Force India has unveiled their 2013 challenger, the VJM06, in a launch ceremony broadcast live by Sky Sports News at Silverstone – but identified only one of their two drivers for the upcoming season.
With the team still not prepared to name their replacement for new Sauber recruit Nico Hulkenberg, it was left to Paul di Resta – now officially confirmed as the fourth Brit on the 2013 grid – to take the wraps off the team’s new car.
Deputy Team Principal Bob Fernley stepped into the breach alongside the Scot. It had been suggested that reserve driver Jules Bianchi was to step up but, as yet, Force India have yet to announce a second driver. “The shareholders are obviously thinking about where the drivers are going to be but our main objective today is to launch the car – and Paul is the key person for doing that. We don’t want to confuse the two stories,” Fernley said in explanation.
Paul di Resta said: “We’re looking forward to this year – we need to raise our game and be more consistent. But certainly we’re going to work hard over the next two months to arrive in Melbourne and give ourselves the best opportunity going forwards to battle our rivals. I’m eager to feel what the car is all about. We’re giving it a short test today to get a bit of an idea,” said di Resta, who admitted it was hard to make predictions for 2013. “I think it’s difficult to set yourself targets, especially at this point. It’s consistency and working the momentum to carry over from last year. That’s the focus, to have a car that gets into Q3 and put ourselves into strong positions.”
“The VJM06 doesn’t look massively different to its predecessor, but beneath the skin we’ve looked at every detail to try and find more performance,” says Team Principal, Dr Vijay Mallya. “I’ve followed the development of the car closely and I’m proud of what we have achieved. The objective now is to make sure we build on the promise of last year and have a strong start to the season.”
Summing up the approach to the design of the VJM06, Andrew Green said: “It’s a brand new car from the ground-up – everything is new. We discussed carrying over big chunks of last year’s car, including the chassis, but decided not to. There were still some gains to be had with the chassis, so we elected to take the performance benefits. The biggest change that everybody is going to notice this year is the fairing on top of the nose to hide the ‘step’. It’s neutral as far as the car’s performance is concerned but tidies up the flow over the top of the chassis.”