Sahara Force India
Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg has accepted that he was to blame for causing the collision with Williams rival Felipe Massa during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.
Massa was exiting the pit lane and challenged Hulkenberg as the pair rounded Turn 3, though the Force India driver closed the door on the Brazilian and the pair collided.
While Massa was able to continue, before ultimately retiring due to a mechanical problem, Hulkenberg was pitched into the barriers.
Hulkenberg was hit with a three place grid penalty for the Japanese Grand Prix and initially suggested that he was not at fault, but since reviewing video footage has conceded that he did not leave his rival sufficient room.
"Obviously I looked at the video footage and I think I probably should have given him a bit more room, because he was on the inside and I had some space on the right," Hulkenberg said.
"Visibility is also difficult when you are alongside each other and I thought I was ahead enough, but I wasn't clearly, in hindsight, so we take up the penalty here. But it's behind us, now we move on and make the best of it this weekend."
Force India confirmed early on Thursday morning in Japan that Sergio Perez will remain alongside Hulkenberg in 2016 and the Le Mans victor says that such a development is positive for the team.
"We work well together," he said. "I think we are a strong combination and I think we both have faith in the team and we see still a lot of potential that we can extract and move forward, together with Force India, and I think both of us want to continue growing with the team."
