The news was revealed by the team’s leading driver Adrian Sutil, via an interview with Formula One’s official site. While most of the teams have talked a lot about their scheduled launch date, Force India has been one of the few outfits out of the rumor mill lately.
However, Sutil broke the silence on Friday, telling the F1 site that his team’s Mercedes-powered VJM3 will miss the opening test at Valencia. Although not issuing any launch dates yet, the German driver did mention that the new car will debut the week after the Ricardo Tormo action, meaning Force India are preparing an early February launch for their car.
“For sure the new rules are a big challenge for everybody, so to make a clear statement about how good we have been in interpreting those new regulations we will have to wait until the first test in Jerez, where I will drive the VJM3 for the first time,” said Sutil.
That means the two Force India drivers will have only 3 more opportunities to test their new car prior to the beginning of the season, at Jerez (two consecutive test meetings, starting February 10) and Barcelona (the final test of the winter). Another testing date might be obtained by the F1 teams prior to the Bahrain Grand Prix, at the Sakhir circuit. However, the FIA is yet to issue any information about such a potential test.
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