Force India will reveal their 2011 F1 car on Tuesday 8th February.
The VJM04 will be shown for the first time in a live online stream at 2pm GMT at http://www.forceindiaf1.com/carlaunch (the page is currently empty).
It’s the first car designed by new technical director Andrew Green.
It will run for the first time at the F1 test Jerez in Spain on Thursday 10th.
Use the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar to keep track of all the launch, test and race dates for 2011.
View the list of 2011 F1 drivers and teams.
Browse all 2011 F1 season articles
Image © Julien Leroy / firstlap.be
RIISE (@riise)
5th February 2011, 12:01
I hate the fact that it’s named after Vijay. Don’t know why just really annoys me.
I hope FI are off the pace, I don’t want to see that ugly livery in most of the camera shots.
colm
5th February 2011, 12:05
me 2 especially with Hulkenberg as a test driver. hope 2 see him racing this season
electrolite (@electrolite)
5th February 2011, 12:07
That’s a little harsh, what have they done to you eh :P
I agree the livery could be better this year. They had essentially the same livery for 2009-2010 and with colours like green and orange there is a lot of potential.
Perhaps with a new technical director the car’s shape may look different to the last couple of Forces as well. I find the VJM03 to be a bit, well, flabby.
Scribe
5th February 2011, 12:35
lol, haters gonna hate.
FI is an alright little team, bent owner but hey, not as bent as Montezemolo.
Reckon they’ll be nearish the front of the midfeild at the beggining of the season and slip back as time goes on. Like last season, they don’t seem to be great developers, but there concepts are generally pretty sound.
electrolite (@electrolite)
5th February 2011, 12:52
I reckon if Di Resta is half as near to Sutil’s pace than Liuzzi was then that’s a better start in itself.
I wouldn’t completely write off FI in their development though. Take 2009 as an example. Mind you they’ve lost people. We’ll just have to see.
BasCB
5th February 2011, 12:57
Actually they were pretty good developers with James Key on board in 2009(good move for Sauber). Losing him as well as other key technical people esp. to Team Lotus, is why they had trouble with improvements last season.
I hope they keep up the developments, It’s always special to see guys like Sutil or now Di Resta suddenly popping up on p3-5 on the grid and having a shot at the podium during the year.
Lee
5th February 2011, 12:52
Do you also hate that all the williams cars start with FW ?
Vikas
5th February 2011, 13:39
Nice one Lee :-)
Oliver
5th February 2011, 13:46
But you can also argue that the Williams is named after the company. The F may also be for F1. To me its egotistical to call your team force India then name the car after yourself. :-)
But I really don’t care anyway, if he brings the money he might just as well get the naming rights.
SparkyJ23 (@sparkyj23)
5th February 2011, 14:46
No you can’t the FW is named after Sir Frank Williams. Saying otherwise just makes you look silly
Mike
5th February 2011, 15:11
Also, if you argue that they shouldn’t be named after Frank Williams, you still look silly. He is a living legend.
Oliver
5th February 2011, 16:01
Williams is the company name, naming a car after the company seems reasonable, so picking up an argument with that makes you look silly.
mingmong
5th February 2011, 22:24
yeah good one! I wonder if they also hated Jordan cause it started with EJ…
David McVey
8th February 2011, 12:41
No, because the team is called Williams, not Force England!!
miguelF1O (@)
5th February 2011, 12:57
I loved the 09 FI but i have to agree that the indian livery may get on the head of the brits
BasCB
5th February 2011, 12:58
It quite liked the livery when first seen, but like RBR/STR should freshen it up after all the years, FI could give it something new as well.
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
5th February 2011, 15:45
I don’t see why.
Unless it reminds us of the Irish. ;)
David McVey
8th February 2011, 12:52
I always quite like the white, green and orange livery. Much better than the Gold of the early days!!
Brad Leigh
5th February 2011, 13:48
It just occurred to me as well how indulgent it is that the car is named VJM…
f1fan
5th February 2011, 13:48
its V for Vijay and M for Michiel Mol(dutch)
f1fan
5th February 2011, 13:50
its V for Vijay, J for Jan mol(dutch) and M for Michiel Mol(dutch)
verstappen
5th February 2011, 14:08
Jan? Never heard that, I know Michiel used to brag about it in the dutch F1 programme.
Even learning things about my country’s involvement in F1 on F1F!
f1fan
5th February 2011, 14:14
Force India VJM01 named after team owners Vijay Mallya, Jan Mol and Michiel Mol.
read the 3rd line in the article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyker_F8-VII
Mike-e
6th February 2011, 5:23
Yeah, its just a happy coincidence that he’s put the letters in an order to make it sound like just his name
V-J M(allia)
Dont tell me this was an accident, he could have called it the MJV but didn’t
Speed0462
5th February 2011, 14:12
FYI VJM in cars name is not named after mallya alone but all three owner of force india ie Vijay mallya,Jan and Michiel Mol
for conformation here is link
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/2/7387.html
Steve
5th February 2011, 14:37
@ RIISE
I think your a bit off mate.
So he named only the car after him. At least he didnt name the entire team after him as well!
Ferrari, Williams, Sauber… Those okes named the team & car after themselves.
Cacarella
5th February 2011, 14:43
Well spotted Steve! Also Mclaren after the almighty BRUCE!
King Six
5th February 2011, 14:43
Erm…so what about Toyota, Ferrari, Ford, Williams, McLaren, Renault…no you’re right, it’s stupid when Vijay Mallya does it.
Which he isn’t, FYI it’s named after Vijay, Jan Mol and Michael Mol. The three major players in this team.
So get off the horse.
Ninad
5th February 2011, 14:58
If they launch online, hope they race online too!!
Nas-T
5th February 2011, 14:58
He OWN force india, it’s up to him to name the car.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th February 2011, 17:17
If I owned an F1 team I’d name the car after me…
electrolite (@electrolite)
5th February 2011, 21:23
That would be awesome actually.
‘And here’s Jenson Button, coming down the straight in his gorgeous new Collantine-Mercedes…’
Sush Meerkat
5th February 2011, 21:27
Mr Collantine has much finer taste’s, I’m sure he’d prefer a Renault powering his F1 team.
Or am I projecting myself and the above is a self reflective comment?
Tom
7th February 2011, 14:52
Nah they’re not British enough for Keith, he’d have to have his Cosworth or not bother :P
/tongue in cheek
Sush Meerkat
5th February 2011, 21:25
I remember me and some other regulars here stating that we will buy HRT, and call it Collantine F1, the chassis designation would be “KC-hot air01”, just like Ferrari used to do with the car name, KC for the chassis and “hot-air” for its engine displacement.
DANK
5th February 2011, 19:04
You weren’t a fan of Brawn as well then?
Dipak T
6th February 2011, 1:35
Yeah, that fact that Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, and Renault currently also happen to have cars named after the founder is abhorrent too!!!!
Dipak T
6th February 2011, 1:38
And I also meant to say that having a team named after youself like McLaren and Sauber is wrong as well.
David McVey
8th February 2011, 12:59
Well what would you have them call it? Maintaining a name such as Mclaren or Williams is key to the unique identity of the sport. Look at GP2 and the likes of I-Sport and ART Grand Prix. They’re faceless and corporate sounding names, I much prefer to have a team name that expresses the individual effort and sacrifice of its founder than something that screams “board room racers”.
neel
7th February 2011, 9:34
shut up RIISE …VJM stands for vijay mallya…and its got the Indian national flag on the livery …so respect it !
Dan Thorn (@dan-thorn)
5th February 2011, 12:17
Bit of a make or break year for Force India. They visibly suffered towards the end of the last year having lost key members of their technical staff and this year it will be interesting to see if they can recover, get back to where they were and move forward.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
5th February 2011, 12:50
Getting rid of Liuzzi ought to help.
Chris
5th February 2011, 12:47
I’m just worried that they’re going to be back towards the tail end of the midfield this year. They slipped backwards as 2010 went on and now they’ve lost a lot of staff to other teams. Doesn’t bode well…
Sijs
5th February 2011, 13:07
I am puzzled by the hatred towards Dr. Mallya among the F1 community. Is it because of Liuzzi? Would any of us run him, if we were to invest money and run the team. He is shrewd. But, you have to be to be successful.
Oliver
5th February 2011, 13:54
Is there hatred towards Mallya? I have never heard of such. Or do you interpret any disagreement with his management style as hatred?
Derek
5th February 2011, 13:15
Good luck to Force India this year I hope their car has made a good step forward. I think that Di Resta will blow Sutil away after two or three races. Sutil is a very good number two driver and could pick up the odd race win but Di Resta is a number one. Now Force India have the correct line up I hope the car is also ready to win or get regular podiums.
Dev
5th February 2011, 13:50
most hatred comes from folks who want either Karun or Narain in Force India… others don’t like the way he runs his affairs. but mostly it’s about not running/ supporting Indian drivers…
I’m a bit curious about VJM04 which will be 1st car designed by Andy Green. will they continue on the path of James Key & Mark Smith or do they take a fresh path. Also i’m interested in the battle between Lotus (which has former FI employees viz Mike Gascoyne, Mark Smith), Sauber (James Key) & Williams
Coxy
7th February 2011, 8:01
Good shout there, I think having Karun would be a great idea for FI, Karun showed us all what he can do last year, he drove the HRT for the first time in a quallie session now that takes some balls!!!!!!! not only that he was far better than bruno senna and got seen off purely because he lacked the finatial backing that some of the other drivers have, in the same boat as hulkenburg, its a shame
Sutil-M (@)
5th February 2011, 13:56
I hope FI give a new complete new livery this year most of the other cars like McLaren have just copied their old car which i think its stupidly boring.
S.J.M (@sjm)
6th February 2011, 13:21
I think its a safe bet to assume its Orange/White/Green with Kingkisher plastered on the sides, there or there abouts. Nothing wrong with that, i think their Livery is nice and it stands out. Ofcourse, being called Force India its going to have an Indian theme to it.
Rahim.RG
5th February 2011, 15:33
I Like Force Inida now….Yes i am an Indian but when he first bought the team, i never thought he’d bring the team to this level….
Switch to Mercedes engine was a good move…i was really impressed
But since last year when i always read about the main people leaving, i’m now in doubt whether the car would be a step forward…
But if i’m wrong, then….. i’d be impressed..
Best of Luck to them….
Mallya man you’ve got to pay a bit more for people to stay….
wasiF1
5th February 2011, 15:54
Only HRT is left to announce their cars debut & driver number 2.
mingmong
5th February 2011, 22:29
We’ll do our talking on the track. Go the FORCE!
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
6th February 2011, 12:01
This twit from photographer:
James Moy
Photographing the new Force India #VJM04 tonight in the studio. Hope the 2011 livery looks good.
ZENITH
7th February 2011, 13:19
RIISE talks about ugly livery and name of Vijay. The livery is roughly India’s tricolour…and Vijay is a nice name. Williams and McLaren are the more horrible ones to see and hear.