Force India: "We must continue to develop the car throughout the 2017 season"

While the new car of the team based in Silverstone was revealed to the public, the leaders of Force India want to continue fighting with the constructor teams. It must be said that the independent structure led by Vijay Mallya has continued to progress in recent years, with the highlight being a fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, just behind Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes.

Vijay Mallya, co-owner of the team, said he is very excited about the upcoming season. He added: A lot of commentators have said that we punch well above our weight and that we are world champions in terms of budget/performance ratio. It’s a huge compliment, it reflects our passion, creativity, and the talent of my team and everyone at the factory. This passion will become more intense and will always be there to help us improve further. It will be useful in 2017.

The best private structure does not intend to lower its guard against its competitors: « I know that we must continue to develop the car throughout the 2017 season, there will be no interruption because we are starting from scratch, all teams will do the same » concluded the Indian.

Force India’s technical director Andy Green tells us a little more about the challenge the team had to face: The extent of design changes brought about by the new regulations was much higher than usual. Compared to previous seasons, we’re quite close to an entirely new model, the car is 95% new.

Otmar Szafnauer, the team’s Chief Operating Officer, reveals that the priority was given to the 2017 car quite early last season: « Force India stopped developing the 2016 car and fully turned towards this season last May. We started early enough in the hope of beginning the 2017 season as well as we finished the 2016 season. The philosophy is similar, but we actually started from scratch. It was a puzzle to put together, but we now have a good car base. »