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Formula 1 Spanish GP
Perez: 'Weak' front wing was hurting Force India
Sergio Perez says that a 'weak' front wing left Force India facing tyre degradation issues this year, which is why an update for this weekend is so critical to its hopes of moving forward.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: May 13, 2016, 2:00 PM
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The Silverstone-based team has arrived at the Spanish Grand Prix with several updates, but key to it is a heavily revised front wing.
Speaking prior to running the new parts for the first time, Perez said that the wing should bring a double benefit of helping lift downforce but also helping Force India win back its characteristic of being good at looking after tyres.
It was because a lack of downforce at the front was forcing the team to run a set-up that meant it was harder on its tyres than it would have liked.
"We had a very weak front wing that wasn't working properly," explained Perez. "We believe we have fixed this problem with the upgrade, hopefully.
"By not making the wing work, it meant we had to fix [the car] mechanically and that meant more damage to the tyre.
"I won't go into too much detail, but in general the car was not performing as expected. So we had to compensate with the set-up, so we were then compromising the tyre life for it."
Driveability important
Perez thinks that the best improvement would come in driveability terms if the wing does deliver the kind of performance boost hoped for.
"We are expecting a good step," he said. "More than lap time wise, we are expecting a driveability feeling.
"We have been harsh on the tyres and we feel that if we can correct some of the characteristics of the car, we can help a lot the tyre life.
"That is a good advantage on tyres, so that can help us managing better the strategies, and have more aggressive ones: stuff like that."
He added: "Many teams are bringing upgrades. We feel we are a bit behind the competition, so hopefully this upgrade can put us in another step forward."
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