Sergio Perez frustrated by new Force India F1 car delays

The Silverstone-based team suffered a number of delays during the winter, which impacted on the development of its 2015 chassis and meant the team managed just two-and-a-half days of testing with its VJM08.

After the last race in Malaysia, deputy team principal Bob Fernley told AUTOSPORT that Force India has pushed back plans to introduce its updated car until the Austrian Grand Prix in June.

"Obviously it is frustrating not to have a competitive car that can bring you into the points with pure pace," said Perez ahead of this weekend's Chinese GP.

"That makes things really hard, but it doesn't change anything as a driver. You still give it your best possible shot weekend after weekend.

"Obviously, you are in a position where it is very easy to make mistakes, to lose the car as the car is very difficult with degradation.

"From now on, we will have hard races - but it is where we are."

While Nico Hulkenberg and Perez both scored points in the season-opener in Australia, they were not in contention in Malaysia.

Ahead of Sunday's race at the Shanghai circuit, Perez admits that it is tough knowing points will be difficult to come by until the new car arrives.

"It's hard to keep motivated going into a race knowing it will be a really hard race," he said.

"It's not the easiest position to be in as a driver, but you have got to be professional and do the job as if you are going to win the race.

"As drivers we have to give 100 per cent with whatever we have and try to get some points before we get the new package, which hopefully will bring us back to the points with pure pace.

"We're quite far from the team ahead of us so in that respect, we need a big step in terms of pace."