Force India began its preparations for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix with Sergio Perez, Esteban Ocon and Alfonso Celis all in action during the opening two free practice sessions at the Red Bull ring on Friday.
It turned out to be a mixed day for the team with differing fortunes on each side of the garage.
Esteban Ocon's day was fairly routine as they worked through the usual Friday tasks and steadily improved the set-up. He finished the day 11th fastest overall after completing a total of 89 laps over the course of both sessions.
“A solid day for me with no real issues or problems,” the young Frenchman said. “We found some more speed with every run, but there is still room for improvement and I know there is more to come tomorrow – from me, from the car; in all areas really. It's going to be a really tight grid tomorrow with small margins so the work we do tonight will be very important.”
However, over on the other side of the garage, the other car encountered issues with the energy store, which forced the team to make some significant hardware changes. It cut short Alfonso Celis''s opportunity in the car and delayed Sergio Perez's afternoon programme.
As a result it put Sergio on the backfoot and the team now has work to do overnight to get the car more to his liking.
“It's been a difficult day trying to get up to speed this afternoon,” the Mexican driver recalled. “I've struggled with the balance of the car – mainly the corner entry stability and with the rear – so we've been trying to solve those issues. We need to understand where we can improve tonight and pick up some speed tomorrow to make sure was can be in the fight for Q3.”
