Zoom Force India building for the future

With just three rounds remaining this year, Force India Chief Technical Officer Mike Gascoyne and Team Principal Colin Kolles look back on the season and talk of their hopes as the season reaches its conclusion.

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer - From an engineering perspective, what challenges does Fuji present for the team?
MG: "Fuji is a unique circuit in having a very, very long straight - the longest on the calendar - but the new part of the circuit is very tight with lots of slow corners so it's very much a balance between getting the straight-line speed without compromising the need for speed on the rest of the circuit. We'll obviously run a compromise set-up as you need a balance of what is going to give you a quick lap time in the slower sections with being able to overtake or defend your position on the straight."

The weather in Japan could be very changeable. The team has shown in previous races it isn't afraid to take a chance. Do you think this could also be an opportunity for the team?
MG: "The weather at this time of year can be, as we saw last year, very wet and this did play into our hands in 2007 when Adrian drove a great race in the wet conditions. We will have our normal weather predictions and radars to monitor incoming weather, but it can be very variable. This flexibility is something we will factor into our normal race preparation. "

Will there be any new developments for this race, or looking forward to China and Brazil?
MG: "We have no real developments planned for the final three races. I think most of the other teams now, going to the flyaway races, will have a pretty standard configuration and will be focussing on next season when the rules will be substantially different. All our engineering effort is now going into 2009."

Just over a year ago, Spyker - Force India's predecessors - scored their first points at this race. How do you think the team has moved forward from this point?
MG: "This time last year with Spyker we scored our first point and I think we still hope to do this before the end of the year as Force India. We would be very disappointed not to do that as we have been a much more competitive outfit this year. Formula 1 is just very close now. We have strengthened the engineering side of the team and have invested in the facilities at the factory and at the wind tunnel, so although it's frustrating not to have had better results as a team, we are in a much stronger position than we were this time last year."