Force India sees 2009 chassis delayed
Despite the newly announced deal with McLaren and Mercedes, the Silverstone based team is running at the Spanish venue this week with its customer Ferrari engines.
Barcelona, however, looks certain to be the last joint outing for Force India and Ferrari, and the small team does not intend to build an expensive 'interim' version of its 2008 car to accommodate the different installation of Mercedes' V8 power plant.
A team official told motorsport-total.com that because the Force India-McLaren deal was finalized only recently, designers are now hard at work on the 2009 configuration.
"We are building a completely new car around the (Mercedes) engine," the official said, predicting that it will probably not be ready to be tested until February.
11/17/08 It is going to be a difficult winter for the men in Silverstone working at Force India. The team will not be able to complete any days on track in December as the team's 2009 chassis won't be ready until the end of January or perhaps even February.
Force India is currently in Barcelona with the other F1 teams to complete a three-day test at the Spanish track. It will be the team's final test with the Ferrari engine and the last test for a while as a team spokesperson confirmed to GPUpdate.net. He said: "The McLaren deal is such a last minute deal that we have to build a completely new car around their engine and unfortunately we don't expect it to be finished any time soon. We'll probably be back on track in February."
The winter test sessions are going to be crucial for the upcoming season as there are a number of large changes in the Formula One regulations. Especially the aerodynamics of the cars will undergo major changes.