text: Sergio Perez fears 'a very painful year' lies ahead if Force India's roll out of their upgraded car this season proves a dud. Build-time pressure over the winter resulted in the Silverstone-based marque starting the campaign with a car that is considerably off the pace. The additional knock-on effect means a delay in the introduction of the team's B-spec model, which is now not due to be unveiled until the Austrian Grand Prix in June. Sergio Perez walks through the paddock in Shanghai ahead of Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix . Perez locks his brakes on his way to 10th place finish in the Australian Grand Prix in March . The hope is Perez and team-mate Nico Hulkenberg will then finally be able to compete for points finishes, rather than crossing fingers a top-10 spot comes their way via reliability issues for their rivals. If performance is lacking, however, Perez fears the worst. 'We're hoping to make a big step forward,' said Perez. 'If we make that step then we can still have a good year as there will be plenty of races remaining, a lot of time to recover. 'But if we don't make the step we're hoping for then it's going to be a very painful year.' For the team and the Mexican, who was 10th in the season-opening race in Australia - where only 15 started and 11 finished - and 13th in Malaysia recently, the current struggles are already tough to endure. Perez fears for Force India's pace and was hounded by the equally troubled McLaren duo of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in the Malaysia Grand Prix near the back of the grid . Perez finished 13th at Sepang and admits Force India are relying on their June upgrade to come good . 'It is frustrating knowing we don't have a competitive car that can take us into the points on pure pace. It's really hard,' Perez added. 'It is also really hard to keep motivated. Going into a race, knowing it is going to be very hard without any advantage, is not the easiest for a driver. 'At the moment, on pure pace, it is quite difficult to make it into the points. We're quite far from the teams ahead of us. 'We are in a position where it's very easy to make mistakes, to lose the car as it is very difficult with degradation and stuff. 'From now on we are going to have hard races, but it is what it is at the moment. We have to be professional and do the job as if we are going to win the race. 'We're going to give 100 per cent and try to be there with whatever we have, to try to get into the points before we get the new package that can hopefully get us back into the points on pure pace.'
target: Sergio Perez admits Force India are relying on June upgrade to improve .
  Mexican fears very painful year if upgrade fails to raise competitiveness .
  Force India missed much of pre-season testing and are well off the pace .