Barcelona: The team could not do much at the Mugello mid-season test but Sahara Force India driver Paul di Resta is counting on his familiarity with the Circuit de Catalunya to earn some points for his side in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix. Rain and other car issues affected Force India's testing in Italy recently but Paul said at least they have basic knowledge of the new developments in the car ahead of the start of the European season.
"We didn't do a massive number of laps but it was a chance to start evaluating some of our car developments. There's still plenty of work to do in free practice to get on top of the car, but we've already done the basic checks," the Scot said. "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, but it's the same for everyone. I expect the field to be incredibly close once again," Paul added.
Nico Hulkenberg said the circuit was quite challenging, especially the first three corners. "The first sector through turns one, two and three is tricky and you need to treat them as one corner. A mistake in one or two will hurt you through three and cost your laptime." "It feels great when you get them just right. Also, the final sector is quite technical: it's slow and twisty, especially the last chicane and it's easy to drop time at the end of the lap," Hulkenberg said.
Team Principal Vijay Mallya said although the field looks very tight this season, but nothing can be predicted at this stage. Force India are placed eighth with 17 points, one less than Williams and 14 less than Sauber. Mallya's team had finished ahead (6th) of both these teams in the 2011 season.
"It's still difficult to get a true read on the relative competitiveness of all the teams. Each race has thrown up different surprises and it's difficult to make any predictions before qualifying or the race. Now that the European season is upon us, we should be able to bring through more updates to the car. That will start this weekend when we run with some of the new parts we evaluated in Mugello last week," Mallya said.
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