Force India going nuts

After their excellent performance in Australia, with Adrian Sutil leading the race at one point, Force India wanted to build on their performance in Malaysia.

But instead they could only watch on with their head in the hands as both cars were eventually forced to retire in unfortunate and unusual circumstances.

‘It’s more than deep disappointment. It’s extreme disappointment, The cars were quick, very competitive: we were racing Mercedes very comfortably, [were] much quicker than the McLarens, quicker than Lotus I would like to believe.

‘So it was really looking good until the wheelnut failed.’ Force India team boss Vijay Mallya told Autosport Magazine.

Force India struggled with a wheelnet issue on both cars during the race, it wasn’t a problem with the wheel guns but instead a new captive wheelnut system.

The system is used by other teams to speed up pit-stop times as the wheel nut instead of staying in the gun when it is removed stays attached to the wheelrim.

The nut should remain in its sleeve during the pit-stop process, but the hot temperatures in Malaysia saw the two become separated, ruining Force India’s race as they couldn’t complete pit-stops.

But while Force India driver Paul Di Resta was obviously frustrated with the problem in Malaysia, he remained up beat following the teams performance.

‘Wheelnuts can be fixed for China, performance can’t be fixed that quickly, and performance has been a big highlight of what we have achieved.’

Meanwhile Force India and Mercedes have announced that they have signed a new long-term agreement. The deal will see Force India continue to use Mercedes engines and Energy Recovery Systems beyond 2014.