Force India VJM09: First pictures revealed

The Force India VJM09 has been presented for the first time at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The car is outwardly similar to its 2016 predecessor, featuring the same long nose with distinctive vents on either side.

Technical director Andrew Green confirmed the car was closely based on its predecessor. “You can say the b-spec car from last year formed a basis on which to build our 2016 one,” he said.

“We were in a situation in which the performance on track was very good, and in which the data we were getting correlated well to what we were expecting, so we knew we could continue to develop on a solid platform.”

“With the regulations likely to change for 2017, it didn’t really seem like an efficient use of our resources to start from scratch on a project that would have such a limited lifetime.”

The team plans to introduce an aerodynamic upgrade for the first race of the season in Australia and another upgrade is planned when the teams return to Europe.

Force India VJM09 pictures