Dominic Harlow Q&A: ‘I would hope that we would continue our trend’

The collision that cost Adrian Sutil points in Germany was a disappointment for everyone in the Force India team, but the overall performance through the weekend brought a lot of encouragement. With new parts coming for the next two races, the team hopes that the momentum will continue. We asked chief race engineer Dominic Harlow for his thoughts:

Q: Germany was a dramatic race for the team. How do you see it now?
The first half of the race before Adrian’s stop seemed to fly past and then the next 33 laps seemed to take quite a long time! The collision was very unfortunate, but it was a racing incident. There were some redeeming points with Fisi’s race, because he made up a number of places – in fact, in the last two races he has moved up 13 positions. He enjoyed himself and yet again we got a good finish, within sight of the points.

Q: Despite the disappointment, was it an encouraging weekend?
We achieved our ultimate goal of mixing it in the midfield and trying and push for points-scoring positions, so yes it was very encouraging from that point of view.

Q: Do you have a new package for the next race in Hungary?
We have a few more parts for Hungary. It’s not the same magnitude as Silverstone, but we’re keeping pace with our development plans and hopefully with the other teams. There are some front wing, brake duct and floor developments that we are pushing through. There are also the usual small mechanical changes for Hungary. We will also do a little bit of extra work on the set-up side for that circuit because it’s quite tricky.

Q: It’s very different from some of the recent circuits. Do you have any idea how you might go there?
Looking back to Monaco, that was the real start of our upturn in performance and pace. With Hungary being a similar downforce level and configuration, I’d like to think that we should suit reasonably well the demands of this track as well. We’ll also be back on the softer tyres again and I think with this compound we tend to go pretty well. The only tyre that’s been genuinely difficult for us is the hardest one, but we’re quite happy with the way we use the soft and the supersoft. We’re quite optimistic.

Q: What have you got coming for the race after that in Valencia?
It’s another upgrade target for us with a slightly bigger package of new parts coming. We will have further changes to the front wing again, and changes to the bargeboard area, and the front of the floor and sidepods. Visually it will be fairly different. I thought last year Valencia levelled things a little bit, and we looked reasonably strong there, particularly with Giancarlo. I would hope that we would continue our trend.

Q: The summer break, when teams are obliged to close their factories, is coming up. How does that affect things?
We’re closed from August 3rd to the 16th, and then we go straight to Valencia so pretty much all the work has to be done before the close down. It’s very much like the testing agreement, there are certain do’s and don’ts that have been agreed. It’s a good idea, it will be nice to have a break!