The Force India VJM02 was

Force India Force India Formula One Team Limited, commonly known as Force India and later Sahara Force India, was a Formula One racing team and constructor based in Silverstone, United Kingdom, with an Indian licence. The team was formed in October 200 ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

for the

2009 Formula One season The 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 63rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 60th Formula One World Championship which was contested over 17 events commencing with the on 29 March and ending with the inaugu ...

. It was revealed in a low-key press event, after the car's first test at the

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

, on February 28, 2009, before a public test at the

Circuito de Jerez Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto (formerly known as Circuito de Jerez and Circuito de Velocidad Jerez), is a racing circuit located close to the city of Jerez de la Frontera, south of Seville and deep within the sherry-producing region in the ...

in Spain the following day. The

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

-based team's car is decorated in the colours of the

Indian flag The national flag of India, colloquially called Tiraṅgā (the tricolour), is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag, the colours being of India saffron, white and India green; with the , a 24-spoke wheel, in navy blue at its centre. It wa ...

, and was driven by the same drivers as in 2008 –

Giancarlo Fisichella Giancarlo "Giano" Fisichella (; born 14 January 1973), also known as Fisico or Fisi, is an Italian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Fisichella won three Formula One Grands Prix across 14 seasons. Bo ...

and

Adrian Sutil Adrian Sutil (; born 11 January 1983) is a German racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Starnberg, Sutil started kart racing, karting aged 14 and moved into single seater racing in 2002 in the Formula Ford, Sw ...

. The VJM02 was the first British-based foreign F1 car to utilize

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

fuel and lubricants as Mobil brand, in which Esso and Exxon was used on

Red Bull RB13 The Red Bull RB13 is a Formula One racing car designed and constructed by Red Bull Racing to compete during the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. It made its competitive debut at ...

8 years later along with Mobil from 2017, as they are currently ExxonMobil brands from 1999. The VJM02 was also the first Mercedes-powered non-McLaren

Formula One car A Formula One car or F1 car is a single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel racing car, open-wheel formula racing car used to compete in Formula One racing events. It has substantial front and rear wings, large wheels, and a turbocharged engine mid ...

since the

Sauber C13 The Sauber C13 was a Formula One car designed by André de Cortanze and Leo Ress for use by the Sauber team in the 1994 Formula One World Championship. Overview Engine The car was powered by an Ilmor 3.5L V10 engine badged as a Mercedes-Benz. T ...

in the 1994 season.

Development

Two men instrumental in the early design of the VJM02, chief technical officer

Mike Gascoyne Michael Robert Gascoyne (born 2 April 1963) is a British Formula One designer and engineer. Gascoyne has worked for numerous Grand Prix teams including McLaren, Sauber, Tyrrell Racing, Tyrrell, Jordan Grand Prix, Jordan (later known as Midland ...

and team principal

Colin Kolles Colin Kolles (born Călin Colesnic; born 13 December 1967 in Timișoara) is a Romanian-German former team principal and managing director of the Hispania Racing F1 Team, previously holding a similar position at the team known under the names Jor ...

, were released from their contracts in late 2008, after a conflict with team owner

Vijay Mallya Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman and a former politician. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. His last ...

. The team decided late in development to change from a

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

to a Mercedes

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

, along with McLaren

gearboxes A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

and hydraulics. Adapting to these new components required a minor redesign of several parts of the car, including the suspension, side-pods and the rear aerodynamics. In making such a late switch, the team chose to forfeit testing time in favour of development time, but were confident that the change gave them a better car than would otherwise have been the case. At the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix, a revised floor and diffuser for the VJM02 were introduced, as well as an upgraded front wing and reprofiled sidepods. Driver Giancarlo Fisichella welcomed the upgrades, claiming the car's current lack of downforce will be addressed by the new modifications. The team brought further updates at the

2009 European Grand Prix The 2009 European Grand Prix (formally the 2009 Formula 1 Telefónica Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race held on 23 August 2009 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. It was the 11th race of the 2009 Formula One seaso ...

, which worked very well, giving the team their first podium finish at Spa, a day after Fisichella scored an unexpected pole position.

Technical specifications

New rules in place for the 2009 season require cars to have narrower and higher rear wings and wider and lower front wings, designed to reduce air disturbance to following cars and hence make overtaking easier.

Slick tyre A racing slick or slick tyre is a type of tyre that has a smooth tread used mostly in auto racing. The first production slick tyre was developed by M&H Tires in the early 1950s for use in drag racing. By eliminating any grooves cut into the tre ...

s will be re-introduced into Formula One, after being absent since

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. This will increase the VJM02's tyre grip by about 20%. The VJM02 had the option to feature a

Kinetic Energy Recovery System A kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) is an automotive system for recovering a moving vehicle's kinetic energy under braking. The recovered energy is stored in a reservoir (for example a flywheel or high voltage batteries) for later use under ...

(KERS), which allows energy which would otherwise be wasted while braking to be re-used in set amounts per lap, via a boost button on the driver's steering wheel. The energy is stored in either a battery or a flywheel. This is the result of new rules for the 2009 season. The VJM02 was supposed to use the same system from the

McLaren MP4-24 The McLaren MP4-24 is a Formula One racing car used by McLaren-Mercedes during the 2009 Formula One season. The chassis was designed by Paddy Lowe, Neil Oatley, Pat Fry, Andrew Bailey and Simon Lacey with Mario Illien designing the besp ...

, however Force India did not use it during the season.

Season summary

Overall, the VJM02’s performance was almost as poor as last season’s, only getting two points finishes, which ended up with them 9th on the constructors championship . Despite this, those two points finishes were remarkable: in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, Fisichella got a surprise first pole position for the team and eventually finished second behind

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One ...

, which eventually gave him a fill-in spot in

in place of the injured Felipe Massa (

Vitantonio Liuzzi Vitantonio "Tonio" Liuzzi (born 6 August 1980) is an Italian former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Bari, Liuzzi began competitive kart racing aged nine. After a successful karting career—culminating in ...

being his replacement), while Sutil managed a fourth place and a fastest lap in the next race, the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix () is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, motor racing Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been held since 1921 ...

Sponsorship and livery

The car had a new livery, a white base paint with green and orange, denoting to the Indian flag and the Hindi heritage. Both

Kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

and

Medion Medion AG is a German consumer electronics company and a subsidiary of Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo. The company operates in Europe, Turkey, Asia-Pacific, the United States and Australia. The company's main products are comp ...

were returned for the second year along with new sponsors; Royal Challenge,

Whyte & Mackay Whyte & Mackay Ltd is a company producing alcoholic beverages based in Glasgow, Scotland. The company is a subsidiary of Alliance Global, Alliance Global Group, one of the largest alcoholic-beverage companies in Southeast Asia. History Charle ...

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

and

Reebok Reebok International Limited ( ) is an American footwear and clothing brand that is a part of Authentic Brands Group. It was established in England in 1958 as a companion company to J.W. Foster and Sons, a sporting goods company which had bee ...

Complete Formula One results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) Driver failed to finish, but was classified as they had completed >90% of the race distance.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Force India Vjm02 Force India Formula One cars 2009 Formula One season cars