Force India to reveal its tenth F1 car today

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Force India will become the fourth different team to reveal its Formula One car for the 2017 F1 season today. The VJM10 is its tenth car since Force India arrived in F1 in 2008.

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Comment of the day

Fins find few fans
Nice to see I’m not the only person who doesn’t get all the complaints about ‘shark fins’:

At least they’re not the full-on billboards some of the World Endurance Championship cars have. Pretty sure I read somewhere that some teams could possible lose them/make them smaller after a few races if they aren’t seeing any sort of gain from them.

As for the ‘thumb nose’ I’d happily take those over the hideous platypus noses or the gentleman sausage noses.

I love the look of both the Sauber and the Renault… another step closer to the mental looking 2008 era which I loved aesthetically!

I like the way the teams seem to be going with the chunky/wide airboxes too!

Roll on tomorrow’s launch!
@Nemo87

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On this day in F1

Fernando Alonso was injured in a testing crash on this day two years ago which ruled him out of competing in the season-opening race for McLaren.

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Keith Collantine
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57 comments on “Force India to reveal its tenth F1 car today”

  1. I don’t understand why so much hate on those shark fins. I’ve always found them good looking and agressive on F1 cars. I remember the 2010 cars looking astonishing with these! I´m happy they’re back this year.

    1. It’s the opposite for me, l loved the low back of the early 80s cars like the Brabham, Ferrari etc

      1. Exactly because of the low back and lines. The 2017 cars I’ve seen (especially Sauber) are beautifully sculpted with many rounded lines and contours (jury is out on front wing).
        The big vertical plate just doesn’t fit IMO.

        I’l give you final final opinion next week from Barcelona.

    2. I love the shark fins as well. Especially on this years cars in combination with the lower rear wings. It gives the cars an aggressive look!

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      22nd February 2017, 10:24

      Everyone is talking about the shark-fins as though there was nothing there last year. I much prefer shark fins to the horrible straight line things we had last year.

      Ideally, there would be nothing sprouting out the top of the engine cover but the shark-fin is infinitely better than what they had last year.

  2. 1st ever comment of the day!
    Thanks @keithcollantine :)

    Hoping that Force India deliver another awesome looking car later on today.. will they go thumb, or keep the nostril nose!?

    1. Congratulations @nemo87 :-).

      As for the noses, I can’t believe how bad the “gentleman sausage” noses looked after seeing pictures of some of the 2014 cars again! Think I’d wiped the images from my memory, it’s amazing what you’ll tolerate when you’re forced to do so!

      I can’t understand why the couldn’t be written so that it was allowed to have a solution similar to Mercedes’ late 2014 season nose. That looked mean, far more refined, also being low enough to avoid the risk of t-boning accidents, high enough to avoid launching cars in the air in the event of a crash, and allowed enough air under it so that the driver didn’t suffer as many handling issues when following another car (just look at the number of times that Hamilton could chase down and pass Rosberg in the same equipment as an example). If following a car does prove to be harder under the new regs then, the nose solutions really should be high on the list for reassessment.

    2. The shark fin is rumoured to get bigger and more intricate.

  3. What time is the Force India launch

      1. ExcitedAbout17
        22nd February 2017, 9:13

        Before or after the extradition hearing?

  4. Just a question of personal taste I guess. I’m not a fan. I find you lose sight of the real flow of a car’s design.

    1. Duncan Snowden
      22nd February 2017, 1:31

      I agree, although I like the way Renault have made a feature of it in their livery. If you have to have one, you might as well try to make it look nice.

      But just imagine that car without it. The line of the airbox and engine cover is beautiful.

      1. It obviously is just personal taste. For me it seems to accentuate the contour of the air box/engine cover, I don’t lose the flow of the car’s design at all. And yeah the little yellow strip that the have does give the impression that they took it into consideration when designing the livery as you say Duncan.

        1. petebaldwin (@)
          22nd February 2017, 11:02

          @3dom – It’s because there was something else in place to hide the flow of the car last year – you can see the flow much more clearly with a black shark-fin as opposed to a straight line in the same colour as the rest of the car like we had last year.

    2. @maciek exactly, it will always be a question of personal taste. Yes there was quite a few people comment their dislike on the feature yesterday, but the general overall opinion, even from those commentators is that the cars look really good.

      But being a Formula 1 website, the COTD had to focus on a negative instead of a positive.

      There is no need to “get it” why people don’t like the shark fin, they just don’t, it is a really minor detail. Some people like the Fiat Multipla, should I argue with them, because I don’t “get it” why they like it?

      I’m personally not a fan, but I know as soon the cars hit the track I will forget about it, and the noses as well, because at the end of the day I just see these beast go round.

      Note: The multipla is just a comparison, I would much rather prefer to have a shark fin in a F1 car than seeing a multipla

  5. I don’t personally mind the shark fins, but they look weird being higher than the rear wing.

  6. How anyone can think something called a sharkfin isn’t super badass is beyond me

    1. that is true @mrboerns, “sharkfin” is quite the name.

      we have to be glad that whoever called it that was thinking about a marlin, otherwise we would have F1 cars with marlin fins

  7. The Renault looks very good.

    Shame there are so little sponsors! Apart from Castrol and BP, there is nothing. Infiniti is a Renault brand, so it technically doesnt count. Its sad state of affairs when even a major manufacturer cant attract sponsors.

    It would be interesting to see how many new sponsors, Castrol/BP aside will be in F1 this year.

    1. There is a sponsor; Carlos Ghosn’s ego, using shareholder revenues that would otherwise move Renault S.A. close to achieving an ROIC equal to its cost of capital.

      1. Impugning Carlos Ghosn? Really?

    2. There is a title sponsor @jaymenon10 you can tell by the design. It’s just that Bruce Wayne doesn’t advertise.

  8. Wow, Mallya must have upset some big boys in India for them to be considering the death penalty.
    India is known to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The government is as corrupt as can be, the population belive in the government as if they were some sort of God. However, as soon as you step on the wrong toe, things go from bad to worse very rapidly.

    From my studies, I can tell you that Mallya’s days are counted.

    1. I think they are not considering the death penalty. If India was doing so Britain would refuse extradition. And the Indian officials left with optimism about getting VJM back.

      1. extraditing Vijay mallya to India has still a long way to go, as only one has been extradited to india in the year 1992. so its not going to be easy. if mallya is extradited india will push for the others in its shopping list, who are currently residing in UK. UK wouldn’t want that, plus mallya would oppose his extradition to india.

    2. Perhaps you can include this in your “study” for making a better informed comment before branding one particular country in your “known” list of the most corrupt countries in the world. I am sure you will find your country in the link too.

    3. the population belive in the government as if they were some sort of God

      @brunes

      I love it when people who know little or nothing about India, can claim rubbish to be facts. Is there any other key insights on India that you would like to add?

      By the way they India has to give their stance on death penalty to the UK… that doesn’t mean Mallya is getting the death penalty. Best of luck with your studies

  9. I’m wondering what gains will be found by the other engine manufacturers at the start of the season. I would think that both Mercedes and Ferrari have changed the layout of their engine as well to suit the new chassis regulations better. It’s entirely possible that they have gained anywhere between 0.3 to 0.6s seconds as well.

    Right now, I don’t think any team is as nervous about declaring it’s engine expectations than Honda.

    1. Honda: “we are making progress” (without any mention of how much etc ) :-)

    2. What is this 0.3s nonsense? 0.3s around where? Monaco? SPA? there is quite a difference I think!

      1. Around Melbourne Park.. the 1st race of the season.

  10. I don’t quite get the hathred for the shark fin. I think the back half of the Renault is seriously good looking in side view, much better than last year.

  11. Personally I liked the shark fins with the older cars because the rear wing was higher (2010 cars). In combination the fin and the high rear wing worked great together. But on these new cars the low rear wing is kinda aesthetically mismatched with the huge shark fin. I don’t think it is a huge issue but regardless I made couple of edited screens so you can see the car with and without the fin from two perspectives. Link here:
    http://imgur.com/a/ASb0v

    1. @socksolid i was about to say, someone edit the images…

      Excellent work. This just says it all… Without fins cars are much better looking.

      1. Excellent work, thank you for taking the time to do this.
        The fins love or loathe must totally block the drivers vision of a third car say at the start of a race.

    2. thanks @socksolid nice work

    3. Michael Brown (@)
      22nd February 2017, 12:59

      What would you say about a shark fin that sloped down to meet the rear wing?

      1. I could live with that. The real function of the billboards, er… shark fins is for sponsorship. However, with so few sponsors in F1, it’s just more blank space stating how few sponsors are left in F1.

  12. @keithcollantine may I interest you in this? http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/349669/mercedes-releases-w08-teaser-photos/

    some Mercedes teaser photos
    *Spoiler Alert* – No thumb nose

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      22nd February 2017, 13:00

      Not surprising, since Mercedes never did the thumb nose.

  13. Good to hear Jack Aitken is going to ART for his sophomore GP3 campaign (for which he is undoubtedly title favourite – saying that Alex Lynn was my title favourite in GP2 last year, so ignore me) – there’s a kid that could put some pressure on Jolyon Palmer.

  14. Evil Homer (@)
    22nd February 2017, 9:26

    I don’t mid the shark fin at all but aesthetically I think it looked bad on the Sauber, it stood out from the car too much but on the Renault it looked pretty cool.

    What’s up next? Force India- everyday is like Christmas…………… but better :)

  15. Michael Brown (@)
    22nd February 2017, 12:58

    I hope Force India doesn’t go with the grey and black livery they’ve gone with for the past few years. Can we go back to the white, green and orange one, please?

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      22nd February 2017, 13:10

      I’ll echo that. They looked soooo much better when the livery was actually India themed.

      The latest offerings have been bland bland bland. Outblanded only by McLaren.

      Maybe both will get the paintbrush out and we can have no dark grey cars on the grid this year :)

      1. Don’t know why people are hating on Mclaren’s black livery. I actually thought it was great… and I think every grid needs one black car.

        I might be the only one when who misses the Ron Dennis colours of Mclaren.. especially when they’re replaced with some ridiculous (apparently historic) orange colour.

        1. Just like the commercials nowadays, you need one white one, one black one, a yellow one, and a couple of pink ones 😂

        2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          22nd February 2017, 14:11

          It wasn’t necessarily the black @todfod just the blandness of it. The whole thing was very Ron; clean shaven and corporate. No risk, lets not put off potential investors.

          I agree that the silver McLarens looked awesome, in particular during the West years, but this was in part to reflect the Mercedes power underneath, and was rendered moot when the actual silver arrows turned up on the grid.

          In my opinion McLaren should have been brave and rebranded their design at this stage, instead of slowly fading to black like they did.

          I agree that the orange historic colours are tenuous. Personally I’m hoping for an orange test livery and a full on Castrol livery for the season proper. I seriously doubt it will happen, but hey a fan can dream.

  16. Didn’t like the shark fins when they were seen in F1 the last time & don’t like them anymore now, I just find them to be really, really ugly.

    I did a quick photoshop of the Sauber to remove the sharkfin & think that it looks 1000x better:
    https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2701/32656235250_fd35d031d8_b.jpg

    1. the teams wont listen to you about the looks, they are their to build fast cars and not what some people like yourself perceive to be good looking.

    2. Sleek. Good work! Now…can you shorten it a bit and shed 100 kilos?

  17. From the shape underneath the covers in the video stream, it looks like we are going to have another shark fin…!

  18. Hulkenburg has more appetite to drive around in a midfield f1 car then to drive the le mans 24 hours. I guess he had it too easy first time around, given the fastest Porsche car and did not even have to be super fast, as his teammates were faster – so I guess it was no challenge for him.

  19. Wow, Stoff’s helmet looks pretty sweet! An actual recognisable one for a change rather than just a mess of colours.

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