Force India still has its sights set on a podium finish this season according to team boss Vijay Mallya, despite the dominance of Mercedes and Ferrari.
The Silverstone-based outfit is poised to match its best ever Constructors' finish with fourth place, given the team already holds a healthy advantage over fifth-placed Williams.
Force India's next target is to finish a race inside the top three – a feat it has come close to achieving on multiple occasions, with Sergio Perez's fourth in Spain the highest finish.
However in Azerbaijan Perez and team-mate Esteban Ocon could both have finished on the podium, had they not clashed during what was a chaotic race eventually won by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Despite that, Mallya is proud of the squad's consistency this season so far, but has his sights set on that elusive podium.
"Our consistency has been our strength this year," he said. "We’ve scored points in 10 of the 11 races so far and had double points finishes in nine of those races.
"I’m proud of the team for this achievement and it shows that all our hard work is paying off.
"We’ve still got our sights on the podium for this year and if the opportunity arises I believe we are ready to take it."
Mallya added that development of the VJM10 would be ongoing in the hope of closing the gap to the Red Bull ahead.
"We’re over the half-way point of the season now and feeling upbeat about the remaining nine races," he explained.
"Along with Spa, there are some other tracks coming up that should allow us to show the speed of the VJM10.
"We are pushing hard with the development of this car and there are some further steps we will introduce over the next few events."
Discussion about this post