Force India F1 2010 Challenger VJMO3 Launched: The first Picture(updated)

Force India's VJMO3 livery has been revealed earlier than the official launch.The Silverstone-based squad decided to skip the Valencia test last week in order to have extra days of development before it kicks off its testing programme on Wednesday at Jerez.

Last week the team confirmed Paul di Resta as their Friday driver. The car will begin its first track test on Wednesday, at the second official F1 test of the year.

TEAM QUOTES

Force India owner Vijay Mallya is hoping for more podium finishes after the surprising 2009 season.He said after the launch that:

"Our goal is to continue on the same path of performance improvement that we had at the end of 2009,I don't think I am being over-proud when I say 2009 was an exceptional year for us. The bare statistics say it all: one podium, one pole position, one fastest lap, a further five top 10 starts and 13 points.We've learnt from our experiences and we've come out a better team: resilient, resourceful and now resurgent. I hope 2010 will see this great progress carrying forward.We've got one podium so far but I would hope that, this time next year, I'm talking about more points and more podiums. I'm confident we can get this, why not aim high?'

The team's design director Mark Smith said the new car is an evolution of the machine that enjoyed a strong second half of the season last year.

"The VJM03 is definitely an evolution of the VJM02 in terms of the design philosophies we have developed at Force India over the last year," Smith said. "We are very happy with the direction, therefore we have opted to evolve the car rather than significantly revise.

"Obviously one of the major aspects we have had to contend with are regulation changes which have had a considerable impact on some aspects of the design of the car. The removal of refuelling from races increases the amount of fuel needed to be stored in the cars - almost twice the amount we ran in 2009.

"There is a compromise now: either make the car much longer or wider, or, as we have done, a combination of both. This of course has influenced the mechanical design solutions and also the aerodynamics, specifically with respects to the diffuser and bodywork.

"Even with the ban of double diffusers for 2011, we recognise that we still have to push as much as we possibly can in this area in 2010 as we have targets to meet and the double diffuser is a key development aspect of the car."

Adrian Sutil,who scored 5 points last year, is confident of strong season and said:

"I hope we will have a good season and I am pretty confident we will, "We have had a good winter and a very good development programme so expectations are high.

"The car looks great, we did a positive step with the wind tunnel simulations but let's test and see where we are. I know we need to perform well and from my side I have tried to be perfectly prepared."

"2010 is a really important season and we are very optimistic about going well. When you start a season you always want it to be better than the previous one and I think this year it's important to be consistent from the first race.

"It's the first time we have been completely on schedule so I feel this will be the first season when I can show from the beginning to the end what is possible on the car and what I can do. I'd like to be in the midfield and be competitive from Bahrain."

FORCE INDIA VJMO3 PICTURES