• Turkish Grand Prix

Force India looking to close the gap on Renault

Both Force India drivers finished in the points in Monaco © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Tonio Liuzzi
• |
• Adrian Sutil

• Teams:
• Racing Point

The Force India team is hoping that new developments to their cars will help them close the gap to their closest rivals during the Turkish Grand Prix weekend.

Adrian Sutil and Tonio Luizzi enjoyed a competitive Monaco Grand Prix weekend, finishing eighth and ninth respectively. And both drivers are confident that the new upgrades can help them to their second points scoring finish.

"In Turkey we have some new developments we are aiming to test and then introduce for the race, including changes to the front wing and to the mirrors to optimise the position used for the first time in China," said Sutil. "We've seen in previous races that the top teams aren't going for major upgrade packages, they are drip feeding improvements, and that's why it's so important to keep these steps coming through. I'm feeling very positive about this race.

"I've gone well in Turkey before, getting into Q2 when we didn't expect it last year. It's a balance of high speed corners and technical sections, but it's a real rollercoaster and turn eight is awesome. This year it's going to be impressive, you could take it flat out. I think it should be a good track for us as we're still fast on the straights but the car feels balanced through the corners as well, and you need good traction at this circuit. I hope to pick up some more points at this race to close that gap to Renault."

Like his team-mate, Liuzzi also enjoys the nature of the Istanbul Park circuit and is hoping that a warm weekend and good qualifying performance can enable Force India to further close the gap.

"I really like the circuit, it's really fast with the type of corners I like, and gives a lot of adrenaline each lap. The most important aspect is to find the right set up and balance from the start, particularly with the super hard tyres we have this year. It's always difficult to find the right set up and if it's colder we could have some issues, but we are positive overall. We should have some new updates on the car as well that should move us forward to our competitors.

"The target is to get into Q3 and then score points. From the team's perspective we need to try to bring both cars into the points at the end of the race. We deserved to have a double points finish earlier than Monaco, but for some reasons it didn't happen, so we need to continue to put both cars the top 10 if we want to catch Renault."

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