Force India redesigns car

Force India has had to do some major redesign work on its VJM02 to accommodate its new Mercedes engine and McLaren gearbox. The car is due to appear in early March and won’t get many testing miles before the season-opener in Australia.

The car was designed around a Ferrari V8 and the team’s own transmission. Apart from the usual mods associated with an engine change, such as cooling, revisions have been made to the rear suspension and everything else that attaches to the gearbox, as well as adjusting to the Mercedes rather than Ferrari KERS system. The team is delighted with the co-operation it has received from its new partners.

“All the fundamentals we needed to know came through quickly,” said technical director James Key, “and we were able to adapt quickly. But it was November, and that’s stuff you do in June. So it’s been an intensive period, primarily for the design and wind tunnel guys to make sure we’ve got all the bodywork to account for the changes we’ve had to make.”

Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil will continue as the team’s drivers.