Force India's new F1 front wing ready to race in Canada or France
Force India is on course to race its new Formula 1 front wing by the French Grand Prix at the latest as it plays catch up with its 2018 developments
Although the Silverstone-based outfit endured a difficult start to the season, it has begun to make progress with its car and was boosted by Sergio Perez's Azerbaijan Grand Prix podium finish.
It's next significant improvement is expected to come when it debuts a new front wing, which has been delayed while the team ensures there are enough spares to allow both drivers to have it.
There is a chance the wing could be used in Canada this weekend, but if that does not happen it will definitely be ready for the race after in France.
Technical director Andy Green said: "We think now it [the wing] is ready to race, we just don't have enough of them.
"We didn't want to risk the wings until we have some coming through, which will at the latest be Paul Ricard."
Green said testing of the new front wing after the Spanish Grand Prix produced encouraging results.
"We did a lot of testing of it in the post-Barcelona test, and that proved to us that it was at a high enough level now that we want it on the car," he explained.
"Around Barcelona it was a good step forward. So we would be confident then, with the updates we are bringing in Paul Ricard, that we should take another reasonable step."
Perez has suggested the team needs to make compromises with its set-up this year to compensate for rear end stability issues it has suffered.
Green said those on-track issues had been compounded by other factors at Force India's base delaying developments.
"Part of the issue was not having the car that we wanted at the beginning of the year," he said.
"Checo [Perez] talks about compromises as far as setup is concerned, but we have compromises in terms of manufacturing as well.
"So, there were parts that we really wanted on the car that we couldn't have, so we had to wait."
When asked whether that was a time issue, Green replied: "It was budget related."
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