Force India upgrades to arrive before Bahrain

Otmar Szafnauer, Force India’s Chief Operating Officer has said that his team have a new front wing to put on the car for this weekend.

Force India failed to score a point in Australia as they look to repeat their fourth placed Constructors’ Championship finish from last season.

Szafnauer said: “It’s business as usual in terms of developing the car, we’ve got a new front wing coming for Bahrain, which will complement the upgrades we introduced in Melbourne.

“The car we have now is totally different from the spec we used during testing and we’re still on a learning curve.

“There is huge development potential with this new aerodynamic platform and we have things in the pipeline, which will bring performance steps in the first quarter of the season.”

Force India appear to have been overtaken by the trio of Haas, McLaren and Renault in the race for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, and Szafnauer admits Force India will find it difficult to come out on top in this particular battle.

“Testing showed us that the midfield has closed up considerably, so there we no big shocks in Melbourne,” he said.

“I think the points will be spread among the teams more evenly this season and retaining fourth position is going to be a big task.

“But we’ve only had one race and things can change very quickly in F1.

“The development race is only just beginning and it’s where you end the season that counts.

“Last year we out-developed the teams around us and we have to do the same this year.

“Our goal is to defend fourth place and we will be fighting hard to get back up there.”