Jan.23 (GMM) Force India insists the decision not to debut its 2015 car at the opening Jerez test was deliberate.
The Silverstone based team, having unveiled its new livery this week by using a show-car with a 2015-style nose, will instead run the 2014 car at Jerez before the VJM08 makes its bow in Barcelona later next month.
Force India’s decision has been linked with the switch from using its own wind tunnel in Brackley to the state-of-the-art Toyota facility in Cologne.
But there are rumours the 2015 car is simply delayed, as driver Nico Hulkenberg admits heading into Jerez with the old car is “not ideal” but also “not the end of the world”.
Team technical boss Andrew Green, however, told Britain’s Sky that the delayed debut is in fact a “conscious decision we took a couple of months ago”.
“We’ve never really been a big fan of Jerez as a test track,” he explained.
“We’re happy to give it a miss, to be honest, and take the development time.”