Force India believes mistakes cost it sixth in F1 2018 to McLaren

The Silverstone-based team lost the points it scored before its ownership change during the summer, and it eventually finished 10 points shy of McLaren, and just four ahead of Sauber.

In the Abu Dhabi F1 season finale Sergio Perez finished eighth, while an oil leak - believed to be from a pipe unrelated to Mercedes - led to a retirement for Esteban Ocon.

However Szafnauer highlighted other dropped points as crucial in the final result of the season, including when Perez and Ocon collided at the start of the Singapore GP.

"Sixth was possible, but we just made some mistakes in the last few races," Szafnauer told Autosport.

"Singapore was a big one, and we had a brake failure in Mexico. So that cost us sixth.

"There were points in the race [in Abu Dhabi] when we were mathematically ahead of McLaren, as before we pitted we were running fifth and sixth, but you've got to wait until the end.

"We're happy-ish. From where we were in Spa, sixth was achievable, but seventh is not bad.

"In Spa we were last, so to come back to seventh was pretty good."

Szafnauer also paid tribute to Ocon, who put in another feisty drive on his last outing with the team before he becomes Mercedes' reserve driver for 2019.

"He had a great race," he said. "He had some great battles with [Max] Verstappen again, clean ones, and I think at one point he avoided Verstappen running into him.

"Had he stayed on his natural line, Verstappen would have hit him. We'll miss him, but he won't be gone forever."