Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley admits his team has work to do after it was unable to demonstrate top 10 pace at the Australian Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon both dropped out in Q2 on Saturday and were never in contention for points until the latter stages of the race when Perez battled with an unwell Carlos Sainz for the final points-paying position, but failed to find a way past.
Force India has been the fourth-quickest team for the past two seasons, but on pure pace appeared to have dropped to seventh in Australia, behind McLaren, Renault and Haas.
Fernley put some of that down to new developments introduced across the weekend, which have yet to be fully understand, but admits there's work to be done.
"Ultimately we didn’t have the pace this weekend to fight in the top 10 and so we’ve ended our day on the cusp of the points," he said.
"It’s early days in the season and with 20 races to go there will be plenty of opportunities to develop this car and show our strengths.
"As I said [on Saturday], we’re on a learning curve with the developments we introduced this weekend and there’s more in the pipeline for Bahrain.
"Both drivers drove well , but the luck didn’t play into our hands with the timing of the safety car, for example. Following other cars closely was tough and Sergio was right on the tail of Sainz in the final few laps but there was no way to overtake.
"We will work hard to be stronger at the next race in Bahrain."
Although disappointed, Perez saw some positives in Force India's race pace and believes they will soon be in a position to fight for points.
"It was quite an unlucky weekend for us, but there are still positives. We came close to bringing home a point although it was just out of reach.
"I was pushing throughout the whole race and especially chasing Sainz in the final laps. I got really close to him, but it wasn’t enough. Overtaking in Melbourne is very difficult – you could see the same with Bottas who couldn’t pass me during the first stint.
"The Virtual Safety Car also didn’t help us at all, but that’s just how things go sometimes. I am still happy with my performance and the job we did as a team. We will need to move on and keep improving, but I believe we will soon be in a position to battle for points.
"Hopefully our improvements will come as early as Bahrain. It’s a race where you can overtake and strategy plays a bigger part compared to Melbourne."
