Force India aiming high with VJM03
Date published : 09 Feb 2010 - 09:21:54
Force India has launched the car it hopes will allow it to continue the impressive progress it made up the grid in 2009 this year.The Silverstone-based squad published the first images of its VJM03 challenger online early on Tuesday morning, with team boss Vijay Mallya saying the team is looking to build on the exceptional season it enjoyed last year when it scored 13 points and claimed its first pole and podium finish at Spa.Describing the VJM03 as an evolution of last year's machine, the white, orange and green-liveried car features a similarly flat and high nose to those found on most other 2010 cars so far, with a shark fin engine cover and tight sculpting towards the rear around the diffuser.Mallya, who starts his third year at the helm of the former Jordan, Midland and Spyker team, believes it is realistic for it to aim for a continuation of last year's upsurge and sets further points finishes and podiums as achievable goals.Our goal is to continue on the same path of performance improvement that we had at the end of 2009, said Mallya. I don't think I am being over-proud when I say 2009 was an exceptional year for us. The bare statistics say it all: one podium, one pole position, one fastest lap, a further five top 10 starts and 13 points. We've learnt from our experiences and we've come out a better team: resilient, resourceful and now resurgent. I hope 2010 will see this great progress carrying forward. 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 Team stalwart Adrian Sutil stays on for a fourth consecutive season at the team and is joined in the race line-up by Tonio Liuzzi for his first full F1 season since 2007, the team's former test driver having got his chance of a race seat last September following the departure of Giancarlo Fisichella to Ferrari.Rising Scottish star Paul di Resta last week signed to carry out third and reserve driver duties at the team which will include some appearances in Friday practice sessions.Force India starts the second year of its technical partnership with McLaren, which includes a supply of the class-leading Mercedes-Benz engine.The VJM03 will run for the first time on the opening day of the Jerez test on Wednesday, where Red Bull's eagerly-awaited RB6 will also break cover.
