Force India co-owner and team principal Vijay Mallya is confident his team has more to come this season, promising their best has yet to be seen due to various on-track troubles.
Nico Hulkenberg opened the season with seventh in Australia to take home six points, but he bemoaned the red flag which jumbled up the order at the restart, whilst team-mate Sergio Perez finished 13th after he lost places at the start.
In Bahrain things were far from better as both Hulkenberg and Perez required new front-wings early on in the race after making contact with rivals – in separate incidents – which dropped them well down the order. Whilst they managed to fight back to P15 and P16 respectively, it left the team believing they've yet to show their cars true potential.
"Bahrain was a missed opportunity," commented Mallya. "Two front-wing changes in the space of two laps put us on the back foot and prevented us from playing a part in the outcome of the race.
"It feels as though we’ve yet to unleash our true potential this season. Both the races so far have been heavily compromised, either by our own mistakes or outside circumstances, so I’d like to see what we can achieve with a clean, trouble-free race to the flag.
"When things go to plan, we know we can compete well inside the top ten and I expect everyone in the team to be pushing hard to reverse our recent fortunes."
Meanwhile Mallya believes the highly competitive midfield, although making things harder for his team, is a good thing for the sport despite the additional pressure.
"The battle in the middle of the pack is too close to call this season and it means that there’s even more pressure on teams and drivers to deliver, especially in qualifying," he added. "It’s going to be very exciting for the fans and that is what we want to see in Formula 1."
