Technical insight – Force India’s Mark Smith on the VJM03

Force India’s design director Mark Smith discusses the team’s 2010 car, reflects on how this year’s rule changes have influenced the VJM03′s design, and contemplates the challenges ahead…

Q: Last winter Force India had to deal with a relatively late change of engine supplier and the switch to a McLaren gearbox. How much smoother have things been this time around?
Mark Smith: It’s been a lot smoother. From the very beginning we designed the VJM03 in full knowledge of the engine and gearbox that we would be using for 2010, which gave us a significant advantage by comparison with respect to the same point in design time for VJM02. Fundamentally,