Liberty approach music to the ears of Force India

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley has described Liberty Media’s approach to improving Formula 1 as “music to our ears.”

Liberty has highlighted more equitable revenue distribution as one of the changes it would like to make in order to improve the competitiveness of teams and deliver a better on-track show. With Force India having campaigned for such a change over the past few years, Fernley told RACER his team is delighted with the new F1 owners’ initial stance.

“The direction that Liberty would appear to want to go in is music to our ears because clearly it has been something that we’ve been battling with for over two years,” Fernley said. “So from our side, if they can deliver what they are saying there will be no resistance from our side at all. It’s a bit of a case of be careful of what you want because you might get it!”

With 2017 expected to see a major development race during the season, Fernley says resources have already made a big difference to the field spread after all cars up to sixth place were lapped in Australia last Sunday.

“That’s going to go worse probably through the season. I think that’s the thing that is worrying them as well, and should do. You can’t have this mammoth gap and expect to put a show on.”

When asked if he fears being part of a secondary race to the top three teams during this season, Fernley says changes will have to be made to prevent that happening every season.

“Well, we’ve been there – it’s not new. We were there last year and everybody has been there for some time. I think what you’ve got to try and do is accept that you want to change it. That change might not happen overnight but if we get the directional change and it happens over a period of time, then at least we’re going in the right direction.

“To be fair to those bigger teams, if they’ve got to change their way it’s not something that can be done overnight; it’s a thing that has got to be phased. It would be improper for us, I think, to expect to do anything instantly and I think that it’s important that the bigger teams accept that they’ve got to do it progressively.”

With Force India taking two podiums in 2016 – including one in Baku on pure pace – Fernley admits he is “concerned” such a scenario is becoming less likely.

“We were obviously hoping that one of the bigger teams might slip up. Ferrari were looking in a bit of disarray at the end of the year and that’s where we thought it would be, but credit to them – they’ve done a fabulous job. So I just can't see any of the teams challenging for that fourth to be able to make that same transition.

“That's not going to say podiums are not going to be achievable, because we know circumstances can make a huge difference, with weather and with all sorts of things, and there will be the odd one where it just clicks in, but it’s going to be tough.”