Q & A with Force India's Simon Roberts

The team's chief operating officer Simon Roberts arrived at the team at the end of last year as part of its technical collaboration with McLaren, and he has already been left impressed by what he has seen.

With the new VJM02 looking solid in testing, autosport.com caught up with Roberts to get his verdict on how the team is looking on the eve of the new Formula 1 season.

Q. How have the pre-season preparations gone?

Simon Roberts: The guys have done a fantastic job. They designed and built the car in 108 days, between the decision to change engine and the first track running. So we haven't been able to do as much winter testing as we wanted, but we have proven reliability which has been really good.

It means that we have been able to do some performance work, so in the time we had available we have got everything done that we wanted to. We went through it all yesterday and there is nothing missing in terms of going out to Australia. If we had had another two weeks testing then we would have done even more, but it's good.

And we found some things, particularly the first week when we ran it in anger. There were faults, inevitably, but we were lucky. We had things that could have stopped the car. We found them under red flag conditions or on the way back to the pits, so although it was downtime we didn't break anything.

When you can find things going wrong before they have completely broken then you can quite often find the cause - which we did. So because the team worked so quickly we were able to put things in place and validate it last week in Barcelona.

Apart from what we don't know, touch wood, we expect to run reliably. And we fundamentally know how the car works, we know how to move the weight around and move the aero balance around, which is good.

Q. What has been your focus since you joined the team?

SR: The big structural stuff was done with me arriving, so we haven't fundamentally changed anything. There have been a few minor things as you can imagine over the few months period, but all I've done is work with the guys and focus on getting the programme to delivery, keeping the supply base lined up, and keeping engineering in terms of the off-car stuff working - and fundamentally making sure that we work effectively with McLaren and Mercedes-Benz, which has gone really well. We've got a really good team in place, and everyone gets on well, which is really good.

I think we had an advantage there, because the guys in Force India were used to dealing with engine suppliers. They dealt with Ferrari, Toyota and Cosworth before - so we had an advantage in knowing more about how to manage Mercedes-Benz and McLaren than they did. So the first few weeks was quite a steep learning curve for those guys, but once we got it going it was all fine.

Q. There have been huge rule changes over the winter, and in the longer term with cost cuts. Has that helped you in being able to sort things out, as opposed to the days of really big budgets a few years ago?

SR: I think with the rule changes from 2008 into 2009, there is opportunity in there for sure. But there is risk in there also. The small teams could get lucky, and we could have created a car where our interpretation of how to develop it under the new rules gives us an advantage over the others. But fundamentally the guys with the most wind tunnels, the most CFD and the most engineers - even if you are better than them on day one, they are going to catch you. So in the arms race view of life, it will all level out eventually.

Then when you move into what happens for 2010 and beyond, whether it is cost caps or regulations, we expect that to play more into our strengths. I don't know what F1 teams will look like in a few years, but I expect them more to be Force India size and scale than Toyota.

Q. What shape do you think your car is in as we head to Melbourne?

SR: That's a good question! We would like to think that we will be getting through Q1 into Q2, but I don't honestly know if Q3 is on. So definitely Q2 and looking to be running competitively in the midfield, and hoping we are reliable and the others are not. What we want to do this season is get some points - that is the first challenge and in the first few races points are normally lost rather than gained, so we need to be there to take advantage of that.

As the season moves through, I would like to think that we can reliably run in the midfield and start challenging. But this is a three-year plan, and in 2010 we want to do what Toro Rosso did last year, running up front of the midfield and if someone makes a mistake then perhaps grab a podium. In 2011, we want to have improved enough so we can fight for podiums. So, it is ambitious but not unrealistic.

Q. With the lack of testing this year, and the timescales caused by new regulations, are you expecting a lot less reliability from teams this year to mix up the results a bit?

SR: Possibly, but then the engines are running 1000rpm less. So there is actually less stress on the engines and gearboxes. KERS is another factor, because that could potentially introduce unreliability. So I don't know - there is a slightly different risk profile.

On the one hand there is less testing, so you haven't got the opportunity to test, but you need to test to make sure that the things you put on the car work and are reliable. So I think the way teams approach that will be quite interesting.

I think we are in a good position. It's not that we don't have anything to lose, but if you are trying to get into that midfield place then we can test parts on the Friday and we are not risking the drivers' championship or things like that. The teams that are up there and at that top level, they are going to have to think long and hard about what they are going to be playing around with on a Friday.

Q. What is the progress on your KERS system?

SR: The car is designed to run exactly the same system as McLaren. It is literally plug and play. We had a system on the car this week at Silverstone, although it wasn't live, just to double check the installation. That went very well.

What we think is that as the season develops, KERS will become something of a performance differentiator. Early on I think it will be a bit of a mixed bag as teams learn the systems, the advantages, the disadvantages, and they will debug all the unreliability.

So we are not intending to race it in Australia, but we would think that by the time we get to the European season then we will start introducing it. But it will be used as a performance device, depending on the circuit, the weight of the drivers and the weight of the package. Then some races we will definitely use it, and some others we definitely won't.

Q. Both Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella had up and down fortunes last year. Have you noticed a bit of a lift from them because of all the changes at the team?

SR: Yes, both of them. I think within the first day each of them were in the car, you could tell that they liked the package. We have had really good feedback from them - although like all drivers they want more downforce. They have confirmed from the feedback we've had, and I include Tonio Liuzzi in that, that there are no vices in the car.

It rides the kerbs well, you can make it understeer or oversteer, so there is nothing wrong with the package. The aero map is nice and balanced, so they have got something they can really use - and we just need to take some performance to it. But as a start point, all the drivers are really positive - they see this as a good step. It is just a more refined package I think.

Q. And what about Fisichella in particular, as a lot of people were writing him off last year?

SR: I think he genuinely sees an opportunity. I don't know how long he will stay in F1, but it would be great for him if he had a good year - and great for us.

Q. You are not a team gunning for the world championship, but do you think the new points structure will make any difference to teams fighting in the midfield?

SR: I don't know. You are back into the risk element there, because if there are teams who are shooting for a drivers' championship at all costs, then they are going to have a different approach to risk and performance so they may inadvertently not finish some races, or do things with tyres that they regret later. So maybe that will affect us. But in reality I suspect it will still lead to normal levels of reliability.

The guys who are consistently in the podium places, it will affect them a lot more. But I haven't thought too much about it, to be honest - my focus has been on getting the car out, making sure there are performance upgrades behind it and that sort of stuff.

Q. What is your plan for developing and bringing new stuff on the car now that there is no in-season testing?

SR: I think you have to have a strategy to move forward, and I don't think there is a right or wrong answer - only that once you have decided your approach you have to stick to it. So what we are planning to do is have performance packages that we take to the car, but it is not a do-or-die effort.

We have just completed a performance pack for Australia, so people will see that at the race. Then anything that didn't quite make it or didn't work out as expected, we will test on the Friday in Malaysia, Bahrain and China, and if it works we will use it. And if it doesn't, we won't.

The next upgrade will then be in Barcelona, so we will have the same approach. We will target a whole lot of stuff for Barcelona, but we will be realistic. If stuff works but we can't make it in time, then we will introduce it in Turkey or Monaco. That is our way forward, and I think if you do that you get a better result from the team because they know what they are aiming at, and they can make the right decisions and the right compromises.

If you are just continually throwing performance at the car, you can get in a bit of a spin. And then with limited testing, it is quite hard to see if you can really make a difference. The key is not getting lost - you need to know where you are, know what you are doing, but you have to be flexible and you have to push. That is what we will do.

Q. Where does Force India stand on the diffuser issue?

SR: We are watching with interest - that is a polite way of putting it. We have studied it, we are sure we understand how it works, and if it is okay then by the end of the season everyone will be running them - including us. We've got one in the wind tunnel, but we can't get one to the track in Australia but it is something we could have in one of our early upgrades. We are confident we can make it work, and if they are okay and everyone runs them, then great.

Q. With such a big change of regulations this year, can you foresee more arguments over tweaks on certain cars?

SR: Yes, I think it is inevitable. What is really nice is that you look at the cars now, even though it is just testing, and they are all different but they are all really, really close. You think about the magnitude of the rule changes, the fact that there are so many different people with fundamentally the same tool set but working in different countries, the fact that there are such big rule changes and the fact the cars can be so close with such a different approach is really interesting.

What is also means is that through the year, people will pick the best bits off each car. And if they can understand how they work, and can make them work on their car, then the cars will migrate in a certain direction - and then the rules will change again!

Q. And how is the challenge for you, having come from a big team like McLaren?

SR: I really enjoy it. When I came here, I just didn't have any preconceptions. I didn't know who was there, or what they did. I did figure that there would not be as much money to spend as we had at McLaren, which was true, but although it is very different culturally it is very similar to the way McLaren used to work in the old factory.

It is very tight knit, a similar type of building, well integrated. The guys themselves are just fantastic; you can just get things done so quickly, which is really nice. We haven't got as much equipment and resources as the other guys - so although on the one hand you could think 'oh, if only', realistically we don't have to worry about that.

You can decide the direction, we can agree it very quickly and then we move on. I think we have to exploit that as a strength - our ability to innovate quickly and be agile to changing situations is a strength. We are good at it, and the fact we can design and build a car in 108 days is testament to that. And it wasn't a shoddy job - it is a nice looking car, built really, really well.

In McLaren days, if the guys building the car say this is a good car then that is a hell of a good start point. It means the mechanics are on your side from day one, and if it is easy to build and easy to look after then it is easy to bolt performance on it. If the thing doesn't go together or is too fiddly, then you are fighting it from the start.

Yes we were disadvantaged by the late start, but we will recover. We still have performance coming from the tunnel, and we are not looking to cure any vices, so it's not like we have to fix issues before we can bring performance. It works, so we can just keep looking forward.