Posted on 29th December 2015
This season saw the Force India team move from sixth place in 2014 to fifth place in the Constructors Championship. After finishing a strong sixth in the 2014 Constructors' Championship, Force India was hopeful of achieving a team-best top five finish in 2015. Their preparations for the season though were badly affected by off-track events.
With a change of wind tunnel from Brackley to Cologne led to delays in the final design of the VJM08 being agreed upon. This then opted the team to skip the first pre-season test at Jerez and ran a revised 2014 car at the second test at Barcelona. But the 2015 spec challenger finally made its debut at the final test;s just weeks ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
Heading into the season, Force India retained their driver line up of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez for another season; with the pressure firmly on both drivers to show what they can do for a team that makes the best of what they have at their disposal.
A double points finish in Melbourne was followed by several difficult races for the Silverstone-based outfit. The team collected just three points finishes in the next six races, before both cars came home in the top 10 at the Austrian Grand Prix.
After completing their wind tunnel move, a B-Spec model VJM08 was unveiled at the British Grand Prix in July. Development of the car – with its radical front wing design – was continued until late in the season; this then allowed Sergio Perez to score points in all but two of the last nine races.
Force India's high point of the season was the Russian Grand Prix. Some excellent tyre management from Perez meant that they were running third with just a handful of laps to go. Raikkonen and Bottas passed the Mexican with just two laps to go, but their infamous collision on the last lap led to Force India claiming only the third podium in their history and their best result of the season.
In a sharp contrast, Nico Hulkenberg had a difficult season by his standards, despite winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans at his first attempt which is a fantastic achievement. Hulkenberg sadly failed to finish five of the last eleven races, potentially throwing away his maiden podium at the United States Grand Prix after a clumsy incident with Daniel Ricciardo.
It has been clear during this season that Force India have had a strong, competitive and consistent car (especially in the second half of the season, where they was ahead of Lotus in the Constructors Championship, but due to lack of finances alongside waiting for their B spec car which did not appear until the second half of the season, they managed to extract the pace and performance needed to secure the fifth position in the Constructors Championship for the first time in their history ahead of their rivals Lotus who could not keep up with them.
Sergio Perez – 78 points (9th in the drivers' championship)
This season has saw Perez really showing his potential even further as a driver since moving to Force India at the start of 2014. But the pressure was on Sergio to show that he could beat his team mate who many people in the paddock rated highly and he did just that by outscoring him in the Championship by twenty points but was out-qualified by Hulkenberg twelve times to eight times.
Perez got his season off to a flying start with a tenth place finish in Melbourne which was backed up by a eighth place finish in Bahrain, a seventh place finish in Monaco and an ninth place finish in Austria. Before the summer break, Perez managed to score points in Silverstone at the team's home race when Hulkenberg did manage to find more consistency.
After the summer break, Perez just showed how talented he really is and showed consistency on a regular basis. He kicked off the second half of the season with a fifth place in Belgium and backed that up with points finishes in Monza and Singapore.
Perez in Sochi scored a truly astonishing podium in Sochi and scored the team's best result of the season. Perez backed up this with solid points finishes in Austin, his home race in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi; ending a brilliant season for him in the best shape possible for next season.
This season has saw Perez consistently beaten his highly rated teammate and for the second year in a row, brought Force India their only podium of the season in Sochi. Perez will remain at the Force India team next year and will be hoping that they can take even more podiums in 2016 and maybe a race win if Lady Luck comes his way.
But if Perez can learn anything from this season, it is that he has just as much talent to take the fight and competition to Hulkenberg. If Perez can build upon this, I can see him and Hulkenberg battling in 2016 regularly for strong points finishes and podiums if they have the car underneath them to do so and Perez could improve once again as a driver as a result of this and show why McLaren were wrong to get rid of him two seasons ago when the potential was right there all along.
Nico Hulkenberg – 58 points (10th in the drivers' championship)
We saw the occasional glamour of Nico Hulkenberg's talent in 2015, most notably with his win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the WEC. In single seaters, though, it has been a disappointing season for the German driver with Perez out-performing him in the Championship by twenty points; even though he out-qualified him twelve times compared to Perez doing so eight times.
Hulkenberg's first half of the season was really encouraging with him breaking his duck in Melbourne with a seventh place finish. Hulkenberg then managed to score points before the summer break with points finishes in Canada, Austria and Silverstone.
When the second half of the season resumed in Belgium, Hulkenberg failed to finish. But he did manage to score more points when he could when he finished seventh in Monza, sixth in Suzuka, seventh in Mexico and Abu Dhabi and sixth in Brazil in a season where several incidents over the course of the season failed to materialize in points that should have been his.
These incidents cost Nico a chance of taking his first ever F1 podium; meaning once again he has failed to break his duck. But his 10th place in the championship is still a strong result for the 28-year-old and after signing a 2-year contract extension during the season, he will be hoping that he can end his wait for a podium to help Force India challenge for a spot in the top four in 2016.
Even though Hulkenberg has had a mixed and disappointing 2015 season in terms of results, he should be proud of everything he has achieved this year, and if history is anything to go by, Hulkenberg will build upon his performance this season and will make sure that his performance in 2016 will be even better, provided he has the car underneath him to do so and the chance to deliver presents itself.
In conclusion, as far as the Force India team is concerned as a whole, they should be proud of what they have achieved in 2015. With the first half of the season showing despite a few encounters along the way, they had a competitive, consistent and reliable car to battle the midfield and get strong points out of Grand Prix time and time again; even if they didn't have the car they wanted straight from the off.
To see Perez clinch Force India's podium in Sochi is a fantastic achievement for both the team and for Perez himself. In the race, they showed to the paddock that they have the potential to achieve this success if everything comes together during a weekend and this is something that the team can build upon going into the 2016 season.
But the second half of the season showed that Force India did achieve some strong results despite not having a dominant car like the Mercedes works team. They may not have the resources of the likes of McLaren and Ferrari to keep Red Bull behind them in the second half of the season, ultimately, they can hold their heads high and should be proud of what they achieved their best ever season in the sport.
Throughout 2015, Perez was the more consistent driver for the team during the races than his team mate and had the prized accolade for the team but he did not manage to perform better than Hulkenberg in qualifying, this provides the team with a strong platform to build upon and try to improve upon next season.
With Force India's Team Principal Vijay Mallya declaring his happiness that both of his drivers will be staying with the team next season, all the team need to do in my eyes is to provide both of their drivers with yet another strong, consistent, competitive and reliable car for 2016.
And if Force India can provide both of their drivers with this, Hulkenberg and Perez may once again surprise pundits and again in 2016. With two young, experience and talented drivers, the future is looking extremely bright for the Force India team and anything can be achieved if they are able to put everything together in a race weekend.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
