The Force India team have become the ninth 2010 team to take the wraps off their new car, revealing photos of the VJM03 on Tuesday morning which the team are hoping will provide "more points and more podiums" for the coming season.
The VJM03 represents the third design that the team have produced since Vijay Mallya bought out the Spyker team at the end of the 2007 season, and the Force India team principal sees the new car as the machine to push them further forwards in the pecking order in 2010. But then he would say that.
The car, which will be driven by Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi in 2010, will make it's track debut on Wednesday when the second pre-season test begins in Jerez.
The design is not especially groundbreaking, featuring the now-familiar raised nose and 'shark-fin' engine cover that dominate the rather ugly 2010 grid, but despite the evolutionary design from last season's inconsistent VJM02, which was fast in low-downforce conditions but struggled at slower, grippier tracks, the team are confident that it will be consistently competitive in 2010.
"There's a little bit of variety out there but predominantly we are happy," chief designer Mark Smith explained, "You will always see something on each car that makes you think 'that's interesting' but understanding how they work on your car is the key thing.
"We haven't looked at photos and thought 'we've missed something significant' and we're excited to get down to Jerez."
Team boss Vijay Mallya, always one to build up pre-season ambitions, suggested that the team would be aiming to emulate last season's maiden podium in the coming year.
"Our goal is to continue on the same path of performance improvement that we had at the end of 2009," Mallya bellowed as the car was launched, "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?"
Smith explained that the new cars design had focused on improving the car's performance across a wider range of racetracks.
"The VJM02 was a relatively low drag car that showed well on the low downforce tracks," he explained, "As was demonstrated throughout 2009, that was a useful attribute but as we go into 2010 we have tried to maintain a high level of aerodynamic efficiency.
"But we recognise that our championship position will be enhanced by a general level of performance that is suited to all types of circuits. We have, we believe, quite an efficient car overall."
Meanwhile, 2010 race driver Adrian Sutil was similarly confident in being a competitive proposal for the coming season.
"I hope we will have a good season and I am pretty confident we will," Sutil smiled, "We have had a good winter and a very good development programme so expectations are high.
"The car looks great, we did a positive step with the wind tunnel simulations but let's test and see where we are. I know we need to perform well and from my side I have tried to be perfectly prepared."
The team will debut their Mercedes-powered car at Jerez in the hands of Liuzzi for Wednesday and Thursday, with Sutil taking over for the final two days of this week's test.
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