At the beginning of December Force India announced plans to use Toyota’s wind tunnel facilities in Cologne, Germany.
They had opted to drop the use of their own wind tunnel in Brackley in favour of using the German facility which was built during Toyota’s time as a manufacturer in Formula One.
It is widely thought of as one of the best facilities of its kind in the World and has been previously been used by Toyota, Ferrari and Caterham.
‘The decision to use Toyota’s facility in Cologne is indicative of our ambitions to continue as a competitive force in Formula One,’ Force India team principal Vijay Mallya told formula1.com in December.
‘It’s one of the most significant decisions in our history and gives us access to what is regarded as one of the finest wind tunnels in the world’ he added.
It would now seem that Force India are so determined to get as much out of using the facility as possible that they will be skipping the opening test session in Jerez, Spain with their new car.
Instead Force India will run their old VJM07 at the opening four-day test of the winter between February 1-4, with the new VJM08 getting its debut in Barcelona over the second test between February 19-22.
?Looking at the schedule and where we were as a team and where we were going with the new wind tunnel, and looking at the gap between Jerez and Barcelona, we thought to ourselves ?actually, we could really do with that time in the new tunnel and the longer we can leave the launch of this car, the better for us and the more learning we?re going to do?. Force India’s technical director Andrew Green told Sky Sports.
?We?ve never really been a big fan of Jerez as a test track. It?s very unique ? the asphalt is very unique ? we don?t race there and Pirelli are bringing the tyre that we tested in Abu Dhabi. We?re happy to give it a miss, to be honest, and take the development time.?
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