Force India: There is "huge potential"

The team struggled in Melbourne but are sure that the car has decent pace which they can unlock.

A difficult winter testing which left their drivers underwhelmed and disappointed with the car always signalled that Force India was likely to struggle in Melbourne but chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer believes they have a good chance of finding pace within the car.

Melbourne marked their first race since Monaco last season in which the Silverstone-based outfit failed to score a single point. Upgrades are crucial to the improvement of the VJM11, something that Szafnauer is positive will come sooner rather than later.

"It's business as usual in terms of developing the car," he said. "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."

"Testing showed us that the midfield has closed up considerably, so there were no big shocks in Melbourne. I think the points will be spread among the teams more evenly this year and retaining fourth place is going to be a big task. But we've only had one race and things can change very quickly in Formula One.

"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 our fourth place and we will be fighting hard to get back up there."