Force India's Sergio Perez says his seventh place finish at the Australian Grand Prix flattered the performance of the VJM10 and believes both Toro Rosso and Haas have a quicker car.
Perez overtook both Toro Rossos to move forward from his tenth-place grid position and benefitted from the retirement of Romain Grosjean in the Haas early in the race. He finished a lap down on the leaders -- and Felipe Massa's Williams in sixth -- but believes he outperformed the car.
"As a team we did a perfect weekend, I'm very pleased with that," he said after the race Williams is too far ahead at the moment, Toro Rosso was quicker than us, Haas was quicker than us, so to beat them on track, to beat them in strategy, the team can be very happy with that.
"I think Melbourne is a track where a driver can make more of a difference, it is very bumpy and narrow and difficult track. So once we go to a more normal track we are going to struggle more. We really need the upgrades as soon as possible."
Based on recent seasons, Perez believes Force India will make good progress during the year to move further up the grid.
"We need to work hard on the car, as we have seen in the past Force India normally doesn't have the greatest starts to seasons. I think this is probably the best start of season in four years. It is quite encouraging, still a long way to go but we know that at the moment we are not where we finished today."
Asked about the weaknesses on the car, Perez added: "We improved the car since testing but I think the weaknesses are there. The rear. We cannot really balance the car, we have to carry quite a lot of understeer so that's what we need to sort out."