Force India unveil new car

Scoring their first points in 2009 did a world of good for Force India’s morale. The negative vibes that surrounded the team at the start of last year have been replaced by the positive thinking for the 2010 season with everyone, from owner Vijay Mallya to technical staff, expecting to outdo the 2009 effort.

“We’ve learnt from our experiences and have come out as a better team — resilient, resourceful and now resurgent. We’ve got one podium so far but I would hope that, this time next year, I’m talking about more points and more podiums. I’m confident we can get this, why not aim high?” said Mallya on the sidelines of the online launch of VJM03 on Tuesday.

The VJM03 will make its official testing debut on Wednesday at the Jerez circuit in Spain. Vitantonio Liuzzi will be on driving duties for the first two days before Adrian Sutil takes over on February 12.  
The car is designed around a larger fuel tank, due to the ban on refuelling, and exploits the double diffuser at the back of the car.

However, chief designer Mark Smith said the car was definitely an evolution of last year’s car, which he thinks was a good platform to build upon.

Adrian Sutil too sounded optimistic and was itching to get his hands on the car at the Jerez test. “I hope we will have a good season and I am pretty confident we will. We have had a good winter and a very good development programme so expectations are high. The car looks great, we took a positive step with the wind tunnel simulations but let’s test and see where we are,” Sutil said.