

The new Force India Mercedes VJM04b has been launched by the Silverstone team. The car features much the same sponsorship as last season, with the addition of Vladivar and some direct badging for Mallya’s United Breweries (UB).

Vladivar is a vodka brand which is owned by Whyte and Mackay, which in turn is owned by UB.

The car will be raced by Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta, with Nico Hulkenberg as reserve driver. The idea of signing up a rookie rather than taking the more experienced Hulkenberg is down to the fact that di Resta has the support of Mercedes-Benz, which is believed to be supplying the team with KERS for free, while other teams have to pay $6 million. The team has yet to announce a settlement with its original 2011 contracted driver Tonio Liuzzi.

The car has had an interesting development with the original technical director being Mark Smith, who stayed on with the team despite having signed to join Team Lotus. His role was then taken over by Andrew Green. The two men were the only assistants of Gary Anderson when the trio designed the original Jordan 191 20 years ago.

“He knows the team inside out, both from his previous tenure with the team and through his position this year,” said Mallya. “I am also delighted to be able to give Andrew and his team the stability and opportunity to take us forward with the extension to the McLaren Applied Technologies contract.”

The car features the McLaren gearbox and last week Mallya announced that the team has extended its technology agreement with McLaren Applied Technologies. The two companies have been linked since 2009 when Mallya decided that it was more cost-effective to buy McLaren technology, rather than trying to develop its own. The deal was agreed at the same time as the team did a deal with Mercedes-Benz for a supply of engines and included not only gearboxes and hydraulic systems, but also other technical assistance which includes time in the McLaren simulator at Woking. Originally, it also included help with the management of the team as well and Simon Roberts, the McLaren team’s number three executive, spent a year with Force India before returning to the mother ship.

Force India’s results seemed a lot better in 2010 than they were in 2009 with 68 points rather than 13, although one must also take into account a changed in the points scoring system. The team scored a second, a fourth, two ninths and two tenths in 2009; while in 2010 it collected two fifths, two sixths, two sevenths, two eighths, five ninths and a couple of 10ths. This showed that the cars were a great deal more reliable than previously but perhaps not quite as quick. The team was ninth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2009 and moved up to seventh in 2010, although it should also be pointed out that the poor performance of Sauber last year, after the withdrawal of BMW and the disappearance of Toyota.





“There are some big developments in the pipeline, probably bigger than this team has seen for quite a while,” says Green. “I think we’re looking for a much stronger finish to the season, and we do recognise the fact that there’s an Indian GP on the calendar, and we are an Indian team. The plan is to be putting stronger performance on the car through the year that will lift us up the ranks.”