Force India thinks it could have had a stronger result at the Australian Grand Prix were it not for the red flag on lap 18.
Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg qualified a disappointing ninth and tenth in Melbourne despite a promising start to the weekend, but missing Q3 meant it had free reign on strategy -- opting to start the race on soft tyres. Both men pitted for a switch to the medium compound shortly before Fernando Alonso's massive crash, which briefly halted the race and effectively gave everyone a free choice of tyres.
One of those drivers was Haas' Romain Grosjean, who Hulkenberg was unable to get close enough to in the closing stages. The German thinks he could have finished higher than seventh without the race stoppage.
"I think the red flag made things a lot more difficult for our planned one-stop strategy because it gave everybody around us the chance to reset and change their tyres," Hulkenberg said. "So that was a shame and it meant I was out of position and got stuck behind the Haas for most of the race.
"It was not easy to get close to Romain [Grosjean] and I had a lot of cars behind me, which meant I was always under pressure and having to defend as well as chase. So, given all the circumstances, seventh place feels quite satisfying. To get some points in the bag at the first race is a positive way to start the year. It was not an easy day and it's difficult to know what would have happened without the race being stopped and restarted."
Perez did not fare so well, getting a poor start and then suffering at the race restart on the medium compound, and would end the race down in 13th position.
"It's a real shame to finish outside of the points. I spent my first stint behind Alonso, who was on a faster compound, and being stuck in the dirty air destroyed my tyres. Unfortunately there was a very similar situation after the restart because I was passed by Jenson [Button], who was on super-soft tyres, and that cost me a lot of time.
"Sadly the safety car and the red flag ruined our strategy, which was to stop only once. When the race restarted we had our work cut out: I had pressure from behind and the Renaults and Williams ahead were very difficult to catch -- I got close but couldn't really attack. In the end I had an issue with overheating brakes, probably because I spent most of the race in traffic, but we still managed to finish the race."