India Force VJM04 is the first vehicle created by the team under its new coach by Andrew Green, who exactly 20 years ago was one of the men behind the original Jordan 191.
Silverstone equipment faces challenges created by the changes in the 2011 FIA technical regulations with load cut aerodynamics and the new mobile rear spoiler. Furthermore Pirelli has become the supplier of tires, and teams have agreed to allow the use of the KERS again. The result is a car, India Force VJM04 very different from its predecessor.
"Everything is different, but much of this visually is subtle," says Green, returned to hook the team in July 2010.
"The most obvious visual change is we have gone from a sheet to a conventional development." This gives us a small improvement compared to a more conventional style. The engine cover is different, in line with the deletion of the system through F. But there are many differences in external people will not necessarily be given account. ”
Ban double diffusers and other changes in the regulation have created a drastic reduction in burden aerodynamics in the rear of the car. Get this additional burden has been one of the major challenges of the winter.
"We have recovered much of the aerodynamic performance, we believe." We still have a little to get, but we are still in the process of realignment at the end of last season, because it takes much time to move this aerodynamic position to another. "The mobile wing is a completely new element, and we are going to be trying to exploit his performance to the maximum".
"We also busy trying to maximize the potential performance of the new Pirelli tyre compounds." So we hired a new tyres, Matsusaki, engineer who will guide us in the development process. The test was carried out recently in Valencia, was a good learning exercise".
Leakage management will also be a large area of development of this year. There will be an update for the first race, so there are some changes that will enter into force on the Bahrain test.
It is significant that the team has done much more than a simple interpretation of the new rules. It has also returned to basics, to a look closer to the basics of the package of the last year, and attempted to address the key areas of concern.
"Towards the end of last season there was a fall in our relative performance," says Green. "In theory, the performance of the car were adding but it was not translated into the track." We decided to have a very thorough discussion of what was going on in the car and what could be causing this. The conclusion is that we extracted not full blown diffuser, so during the winter we have had a reasonable opportunity to understand the philosophy in the aerodynamics of the car to try to avoid such a drop in performance which saw at the end of last year. ”
In addition, the team has focused on improving its performance in high load specifications aerodynamics.
"Looking back to cars of previous years, which always have struggled on the slopes of high load aerodynamics always have been 'slippery'." We have identified a problem and now we have to fix it, and that means that there are potentially other strategic aerodynamic changes added. “
Highlighting this new approach to the aerodynamic development team, there will be greater emphasis in collecting data on the Grands Prix Friday.
"We will use the real track car as a tool of aerodynamics, validation is something that we have not done before".
"We understand how important it is, and we are in the game now also." "On Friday will be to understand the behaviour of the car we have, as well as understanding of the runway at the time and the tyres being implemented".
Change requires more accurate sensors and different procedures for the collection of data, better analysis tools, and persons engaged solely in aerodynamic performance.
Force India already knows the KERS. The 2009 car was designed to use the system from Mercedes, but it was never run with him.
"Mercedes KERS system is very strong, and we are very happy with it." We have done a lot of testing on the Simulator, pilots are therefore well informed with how to use it. We are well developed with what we have to do for the collection and the implementation. It is smaller and lighter than in 2009. “
In short, Green said that the intention is to create a drive, a constant evolution in the aerodynamic work, something which expresses pays good dividends.
