Force India to look 'quite different' in Spain

Force India will introduce a number of upgrades to their VJM09 this weekend in Spain as they bid to overhaul both their car and their 2016 fortunes.

According to team principal Vijay Mallya, the updates - which should be ready for both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in time for FP1 on Friday morning - will make their machine look 'quite different' as a result.

"Despite not realising our potential in Sochi, we took encouragement from our qualifying and race pace: the car is improving and we’ve got a good base on which to build," Mallya said.

"[The Barcelona upgrade] is on schedule to be fitted to both cars ahead of Friday practice. It's pretty comprehensive and the car will look quite different.

"There are 17 races to go and I’m confident the best is yet to come. It’s a marathon, not a sprint."

While Force India have scored just eight points so far this year - leaving them eighth in the constructors' standings - Mallya feels the picture has been clouded by misfortune for both drivers.

"In Sochi we were the innocent victims of the first lap chaos – as was the case in Bahrain too," he explained.

"It’s frustrating because, even with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to see what we could have done differently. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time with both cars, which caused a puncture for Sergio and ended Nico’s race.

"To see Sergio recover from the back of the pack and score points was a tremendous effort [but] we’ve yet to see how we perform in a clean, trouble-free race without safety cars, red flags or accidents. I hope we’ve used up all of our bad luck already!"