Force India reveal their 2008 F1 car: the VJM01

February 7, 2008 at 7:43 pm by Keith Collantine

Force India have revealed the livery for their first F1 car, dubbed the VJM01, presumably named after team owner Vijay Mallya.

The car is last year’s Spyker F8-VII B-spec in an attractive new white, gold and dark grey livery with red stripes. Force India also seem to have attracted several new sponsors which is an encouraging sign for a team that is on its fourth owner is an many years.

Here are some more high-resolution pictures of the VJM01 launch.

High resolution pictures

Photos copyright: Force India F1 team

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8 comments on Force India reveal their 2008 F1 car: the VJM01

Vertigo said on 7th February 2008, 20:53

Very nice car. Hopefully Vijay Mallya is the man to take this team forward, he’s got the money and the ambition.

teamorders said on 7th February 2008, 21:06

Those sidepod air intakes look huge.

Mark said on 7th February 2008, 21:08

I love the car, it looks great! I just wish it didn’t look similar to the rest of the grid.

Having spent last weekend at the A1 GP at Eastern Creek it is depressing how similar the F1 cars are going to look.

BMW, Honda, Force 1, Super Aguri, Williams, Toyota,… That is half the grid being primarily white with dashes of other colours.

Say what you will about Renault but at least they look different!

Robert McKay said on 7th February 2008, 21:11

It’s pretty nice, though with predominantly white BMW’s and Honda’s, things could get a touch confusing.

Robert McKay said on 7th February 2008, 21:55

God, I forgot the Aguris too, thanks Mark :-D

420 said on 7th February 2008, 22:31

wow. best looking car i think. thats beautiful.

its just too bad this car will be dead last this upcoming season:(..except for honda maybe.

Loki said on 8th February 2008, 1:09

“Say what you will about Renault but at least they look different!”

Thank you, Mark!!

I don’t like it either, and if I were Kingfisher (who seems to be the primary sponsor) I wouldn’t be happy on the placing my logos either, at an orthographic and side elevative glance, I’d get more coverage from Medion (who I’d be reluctant to place for a sponsor even at back of the grid! – but that’s my own perspective). I’d even be interested to see how many (external) lights have been used for the promo photographic shots in comparison to other teams because the lights seem to highlight the sides more than other elevations – it just looks tacky IMO, it even looks overexposed in parts, not what I’d expect in an F1 launch.

But back to the point, I don’t see this car as having any identity different to Honda, Toyota, last years Williams, a Steward, a BMW, or whatever – at least the old Spyker had some oomph to it than this.

Having said all this, I do hope it does better than Spyker and that the funding and ownership carries on to more than 1/2 – 3/4 of a season. Even if the name is completely naff. I want to see teams build up in F1, I want Honda to succeed because they have shown persistence AND perseverance, unlike so many other teams.

If Force India prove to be the might years down the line, however many it takes, then I hope they will get points regularly. Otherwise, it’s just another back marker who otherwise could take the team further. They have a lot to prove – they have talked far too much.

schumi said on 8th February 2008, 13:38

Loki, Kingfisher is Mallya’s own company (Kingfisher beer and airlines). And it’s color scheme is very similar to that of the car, i.e: white and red. Here’s a link to a pic of a kingfisher jet http://www.themonglings.com/Kingfisher-full.jpg .