Force India cars have evolved through the years since it was taken over by the Midland group from Eddie Jordan, who was the owner of the Jordan F1 team. The Jordan team owned by Eddie Jordan was named after him. Jordan F1 was active from 1991-2005 during which it was a Formula One Constructor. Eddie had to sell his team later in 2005 to a Russo-Canadian team called Midland Group which was renamed as Midland F1 racing in 2006 and raced their cars in Formula One.
Later the team exchanged hands again when Midland Group sold their Midland F1 racing team to Spyker cars for $106.6 million. Spyker cars renamed the team as Spyker MF1Team in 2006 September and went on again to change the name of the team as Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team. Etihad (Airways) and Aldar (Real Estate Developers) corporates were the main sponsors for the team, from the oil-rich Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
This is when the team scored its first championship point in the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix when the then driver Adrian Sutil finished 9th on the track, but was promoted to 8th place and into the points-scoring position when stewards ruled, post-race, that Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi had overtaken Sutil under a yellow flag on lap 55; Liuzzi was subsequently given a 25-second penalty that dropped his time below Sutil’s.
Spyker Cars announced in August 2007 that it would have to sell all or part of the team due to a potential split of the team from its parent company and that’s when Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur, Michiel Mol pitched in and became the new owners of the Spyker F1 team and the name henceforth was changed again to “Orange India”.
Orange India’s cars were named as VJM01 in 2008 and basically had a B-chassis of the 2007 Spyker Car. Vijay Mallya again officially renamed the company as “Force India” for the 2008 F1 season.
Even though Vijay Mallya put Mike Gascoyne, one of the best in the business to work on the car, it wasn’t enough as Sutil finished the season with most DNFs from all F1 drivers. The team than saw a radical change in terms of managerial and technicality in the early part of 2009 and switched power train suppliers, from Ferrari to McLaren for a new engine, gearbox, KERS unit and hydraulic system.
In the year 2009, a new car named VJM02 came into being which marks a complete change in design philosophy, not only due to the major F1 regulation changes. This car, in spite of its short development cycle, displayed several interesting bits during the first tests.
The sidepods were shaped as tightly as possible, while most other teams tried to make the surface as smooth as they could. The front of the car draws immediate attention because of its high nose, which infact is the highest of the 2009 field.
