Force India is on target to give its B-spec car a shakedown at the in-season test following the Austrian Grand Prix.
Having run with an underdeveloped car for the 2015 season so far, Force India will introduce a B-spec in time for the British Grand Prix. While the new car’s race debut is likely to come at Silverstone, deputy team principal Bob Fernley told F1i Force India should be able to give it it two days of testing in Austria after it passed its crash tests.
“We’re still trying to get it [to Austria] for the test, we’re still trying to make sure we’re doing the shakedown there,” Fernley said.
“I’m hoping it puts us back in to the mix. That’s the first phase of it. What I think people have underestimated is how big of a reshuffle we have done from our aero department. We’ve completely changed our aero philosophy, the way we’re working, our correlation programs. Really since Russia last year effectively we’ve been getting all this in place. Then we’ve moved wind tunnels, reorganised several people and it’s not a five minute job.”
And Fernley says there are exciting developments for the car waiting to be implemented if the B-spec car performs as expected.
“The first test of [the restructuring] is Silverstone. Hopefully that will deliver us in to the pack, but assuming it gives us the performance edge we’re looking for, there’s already stuff in the pipeline coming through that makes it even more exciting. We’ve just got to correlate it now when we get to Silverstone.”
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