Sahara Force India revealed its new car and livery earlier today. The VJM07 makes its official debut at the first test session of 2014, which will be held in Jerez, Spain.
“The VJM07 looks stunning and the new livery reflects the way Sahara Force India is evolving,” says team boss Vijay Mallya. “I’ve always believed our cars have been the most eye-catching, but adding black as a main colour gives us a fierce new look.”
“It’s been a busy winter for us on the technical and commercial front,” explains Mallya. “When I founded the team my first ambition was to launch the first Indian team on the grid, but the next stage in our evolution is to develop a global brand. I think that ambition is reflected in the partners we are working with and our world class driver line-up. It certainly feels as though there is the potential for 2014 to be our strongest season yet.”
Technical Director, Andrew Green, is quick to emphasise just how different the VJM07 is compared to its predecessor: “Almost every single part is a new design, from the front wing right back to the diffuser. The genetics of the VJM07 still lie in the 2013 car, but we’ve had to achieve the same results in a slightly different way.”
Andrew says accommodating the power unit was the biggest challenge: “It’s been a massive job to accommodate all the changes to the power unit – it’s the biggest change I’ve witnessed in the sport since I started in 1990. Cooling has been the biggest challenge with most of last summer taken up trying to understand the cooling requirements of the power unit, and how best to optimise it in the chassis.”
