Force India could trouble Red Bull with right balance - Ocon

With the team finally getting on top of its new high-downforce package – which includes the 'Stegosaurus fin' - both Ocon and Sergio Perez mounted a strong challenge at Sepang as they racked up more championship points.

With that strong form having left Ocon just six tenths off Red Bull in qualifying, the Frenchman believes the team has the potential to edge even closer over the remainder of the campaign.

"Our car is still not perfect, not perfectt like we want it to be, but there is a big, big thing possible with the car we have at the moment," Ocon told Motorsport.com. "Really big things!

"I think if we manage to get it right we can be close to the one in front [Red Bull] even…. I think we can get closer to them if we get all the balance working properly."

Different world

Force India staked its claim to fourth place in the constructors' championship with a host of good race showings at the start of the year, even though it was not happy with the performance of its car.

But progress made since the start of the European phase of the season has transformed the performance of the car, and Ocon said that the difference in feel between now and how it was at the start of the campaign was as though it is racing in a different championship.

"For sure it feels like a different category," he said. "We have had loads of updates on it, and we keep having, which is very important because the others are doing too.

"And now, because we are going on faster tracks where the downforce is needed, it is just very good to drive here with so much downforce. It is great."

Asked if he sensed the team was building momentum now for a much stronger 2018, Ocon said: "Yes it's been [coming] a long time that this is happening. For sure we didn't have the fastest midfield car in the beginning but it doesn't matter because we are always there at the end when it counts.

"And now, I think we start to have the performance. So, hopefully we can keep continuing that and keep having strong results like that and it makes the race easier as well."