Force India’s F1 car yet to debut in March 09

According to technical director of  Force India, James Key , Force India’s Mercedes-powered 2009 car is yet to debut in March 09.

Racing against time to put together a machine fast enough to hover around in the mid-field, Force India think-tank remains optimistic of rolling out VJM02, its latest generation car, well in time to hit the track for the last two pre-season tests.

Technical director James Key said working under a tight schedule, which requires constant liaising with engine provider Mercedes and gearbox supplier McLaren, made it an unenviable task but the new car would still hit the track early March. “It’s obviously very tight, because of what we’ve had to do. But the plan is to hit the last two official team tests before the season,” Key said.

Team owner Vijay Mallya  announced the tie-up with Mercedes and McLaren on November 10 last year, when the car had already been designed around an alternative package.

“The car was pretty much defined at that point. When everything was officially announced it was then a case of having discussions with McLaren on the gearbox and Mercedes on the engine side as we had a new set of numbers to deal with. Then we had to determine how compatible the existing designs were. In some areas it was fairly straightforward. Some areas of the car matched very well with the new packaging requirements we had, while in other areas it was significantly different. Effectively we have had to redesign quite a bit of the car, and starting in November, that’s been quite a major undertaking,” he said.

Incidentally, Force India, at least in its previous avatars, is not alien to change in engine suppliers. Since its Jordan days, the outfit has undergone transitions from Cosworth to Yamaha, Hart, Peugeot, Mugen, Honda, Cosworth again, Toyota and Ferrari before the current link-up with Mercedes.

“We’ve certainly had late calls in the past. This is quite a late one, but for all the right reasons, in terms of long term stability for the team.” Key said

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source : statesman