Force India VJM05

[Blackout]

Greatly undercut sidepods. Even better than last year. Very nice

[King Six]

Front wing design philosophy a complete departure from the old, I guess because they were shaking the car down the wings were more real than other launch cars.



old (2011 Brazilian GP):

[TimmTurbo]

The frontend reminds me of the Mercedes from last year !

[Steven]

I think it's a looker!

The most interesting bit is perhaps the front wing. The team have a profiled leading edge of the first flap and have cut out the overlap from the lower base element. this means that this lower element, which basically provides the strength of the wing, is now quite narrow. I would not be surprised at all if this was designed to help the front wing flex down at higher speeds.

Pictures, including closeups, in the gallery:
http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/Force-India/VJM05

[Blackout]

The airbox's trunk is very slimm too

[wesley123]

Incredible car! Never expected Force India to come up with this. Based on what we see and what they have said being third fastest doesnt seem to suddenly make sense.

[dren]

They certainly can make a slippery car! Looks great minus the buldge transition.

[Joie de vivre]

but still looks fat at the rear

[wesley123]

Your eyes are playing tricks, due to that it doesnt downslope and the huge undercut it seems to be fat, but it actually is pretty tight.

[King Six]

Here's a better pic showing the shape of the rear:



edit, brightened:

[Tyler]

The Force India looks the ugliest of the lot so far!
It's difficult to judge the sleekness of the sidepods in comparison to the others.
Would be great if someone can put together some overhead shots for comparison.
They don't seem to be doing anything interesting with the exhausts - the McLaren and Ferrari look more innovative in that area.
I have a feeling the racing is going to be very close this year with multiple teams winning races and the majority of the teams barring Marussia and HRT scoring points, similar to how it was in 2008.
Even Caterham look like they've put a really good car together, that's been the biggest surprise for me so far.

The exhausts are blowing the beam wing, but I think looking at the exhausts on the launch spec for any car is futile, they'll try to experiment with all sorts over testing and practice sessions.

Sidepods seem very undercut and the rear seems quite tightly packaged, the front nose is the best of the worst noses so far in terms of looks/sleekness.

It's certainly prettier than the Ferrari and Caterham (the Caterham is still very boxy), but we still need to see real pics of the Caterham. Anyway year in year out people say the Caterham/Lotus is better than Force India, so I don't even bother commenting on that anymore.

It's abit of a shame how little credit and outright disrespect this team gets, especially compared to Caterham, who have achieved nothing, yet are treated like champions. Personally this is a very well packaged car. Force India seem to be doing even better after they offloaded alot of key personnel to Lotus/Caterham.

Don't know if you were referring to me but not respecting Force India at all - they have definitely accomplished more than Caterham and are a team to be respected.
On first impressions I preferred the look of the Caterham but I must say this car is growing on me.
I wouldn't say Caterham haven't achieved anything. They may not be on Force India's level yet but if you compare them to HRT and Marussia who entered F1 at the same time, they've achieved quite a lot.
They've had a steady and good driver line-up, especially with regards to Kovaleinen, they've actually had a car ready for the first tests.From 2010 to 2011 they managed to put a bit of a gap between themselves and the other 2 new teams and look like they may extend that gap further this season possibly even fighting in the midfield.
They may not be on FI's level yet but seem to be making good progress.

Anyway the thread is about the FI so back to that.
The car is really starting to grow on me.
The nose doesn't look too bad actually - it looks less severe than the Ferrari.
The car looks very well packaged and those sidepods are very sleek.
That front wing looks fantastic!
All the cars released so far are showing great engineering.
We've seen some very well packaged, sleek cars and all we really have to complain about (which I think are quite interesting looking in any case) are the weird noses.
I think this is going to be a very close season.

[zoro_f1]

is it right to drive the car before the scheduled test?

btw, i think that force india and williams will be the biggest surprise this year. time will tell...




[source]

[mrtk56]

Never been a FI fan before but this car could turn me! It looks ace, really nice side pod packaging and the livery fits well too. The nose actually looks pretty good on this car, a lot better than the other two.

[Mr.S]

I am falling in love with the Side-Pods. Seriously damn sleek. It is brilliantly packaged. How did they manage it??

Ironically they are using Mclaren eletronics,gearboxes & stuff. I would not be surprised if this atleast fights with Mclaren on more than 1 race. I wonder what happens then. Supplying equipment to a competitor.

[ESPImperium]

I belive its the second most pretty car next to the McLaren from the ones already released.