Spain 2011 - GP Preview - Force India Mercedes

Vijay Mallya

The Spanish Grand Prix is always a significant moment in the season. It marks the return to Europe and it’s the moment when the Formula 1 development race really begins. At Force India we have some upgrades to bring to the car in the coming races and I’m excited to see how things will unfold.

We started evaluating those changes at the last race in Turkey by running a new front wing during free practice. It was a shame that it was wet because it limited our test programme and we chose not to run those new parts for the race. We are now analysing what we learned and hopefully we can add this new package to the car either in Barcelona or Monaco, depending how things go. When our new aerodynamic developments are in place, I’m confident we can take a step forward in terms of performance.

As for the racing so far, I think the new rules have certainly achieved their objective. The races have been very exciting and the new Pirelli tyres and DRS have helped to add more unpredictability. I believe this close racing is great for fans of our sport, who can look forward to more of the same this weekend. Hopefully both Force Indias will be in the hunt and challenging for points.

Adrian Sutil

Describe the Barcelona circuit in three words...

Fast, challenging and well known.

Which part of the lap is most challenging?

The first three corners are quite difficult. It’s a quick complex and it’s important to get turn one right to have the correct line through the next couple of corners. In qualifying trim, turn three could be taken flat.

What’s the secret to setting a quick laptime?

The first and second sectors are high-speed and you need to have the right aero balance. But the final part of the lap is quite slow and the mechanical set-up is more important. The difficult thing is to find the golden middle.

Overtaking has always been difficult at Barcelona – will that change this year?

Yes, I think we should see some overtaking. There is a long straight and tyre degradation will be high. I’m sure the race will be a bit different to what we have seen in previous years.

How do you spend a free evening in Barcelona?

I like to go to the city centre, but that’s a bit far away from the circuit. So normally I just have dinner with my friends at the hotel or in a nice local restaurant.

Paul di Resta

I’m really looking forward to this weekend because I probably know Barcelona better than any other track on the calendar. We did two tests there in the winter and I had four days in the car so I already feel quite well prepared. In fact, it’s a track that all the drivers know like the back of their hand and the teams have so much data already.

It’s usually a race where all the teams bring upgrades so we will need to take a step forward if we want to stay in the mix. We evaluated a new front wing in Istanbul and we hope to have more steps coming through in the near future. The team has been working hard on this new concept and everybody is quite upbeat about its race introduction, so that’s something to look forward to.

The aim for the weekend is to hopefully get back in the points. We’ve been pretty close to the top ten in all the races so far this season, so hopefully we can stay in the hunt.