yeah, it seems FI always comes with one major upgrade during the season that gives them a big jump up the field.

[deepakrathore]

SFi are always conservative with their cars at the start of the year, they plan to be reliable, pick up points due to others misfortune and start bringing upgrades around 4th race onwards. I expect them to fight Williams by the time EU season kicks in.

Too much rumors about what Honda's future in F1, not sure if they have the appetite to own & run a team.

The fact is that SFi have some genius race strategist and do some proper pitstop.

They've picked up some good points even if in terms of race pace they were at the same level as Renault and behind STR (according to Perez and datas).

This undercut from Ocon on Hulkenberg was just excellent, but whe should keep in minds that Ricciardo/Grosjean had some problems so in normal conditions Perez would have been 9 and Ocon out of the points...

Rumors from Japan, Honda wants to set up their own F1 team... and buying Force India to do so : http://f1express.cnc.ne.jp/f1/index.php ... _id=287884

[NAPI10]

FI has mastered the concept – Don’t do different things, just do it differently.
They will watch & learn from big boys and come with necessary upgrades by mid-season. They have always spent their dollars wisely; better than any other team.
If Liberty adopts model of revenue equalization and cost control; FI might succeed in clinching Title someday. [-o< [-o<

[ME4ME]

FI has mastered the concept – Don’t do different things, just do it differently.
They will watch & learn from big boys and come with necessary upgrades by mid-season. They have always spent their dollars wisely; better than any other team.
If Liberty adopts model of revenue equalization and cost control; FI might succeed in clinching Title someday. [-o< [-o<

You can't have it both ways, leading and following at the same time. Even with more resources, Force India will never win a world championship. Cost efficiency would go out the window once they'd grow.

[Cold Fussion]

FI has mastered the concept – Don’t do different things, just do it differently.
They will watch & learn from big boys and come with necessary upgrades by mid-season. They have always spent their dollars wisely; better than any other team.
If Liberty adopts model of revenue equalization and cost control; FI might succeed in clinching Title someday. [-o< [-o<

I don't know why so many people assume the "speed/unit cost" scales linearly when it doesn't make logical sense that it would. There is zero evidence to suggest that if Force India had the same budget as Mercedes they'd be as successful.

[Manjhi]

I don't know why so many people assume the "speed/unit cost" scales linearly when it doesn't make logical sense that it would. There is zero evidence to suggest that if Force India had the same budget as Mercedes they'd be as successful.

You are correct, there is no logical explanation. But one thing is for sure that 20 million extra in their budget will give them that extra push to test & optimize new parts. Remember they are the only team which opted for completely different concept of car design, with nostrils, so this team is known for taking some risk as well.

You just can't call FI a follower of big teams and waits for the season to progress then comes up with some new parts. The difference between the top 3 and FI was just 0.4-0.5 sec, last season, which was only because FI introduced their upgrade package little late and didn't had much fund to further support the 2016 car upgrade.

Imagine 20-25 million in their kitty, they would have competed the Ferraris very easily in the later part of the season, they dominated Williams very easily in the last 10 races, and Williams spends some 15-20 million more than FI.