Force India reveal new livery for 2015 VJM08

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Force India has revealed the livery it will use for the 2015 F1 season.

The livery was displayed on a show car as the team’s new design will not appear until February. However the display car sported a nose design which was not seen on Force India’s 2014 car.

Technical director Andrew Green the change in regulations at the front of the car had “caused a loss in terms of downforce and we’ve been working to claw back all that performance”. The front of the car has been lowered compared to the 2014 design.

The team enjoys greater backing from Mexican companies in 2015 ahead of the return of Mexico’s round of the world championship in November. Alcohol brand Jose Cuervo has joined the team from Sauber alongside Claro and Telcel which are both part of the AMerica Movil telecommunications group.

Japanese information technology firm NEC is another acquisition from Sauber. The team also has new backing from lubricant company Quaker State.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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120 comments on “Force India reveal new livery for 2015 VJM08”

  1. Anybody else think “Marussia!” when Force India revealed their livery? But seriously, that car looks really nice. Very similar to the VJM01 in fact!

    1. I instantly thought their 2008 livery mixed with Spyker.

      1. @jarnooo That’s what the VJM01 is!

        1. VJM01 was Jordan right?

          1. former Jordan that is

          2. @abbinator Force India started in 2008 and the year before they were race leaders as…Spyker.

    2. Tiago Patrício
      21st January 2015, 16:38

      Yeah, I did, that Nose remembered me of Marussia last year’s car

      1. It does really look nice though the colour scheme, and a better nose job than Williams too. Hope this is their actual 2015 spec.

        1. The SAHARA font looks awful though

    3. I’m seeing Brawn. Smart but unexciting colours with a nice bright stipe going from nose to wing.

    4. I thought about several McLarens we saw win championships in the ’90s personally (just with orange instead of red stripe).

      On the one hand its a bit sad to lose a lot of colour – nog green, and far less orange – but overall it is a very striking livery and looks far less messy than it did in the last couple of years.

      1. Have to say I fully agree with that @bascb, almost as if you are my twin in a different country :)

        It also reminds me of some ofthe recent imagined new McLaren liveries. But with McL moving away from silver/chrome, I guess it was too good to let go! Hm, maybe that also harkens back to that original FI livery they didn’t race because it was too close to the McLaren one – some orange, some silver (/gold), and then the new white-> black?

        1. Yeah it does have a McLaren vibe about it. I liked last year’s livery a lot so a little upset to lose the colours, it might grow on me though.

    5. Whoever designed that livery, didn’t bother why there was green followed by orange in previous designs. That’s what make it look inspired by India flag.
      I wonder why didn’t Vijay Malya notice that!

      1. It’s alright, lacks colour if you ask me. Black and white is all im really seeing with a tint of orange. Bit dull, but does the job. Lets hope the car drives better than it looks.

  2. I think that I can get past the nose.

    1. The nose is ok closer to that of Redbull last year. This is more like it.

    2. By far, the sleekest looking nose I’ve seen in the last two years…at least to my eye. The paint job seems to really help make the lower “proboscis” seem much smaller and less offensive.

      1. really? bar far? I actually think the RBR 2014 nose is sleeker and more ascetic then this to be honest.

        1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          22nd January 2015, 10:24

          Agreed

      2. The front nose of the 2015 development model for Marussia looked nice, I was hoping we were going to see more like it.

        Link to image
        http://www.racecar-engineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/upmaru1.jpg

    3. Looks just a like vanity panel over most of the finger nose on the 2014 car.

  3. Prefer 2014’s livery to be honest

    1. Glad to know that I’m not the only one who thinks so. Can’t understand what’s so great about the 2015 livery. The decision to go with a predominantly black and silver is baffling me since I do not remember their cars or team outfits ever having contained any silver in it, and to make it worse, the livery is a mess with sponsors just plastered everywhere.
      This is my opinion, however, so if anyone is willing to share their thoughts, I’m open ;)

      1. I wouldn’t sniff at any team that manages to acquire sponsors. I want these teams to survive after the demise of the other 2. So even if they have to tattoo sponsor names on drivers’ faces I say bring it on!

      2. You will probably really like the Sauber if you don’t like to see sponsors names.

      3. I guess my criticism over sponsors has been interpreted in a way that I didn’t mean it. Sorry guys.
        I am not lashing over the fact that Force India has sponsors. I’m saying that I don’t like how the sponsors have been placed in the livery of the car. Many of them are almost the same in size to one another. Nothing stands out. It just looks like someone brought stickers and just pasted them in.

      4. @hyungwoo0312 I agree. It’s just a repeat of McLaren, Mercedes, and even Sauber’s livery, with a stripe that reminds me of the 2010 HRT. What they had last year was very unique and distinctive.

    2. I found 2013’s livery the high point.

      1. @matt90 I did prefer that to 2014

  4. http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/McLaren/mclaren_mp4-17_manu-02_06.jpg I’m not the only one who can see the similarity, right?

    1. @reiter Kinda reminds me more of this

    2. Um…yes. This looks a McLaren. It’s a good thing to look like, but it’s going to take some getting used to0. It will take David Hobbes the first 15 races to get it right on our [questionable] US coverage.

    3. YEah, I thought the same @reiter.

  5. This livery is excellent!!! (Also, this is what the Mclaren SHOULD have looked like last year)

  6. Suddenly I don’t care about the nose. Awesome stuff from Force India!

  7. So Force India, Mercedes, McLaren, Sauber and Lotus will probably change their liveries. Can’t wait for the launches now!

    1. @mashiat2 Not too sure about Mercedes and Sauber. Lotus I had heard may do, and McLaren are almost definitely (hopefully) going to.

      1. Mercedes are apparently going to opt for a chrome livery.

        1. @deej92 That’s very good, as long as McLaren are definitely going to change theirs.

  8. silver is a dominant colour in f1. if you ask me it’s a bit “mainstream”.
    only hope mclaren will have changed their livery now.

    1. It’s getting very unimaginitive

      1. well, not really unimaginitive. just a bit boring. but that’s probably just me. i drive a blue car, couldn’t imagine myself driving a silver (or even worse) black car because most cars have those colours. i like to be different, i guess.

        1. It’s not just you. I think that it is boring, purely because they are all becoming silver now!

    2. Maybe it’s related to the Mercedes? Silver Arrow?

    3. Silver/chrome/grey = YAWN. I just don’t get it. Why don’t F1 teams like bold, matte colours any more? There are some great eye catching livery collections in other racing series but sadly F1 seems to be coalescing on one look: silver and black, simple back to front strips, one potential corporate colour as a trim.

      Seriously this does nothing for me. I really hope Mclaren and/or Sauber change their colour significantly or we’ll have three very similar, very boring colour schemes.

      And really, this doesn’t say “India” to me. Should have gone down a predominantly orange/green route in my opinion.

      1. Could not agree more – where has all the color gone? Just about the most uninspired livery possible – zero brand identity….

        1. another reason i’ll miss caterham this year…

    4. I expect a Prost/Senna era white and red throwback (McLaren – Honda classic).

  9. It looks good but a bit McLaren-ish, the nose isn’t that bad, especially from side view. Hope it races well, so that Nico has a good season!

  10. Weird that we won’t see this car in action until Barcelona… Really pretty car though, I wish there was more orange, but it still looks great.

  11. As others have pointed out there’s big overtones of 1997-2005 era McLaren here. Not just in the choice and layout of colours and the stripe, but also in the treatment of the sponsor logos: none of them (as far as I can see) contain any of their colours, they’re all in white or black, makes it look very smart.

    Nice job Force India.

    1. Yeah when I first looked at this, I had to do a double take because for a second I thought I was looking at the 2005 McLaren livery. That is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but just a little…unoriginal

      1. I’ve always wondered why Mallya can’t add the light blue colour (India’s sporting colour) to the livery…it would have made it brighter, and after all, it’s Force INDIA. Though the revealed livery appears smart in a photoshoot, out there on the track it would begin to look drab. I hope McLaren comes up with a brighter colour scheme or we’d have to face of lot of literal grey areas in the 2015 grid including the Mercedes-Benz AMG team’s livery.

        1. We can expect Sauber to come up with another boring livery – it seems they have a rule that says their cars must look boring…

        2. @pt Light blue instead of the silver – that is something I think would look great!

          1. Absolutely…now this has become something similar to the earlier McLarens. It seems to me that whoever calls the shots in livery design has either purposely intended this or has no imagination…

  12. The Mercedes powered car now has Mercedes silver on it. Wonder if Lotus will do the same thing, looks good, better nose if that is the 2015 nose.

    1. But without a single Mercedes AMG Hybrid logo in it!

      1. I think all the cars should have the engine logo on the nose, but I guess they are paying customers to Mercedes so wont give up the advertising space for no money.

        1. @addimaf1 I agree, and I’m surprised there isn’t a rule about that to be honest.

  13. That livery is their best yet! Stunning piece of work

  14. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    21st January 2015, 15:48

    Wow! I thought last years livery was their best, but they’ve topped it again!

    That’s a handsome car right there.

  15. Nice. Not as Mexican as I was expecting – looks like the Roshfrans deal is no more.
    But it’ll be another year thinking it’s car number 18. Put some big numbers on it, and move the UB logo somewhere else!

  16. I hate to say this, but I don’t find this to be an attractive livery. I’m wondering why they chose to make the livery predominantly black and silver.
    I definitely prefer the 2014 looks with saffron coloured sidepod that the VJM07 had at launch upto Bahrain.

  17. That is a car done right. Stellar job by Force India.

  18. Way better than FW37, stunning livery and the nose also not that bad at all…

    1. @deongunner I assume it’s last year’s car (or an older one than that) with this year’s livery.

      1. The nose is probably 2015 spec though, even if the rest of the car is probably last years model @davidnotcoulthard.

  19. Only the livery?

    I can’t imagine how ugly the real nose will be.

    1. @davidnotcoulthard This is the 2015 nose.

      1. Tommy Scragend
        22nd January 2015, 9:20

        Is it though? Or is it the 2014 nose with a vanity panel over it?

        Look closely at the head on shot and it could be.

  20. Hakkinen McLaren with that orange strip…

  21. What a horribly dull livery, I’m sure it’ll suit the other gray and black cars perfectly.

    F1 should come with flasy colours. Bright yellow, orange or blue. Instead we get different shades of boring. At this rate I’ll be supporting Ferrari or Williams simply because they’ll be the only distiguishable cars from the bleek pavement blending monotony.

  22. Liam McShane (@)
    21st January 2015, 16:04

    Nice livery and more importantly nice looking car.

  23. Finally a designer has managed to hide the awkward nose tip with clever colouring! The livery itself is very nice, but has lost anything to do with India – I liked the livery introduced in 2009, though it wasn’t particularly inspiring, but having changed it so often I think they have yet to decide on a corporate identity to maintain in time. The nicest part is the rear, though there are perhaps too many sponsors – good for them! If Mercedes have had anything to do with the silver then certainly McLaren will drop it.

    1. @fixy You do realize, don’t you, that Red Bull, Force India, Marussia and Caterham all used coloring to hide the new noses?

      1. @mashiat2 Well I guess the lack of realisation shows just how good a job they did!

  24. I shall call it Sanyamobile..xD

  25. Where is the green colour of India’s flag, which was (I think) seen on every Force India livery?

  26. This may actually be my favourite livery from the last five, maybe even ten years, love it. And as a bonus, my favourite driver will be driving it as well! :)

  27. Ugly. Considering that we´re talking about an indian F1 team, this livery lacks a lot of imagination. It´s just a copycat from old McLarens liveries.

  28. Gotta say this looks really nice.

  29. Mclaren looks really good!
    what? that’s not a mclaren?

  30. Does anyone see a single Mercedes badge on that car? Seems strange.

    1. The Force India has never featured a Mercedes badge for some reason.

      In fact looking back, That team hasn’t had an engine badge on the car since Jordan was running Ford engines in 2004.

  31. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    21st January 2015, 16:57

    Wooow!!! looks like wr already have a livery winner!!! hard for all the other teams to come up with something bette than this. And how well they are hiding the nose job.

    1. I disagree, I like last years FI much better.

  32. Did they by any chance borrow the enginecover from Sauber? Seriously, does Sauber have any sponsors left?

    1. @mrboerns, Sauber has their drivers “sponsoring” them :P

    2. ColdFly F1 (@)
      21st January 2015, 20:44

      does Sauber have any sponsors left?

      exactly. I believe that even Certina is not confirmed for them.

      Maybe they can do with just Banco do Brasil (and Chelsea !?!).

  33. These nose designs seem perfect for driver to rear end another car and end up with a face full of gearbox. They worried me, Jules’s crash showed these cars have a tendency to scoop under things.

    1. Jules accident had nothing to do with the noses, The car woudl have gone under the tractor even with the really high noses we had in before.
      The thing that made Jules car go under the tractor was the fact he hit the sloped part at the back of the tractor-
      http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–O2l_m6BM–/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/desygf1imw5uj54yzvik.jpg

      i woudl also point out that the noses in f1 have been lower than this before & there were no safety issues. The noses in Indycar are lower as are the noses in renault world series & again there are no problems at all.

      I also personally think the lower noses look better anyway & I’d really like them to just ditch the raised noses altogether & go back to the low noses seen through the 80s/early 90s, looked far better than any of the raised noses.

  34. The best and worst thing of Force India was that you could pick it up from the field from any where,not anymore i guess, this looks like Mclaren B team, it looks nice but not the Force India we know. Looks better than Williams.

  35. It’s been a while since my first look at an F1 car has made my heart-rhythm change. It looks fantastic in the pictures I’ve seen. The black underneath the nose makes it look quite blade-like and aggressive, and the orange flash sets the whole car off. Distinctive. I like.

  36. Looks like Sauber have had all their sponsors nicked, oh dear.

    It does look like a McLaren, no doubt about it, seems to have taken a boat load of inspiration from the 05 car!

    Kept the number of colours down, very nice.

  37. Very nice. It reminds me a bit of the 2006 Spyker Midland paintjob: https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/spyker2006_2.jpg

  38. I hate to geek out when this is a more of a livery debut, but did anyone else notice how terribly wide the side pods are at their base? Compare that with the Williams which has a much more aggressive undercut and a smaller body “footprint” from an aero perspective at the base of the sidepods.

    It looks more like the blocky sidepods from Caterham early last year. Not a good sign when they should be tightening all that up and reducing the aero footprint. And the undercuts give better down force if you can pull them off.

    But all that aside, I love the look of the livery itself :)

    1. Apart from the nose, this is last years car.

  39. yet again, another failure by the FIA to write rules correctly. They said they would rewrite the rules to get rid of these unsightly 2014 noses. Well for me honestly, I’ve seen 2 cars now and both have protruding dildos. FIA needs an overhaul. SERIOUSLY!

  40. Having a Mercedes engine seems to be an advantage not only on track but even off track. Having a garanteed advantage over their rivals, sponsors are automatically drawn to the team it seems. Having had a good 2014 and a very decent driver line-up instead of Saubers pay-drivers must help too. Looking positive so far for Force-India.

    1. I think it has more to do with confirming a Mexican driver ahead of a season with the first Mexican GP in ages @me4me than with having a Mercedes engine.

  41. Where the green???

    1. Drivers shoes!

      1. and a stripe on their shoulders too!

  42. That’s absolutely gorgeous, there best livery yet by far. I’m on love with it, however fingers crossed no one else goes for silver and black otherwise it becomes too…

  43. I miss the garish rear wing endplates, but quite like the overall look.

  44. That Grey/White looks funky, will have to wait an see how it looks under real sunlight. I do miss the green, and I’m not a fan of the car being so black. I think they could have definitely gone with a better color combo instead of chasing after Merc & Maca.

  45. Bit McLaren, bit Sauber a lot Minardi!

  46. Wow! What a beaut. They’ve managed to make the nose look real nice, too.

    The irony now will be that McLaren will finally release a good livery that has a chance of looking similar to this one…

    1. Yes its a shame that mclaren and F.I will look similar, in design, not necessarily colors. Mclaren were first though, lol. Overall, the designs aren’t really clever this year. The cars look a lot better though and I think that makes up for it.

  47. Why so many large sponsor logos on the engine cover and yet they have the team name plastered across the full sidepod? Hurts my brain.

    1. @benh That’s most likely because Sahara is a company which 42.5% of the team, so they would most likely want to get as much advertisement for themselves in that.

      1. *which own 42.5% of the team

  48. Evil Homer (@)
    22nd January 2015, 13:07

    I think it looks great- A ‘Tough’ F1 car look for this season!
    Lets not judge the colours too much on each car as they get released, last I saw they give the same amount of points for that as pole on sat arvo! ……………………… but still pumped and looking forward to each car as we see them!! Bring on Melbourne!!!!

  49. Hmm, nice video. Me too, I think all the cars should have the engine logo on the nose

  50. On the one hand its a bit sad to lose a lot of colour – nog green, and far less orange

  51. How on earth do they manage to get so much sponsors!?

    Have you seen the naked Mclaren Honda? Why rather sponser a team who never won a single race than the one driven Prost and Senna in the past!?

    Its as if Sergio Perez carried all the popularity with him on his transfer to FI

    1. All teams have different circumstances surrounding their sponsorship. It’s doesn’t simply boil down to who is the sexier name or team. It has to appeal to both parties and right now Ron dennis and Co. haven’t find the right partners, thats all. Mclaren have probably had more than a few offers. They’re not struggling or less appealing compared to force india but what’s been offered to them, doesn’t work for them.

  52. I don’t see what the big deal of this livery is… It’s not very original and force india have had better schemes than this. The 2009 car was pretty nice and last years was the best yet. This looks like a rip off of the mclarens from early early 2000 years.

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