The team beat Williams to fourth in the championship last season, but they are planning to improve further in the upcoming year.
“The passion to improve further is going to be pretty relevant in 2017,” said team principal Vijay Mallya. “If we did not dream big we would not have finished fourth in the world championship last year.
“We will always dream big. We have never had said, even in private, that we cannot break into the top three. That is going to be our objective. We’re going to give it our best shot.”
The VJM10 was unveiled today at Silverstone, a totally redesigned car to comply with the regulations new for the 2017 season.
The car has a steep drop from the bulkhead to the “2014” style nose and a LMP1 style sharkfin at the back of the car.
“The 2017 regulations have meant that everybody has to start with a clean slate,” Mallya said. “I know that we have to continue to develop this car right through the 2017 season. There’s no stopping, because we’re starting from scratch. All teams will probably be doing the same.”
Sergio Perez said the car looks physically demanding, and the wideness of the car could pose problems for street circuits such as Monaco and Baku.
Though there’s lots of talk about smaller teams struggling with the new regulations due to their lack of funds, but Force India don’t think that will be the case for them. The team is excited for the new season.
“I read in an article this morning that Cyril Abiteboul of Renault said poor teams such as Force India were going to suffer in this arms race,” said Mallya. “Good luck to him. He might have to eat his words. It’s not the amount of arms you have, it’s the quality of your weaponry.”
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