Sergio Pérez in the final top ten

Before the Abu Dhabi final, Vijay Mallya announced that his drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Pérez, who has been confirmed for 2015, would fight to the end to try to secure fifth Constructors place against McLaren. If the VJM07s were unable to dislodge Jenson Button's MP4-29, the Indian single-seaters punctuated their season in the points on the Yas Marina Circuit, allowing the two home drivers to finish in the final top 10, Pérez taking advantage of the setbacks in particular of Kevin Magnussen during this final.

“This is a significant achievement after a great year, admits Pérez, just renewed by Force India for 2015. I think we could have finished even higher today, but we probably stopped too late for the final pit stop. If we had passed the supersofts a little earlier then perhaps we could have been closer to Button at the end of the race. Looking at the season as a whole, I think everyone on the team did a tremendous job and we should be very happy with what we accomplished. I can’t wait to come back stronger in 2015.”

The Silverstone-based team will put two young guns on track from Tuesday on the Yas Marina Circuit for end-of-season testing, with GP2 champion, the Briton Jolyon Palmer and the Australian Richard Goddard, resident of the F3 this season.

Discover the analysis of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1988 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version, and from Wednesday on newsstands.