Force India plans experiments to address tyre wear woes

The Silverstone-based team used to be one of the best at looking after its tyres, but this season both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg have faced a much tougher time preserving their rubber.

Its problems were highlighted at the Austrian Grand Prix, when Hulkenberg started on the front row but slumped down the order after suffering excessive tyre degradation.

Perez revealed on Thursday that the team had planned some extensive tests of rear suspension to get a better understanding about whether a new design introduced this season has contributed to its problems.

“We have got some items to test,” he said. “Our tyre life hasn't been good this year and we have some interesting tests this weekend on this aspect, which hopefully can answer a lot of the questions.

“Definitely the car is performing well but we have lost the age on tyre life. Now we are one of the worst teams in tyre life, so it is something that we need to improve and hopefully this weekend we can do a good step forward on that.”

Force India had introduced a new front wing earlier this year, and another update in Austria, in the hopes of improving its tyre issues, but Perez reckons the current situation is not just related to aerodynamics.

“I think it is a combination of the front wing not doing its job,” he said. “Now we have a new front wing that will probably help that, but also we've changed some parts on the suspension.

“I want to believe that is the issue and we will try some different parts on that on Friday and hopefully that can give us some good answers.”

Brake tweaks

Perez crashed out of the Austrian GP after suffering a brake failure on the penultimate lap, and he said that lessons would be taken on board to ensure no repeat in the future.

In particular, he thinks it was a mistake by the team not to take measurements of temperatures on the outside of the disc – which is the area that failed.

“It is a lesson for us, and we are going to change our measurements for the future,” he said. “This track is very different - one of the lowest on brake energy.

“The next big one coming up is Monza so we will change our measurements to make sure we measure the outside of the discs.”