Force India: The nose of the VJM07 is set to change
First single-seater launched in 2014, the Force India VJM07 already provides insights into the look of the cars for the upcoming season, while maintaining an air of mystery, particularly concerning the nose.
Force India surprised everyone on Wednesday by publishing the first 3D image of its new car, the Force India VJM07, on its official website. It will be driven by Nico Hülkenberg (#27) and Sergio Pérez (#11) and powered by a Mercedes hybrid engine.
The most striking aspect, based on the only available image, is the change in livery: gone is the white, the predominant color on the Indian team’s previous single-seaters, in favor of a black that, according to Vijay Mallya’s words, transforms the tiger into a panther, while retaining the orange, white, and green colors representative of India.
On the design side of the car, however, it’s more difficult to get an idea: indeed, this single available photo, while it reveals the unique F1-style exhaust at the rear, and thus the end of the Coanda effect exhausts, and slightly larger sidepods to help cool the engine components, it does not allow for an exact appreciation of the shape of certain elements, particularly its nose.
Based on this single photograph, the nose is indeed sloping, as expected, but it’s difficult to say much more at first glance. The Italian site Omnicorse indicated that the wheel would hide a step on the nose similar to that featured by the Red Bull RB8 in 2012. According to Craig Scarborough, a technical specialist in Formula 1 and columnist for Autosport, the front indeed hides a finger-shaped design, on which the front wing would be mounted. On the 3D rendering of Force India, this part is subtly concealed as it is painted black, the same color as the surrounding elements or those integrated with it.
About the nose of the Force India, Andrew Green, the technical director of the team, explained that nothing was final: “Our nose is a starting nose and, later on, we will have an improved front on the car, which will potentially be quite different. We had to take a pragmatic view and tell ourselves that tests needed to be done, so we had to get a car out.”
« Even if we wanted to push the boundaries of the impact structure, because we know how important it is for the car as a whole, we don’t have the resources to push it to the limit right from our first draft, so we need a safe base. The nose that’s on the launch car is a base. We have a car with which we can test and race. A few weeks ago, we started to push the boundaries of the design because we think there is performance to be sought. New concepts are coming, » he stated on the Sahara Force India website.
