In this paper we are interested in the Quartapelle-Napolitano approach to calculation of forces in viscous incompressible flows in exterior domains. We study the possibility of deriving a simpler formulation of this approach which might lead to a more convenient expression for the hydrodynamic force, but conclude that such a simplification is, within the family of approaches considered, impossible. This shows that the original QuartapelleNapolitano formula is in fact "optimal" within this class of approaches.