Pictures: Force India reveal their 2017 car at Silverstone

2017 F1 cars

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The first pictures of the new Force India VJM10 for 2017 have been revealed.

The team revealed their latest racer at Silverstone.

Force India heads into the 2017 season following their most successful campaign to date last season when they finished fourth overall.

Team co-owner Vijay Mallya would not be drawn on whether they will increase their tally of two podiums from last year. But he was quick to refute Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul’s claim that non-manufacturer teams could find themselves out-gunned under F1’s new regulations.

“I read an article this morning that Cyril Abiteboul of Renault said that poor teams such as Force India were going to suffer in this arms race,” he said.

“Well, good luck to him. He might have to eat his words. It’s not the amount of arms you have, it’s the quality of your weaponry.”

Technical director Andrew Green said the wholesale changes in Formula One’s regulations for 2017 “require a change in mentality.”

“It took a bit of time to adjust at first, but we are there now and I am confident we know where to look and where the performance is coming from with this car.”

Green predicted a rapid rate in development under the new rules:

“The development slope is incredibly steep and we are going to see significant updates to the cars at regular intervals, right from the start. It’s going to be big updates and I don’t think development will start to taper off any time soon.”

The VJM10 has several striking differences between it and the cars launched so far. The tip of the nose is split and there is a discernible step where it meets the chassis.

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    Keith Collantine
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    207 comments on “Pictures: Force India reveal their 2017 car at Silverstone”

    1. Ugliest car so far.

      1. ooooogly! That step nose is terrible. I still wish them the best. I like this underdog team.

        1. Agreed. Would love to see some of the underdogs deliver this year.

          1. How difficult is it for them to write regs for the front nose section that forces it to be at least twice as wide? They changed so many things on the car, yet they couldn’t fix the ugliest part? I mean come on!

      2. Worst comedy nose yet. Can we please, *please* ban these idiotic things already, and go back to cars that don’t look like they’ve been on the losing end of a boxing match? And while we’re at it, get rid of the shark fins too.

    2. The front wing looks a bit odd, but overall I like the fact that they have increased the amount of silver on the car.

      1. Too much silver tbh. And why is the fin absolutely blank? That looks weird.
        Stepped nose is .. uhmm, interesting.
        Innovative as always with the nose.

        Overall I am a bit disappointed as the other cars revealed till now have looked great.

        1. I’m hoping the driver number is going on the fin, and that is why it is blank like the number space on the nose. Still will be ugly though.

          1. Oh God can we all just move away from the colours all the time and look and compare the technical achievements of each team?
            This is the fourth car now where 90% of the comments are of how much they like or dislike the level of black or silver or gold or whatever.
            Obviously they aren’t Melbourne designs but there are some features worth discussing.
            Valid point or shall I get my coat?

            1. +1 Thank you

            2. Hmmm….what colour is your coat?

    3. Hmmm.. nah! Prefer last years car :)

    4. Disappointing

    5. I love how creative their front-end designs have been since the introduction of the nostrils. That’s really clever and out of the box.

      1. I really wish they hadn’t painted the recessed bottom plane of the nostrils in black though. Makes the nose look like a fat middle pronged trident.

      2. Coudn’t agree more. I understand the comments saying it’s an ugly car, but I don’t want to see a spec series and this car is definitey very original. I really hope their unconventional design turns out to be good.

    6. Look at that, a stepped nose. Or something that looks a lot like it.

      1. It is a stepped nose and looks like a piece of the jigsaw is missing from the front end….

        1. I’m guessing/hoping that this is where an S duct outlet will be in Barcelona.

      2. A 2012 stepped nose, a 2014 fallus-nosetip, a rediculous looking 2010 garden fence a.k.a. sharkvin, and the new for 2017 longer-but-not-really-wider look…

        1. @jeffreyj don’t be harsh on them, they only forgot to grind the hump out of it

          and I’m sure they are expecting that the nosetip will grow on us (too much?)

          1. I saw a video analysis on youtube where the guy says he heard or read that that ‘hump’ is in place in anticipation of the active suspension rule changes. It’s the housing for their version I guess.

            Also, talking of that phallic tip and ‘growing’ in the same sentence should be X-rated @johnmilk! ;-)

            1. @jeffreyj I tought that was just a rumour, and surely if it materialises it will be for the 2018 season.

              I failed to contain that pun…

    7. Yikes! Hope I’m wrong, but that Mercedes teaser image of the nose makes a lot more sense now; return of the ant-eater noses?

      1. Looks like it… In this case Anteater nose and Vampire fangs…

    8. Horrible the worst compare the other 3 cars presented in the previous days

    9. My God it is ugly, they have the largest phallus so far at least, the step down to the nose is as bad as some from a few years ago, the shark fin looks like a sheet of aluminium bolted on the back, and there is far far far too much silver.

      1. Agreed, this is a huge disappointment. Hopefully their performance is as competitive as last year, but this design looks very rudimentary compared to the other cars that have been revealed.

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        22nd February 2017, 15:26

        Sadly, I agree. That’s a horrendous looking car. It doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t be quick but it certainly won’t look good doing so!

        1. Yeah have to agree that it’s the worst looking car so far. Missing their vibrant colourful liveries of previous years. Silver, orange and black are just not a good combination at all.

          The stepped nose isn’t as bad as in 2012 due to the fact that the nose slopes down but it’s still not great, hopefully it’s there because there’s a loophole in the regs and they’re going to introduce some innovative vent of some sort.

          I don’t mind shark fins in general but at least the others are sculpted and look like they’ll be of aerodynamic benefit, this one just looks like someone slapped so cardboard on the back of the engine cover and covered it in the same uninspiring silver paint. I’m sure that must be the most functional shape for their car but it just doesn’t look like it is. Disappointed, fingers crossed it’s just a testing livery

      3. First time I’ve heard of a large phallus being a bad thing

      4. @sam3110 regarding that shark fin, If I’m honest, when Trump said he would build a wall and make Mexicans pay for it, this wasn’t what I had envisioned.

    10. Thought we’d be getting rid of the ugly noses but no we get a hybrid of 2012 and 2014. Other than that nice livery and overall nice car.. I think

    11. They managed to combine the stepped noses from 2012 with the donger-noses of 2014. Well done.

      Fin looks horrible, put something on there ffs.

      Livery is a step back from last year.

      Biggest disappointment so far.

        1. + 2. Looked classy last year which can’t be said for this one! The livery looks like a rush job.

    12. Following my comments yesterday..

      They went full billboard.

      Other than that.. interesting nose. Not sure what I think about it yet.
      Also a lot of teams seem to have adapted Mercedes airbox inlet from last year!

      1. Thinking about it, I don’t think that’s the final engine cover otherwise they surely would have put a sponsor on their.. right?

        We all know VJ is a ‘sneaky’ bloke.. ;) they must be hiding something before testing haha

        1. My thoughts exactly. They probably have something clever that they don’t want people to see yet. Same with the step where the now-ubiquitous S-duct outlet usually is.

        2. First thing I thought. That fin is sure to change before the first race. Maybe they have something up their sleeve there…

          1. Maybe there’s like a massive super-dooper turbo on the other side and it’s just hiding it hahaha!

            As for the bump unfortunately I think that’s there to stay the slope on the nose would have to be quite a bit steeper to smooth that out!

    13. Not too bad, interesting nosecone solution, not too keen on the billboard hanging off the engine cover!

    14. Im not passing any judgement but it seems to have several historically unpopular features:
      -The billboard fin
      -the stepped nose
      -the NSFW nose

    15. Just when we were getting rid of all the silver cars on the grid…sigh.

      On the plus side, the car itself looks great. The rear looks really neatly packaged.

      1. @geemac if mclaren go orange I will mix them in the first couple of races

      2. @geemac I have just re-read an article by the photographer Darren Heath who summed it up nicely a few years ago when he lamented the number of black, grey and silver cars on the grid:
        “There’s a clue in the name… Force INDIA. Can you think of a country that has a greater reputation for use of vibrant, life-enhancing and mood-stimulating colour? I can’t.
        So why the hell is the team that should soar way above all others in their use of eye-popping hues painting their F1 car almost entirely black? (for 2017 read silver) What a wasted opportunity.”

        1. Agreed @unicron2002. For me, they peaked back when they were running the colours of the Indian flag (white, orange and green). It was a simple, clean, clear, bright statement about what the team was all about.

          The 2017 car is a bit of a mess. It’s like a ForceEscuderia TelmexIndia.

          1. Same here, the 2014 car was a lovely livery – much better than the predominately white design that came before, and obviously much better than the uninspiring silver&black ones that have followed. This year look like it was designed on MS Paint in Windows 95.

      3. @geemac – I genuinely don’t get the colour phobia this sport has. Ever since 2013 Force India have been incrementally scaling back on the orange and green than made them unique and noteworthy. Renault came over bashful after producing a bold yellow livery last year, and now has smothered the car in black. McLaren replaced their iconic chrome/rocket red livery with all-over grey. Ferrari, who produced a gorgeous retro livery last year are reportedly about to replace that with a red/black design.

        It’s maddening. And you know it’s just because sponsors think their stickers stand out better on black/white.

        1. It’s maddening. And you know it’s just because sponsors think their stickers stand out better on black/white.

          Money talks sadly…

          1. It’s maddening. And you know it’s just because sponsors think their stickers stand out better on black/white.

            @geemac @william-brierty I think the sponsors need need to rethink their approach to marketing, I don’t notice sponsors on cars and overalls that look boring, it makes me look the other way

            1. @3dom – But when has common sense had anything to do with marketing? Codemasters have not been allowed to improve the damage model in F1 games because sponsors don’t want their brands associated with a virtual car crash – despite the fact that their stickers remain very much visible when the real cars crash. Such blinkered thinking actively alienates people, as does a grid of racing cars that look like corporate billboards, but this is lost on the world of marketing.

      4. Absolutely loving the work around the bargeboards and the front wing.

    16. That is a lovely looking car! Force India have gone very aggressive and that new nose isn’t just spectacular!

    17. I know that people have often complained about silver and black liveries, but this year I believe that there will be more blue ones than black or silver.

      1. Good. Tbf there’s an opportunity for the grid to be very diverse, that would be ideal

    18. Stepped nose, and in my opinion one of the worst liveries in recent years. And that’s not even a shark fin…

      Beyond that, looks quite cool. It’s still got nostrils, which I was a big fan of.

    19. The design of the nose and bump in the suspension cover make me think that the design was rushed or is incomplete (less likely due to the timelines on crash tests.)

      1. My first conclusion would be that they don’t want to show anything interesting, rather than a “rushed or incomplete design”.

    20. Unsure.

      The front wing and nose looks great, as does the rear wing. But the livery looks a bit half-finished really – the enormous sea of white at the back just looks like they forgot to colour in that part. Also that ain’t a shark fin – it’s a sail.

    21. Thats pretty striking. Big step down on the nose section. Shark fin is massive. Looks like a sportscar. Prefer the Renault but we’ll see which is quicker

    22. Hmm.. All I can think is that shark fin looks like VJs mullet.

    23. That nose looks like the 2014 McLaren one. Kinda like an evolution to the nostrils, but the nostrils of lat year looked miles better. And that bump between the suspension arms is probably going to transform into an S duct, surely.

      The livery itself is odd. I prefer last year’s, it was more balanced with the silver and black, plus that shark fin is absolutely empty giving it a very weird look overall.

      1. @fer-no65 Happily the fact that the shark-fins have not had sponsor space allocated on it on either the Sauber or the Force India probably means the teams are taking a suck-it-and-see approach – so they may yet be off the cars some Melbourne.

    24. It’s… it’s not very pretty. The Sauber and Renaults were stunning, but this…isn’t. That frong wing has a stepped (sort of) nose. The shark fin looks more like sheet metal.

    25. I was really hoping we’d get more green and orange, and the Renault was going to be more yellow like last season, and obviously the McLaren orange, and we’d have a nice, colourful grid

      They’ll be sold and the name changed by next season anyway

    26. Another interesting interpretation of the nose rules by Force India. But it seems like they’ve taken every hated design feature we’ve complained about (phallic noses, stepped nose, grey livery) and tried to squeeze them all in. Why couldn’t they just stick with their 2014 livery? They needed less grey, not more.

    27. The front of the car is mostly an iteration of last year’s, it is not the most beautiful of things but at least is different, and different interpretation of the rules are always nice to see

      The general shape of the car is amazing, even though they forgot to grind the bump out off it in the front. Sidepods and engine cover are particularly very gorgeous in my opinion. But is is the first one that doesn’t look fast, which is a worthless opinion, but still.

      They basically have the same sponsors as last year, so the livery is something that I was already expecting, not great, but not disappointing either, it is what it is

      1. no cut on the shark fin as well

        1. I’m kind of hoping that this isn’t the engine cover we’ll see in Barcelona or Australia and that there’s an S duct coming where the bump is now.

        2. @repete86 don’t know, where that air intake for the S duct be? The nostril cut direction don’t look like they feed air to that part of the car. I think the bum is there to accomodate the suspension, and then they had to go on that direction due to the rules regarding the front of the car

          You may be right on the engine cover, not cut in the shark fin looks odd

          1. It’s not far from where FI usually put the outlet and I’m not seeing one on this car at all. Here’s where it’s been in the last two years for reference.

          2. @repete86 this car as quite an odd angle compared to last year’s, if they implement it, it has to be practically a new nose compared to the presentation car.

            From the cars that we have seen so far, only the williams appear to have a s-duct, maybe the teams are not considering it to be worth it

            They could at least paint the base of the nostrils in silver, it would make it look so much better

            1. yes it does @pyon, my mistake

              Half of my previous comment should be ignored

            2. The reveal nose doesn’t have to pass any crash tests. It can be a mock-up for all we know. …or you could be right and the teams are abandoning the concept, though I wouldn’t put too much stock in what Sauber have done considering their financial situation and the fact that they weren’t running one last year. Like previously mentioned, the Williams and Renault still have it, so I don’t think it’s been abandoned as a concept.

      2. @johnmilk would you mind rephrasing the “it is what it is” part to “..but its the same for everybody, sooo…” in honour of your avatar?
        the whole car looks kinda …crude if you ask me.

        1. @mrboerns Yeah, it’s alright

    28. Oh dear… I’d reluctantly accepted that we’d be seeing a lot of ‘thumb’ noses this year, but boy that thing is ugly.

      Combined with the hump on the nose and the shark fin that looks like a bit of plastic they forgot to cut off the mold, the VJM10 is far from pretty.

      I know beauty is subjective, but Formula 1 has got to do something about the nose rules to help the teams achieve decent performance without an ugly nose.

      1. My sentiments exactly.
        Regulations should extend to protecting and improving the “image of F1“, not just defining performance parameters.

    29. I think this is an absolute disaster from a looking point of view: the livery is dreadful, the design is awful. All the previous 3 looks much (much!) better from what I have seen so far.

      1. And VJ who says he’d rather under-commit and then deliver, just to say 3 min later that there are no reasons not be 3 next year…. I mean come on, dreaming big is great but saying it is another story. Sounded like a guy completely off reality.

    30. That’s a car only the designer could love. Jeez it’s one ugly bugger

    31. Dullest colours so far from the 4 teams, it would look better with more green and orange, it doesn’t shine….pretty bland.

    32. Don’t like that novlse from the front view…I will be cowering away from it every time I see it from the front….But from the side it looks a lot better.

      Colour wise…I’m a happy man…Little less black…But I don’t think I anticipated that much silver …. Especially with a fin that big and knarly…But otherwise I think it looks good and hope they still preform well

      1. like yesterday – having second thoughts after a closer look. :)
        ok i don’t like the ant eater nose but i don’t mind that they have tried to cover it up by having the side ‘wings’ follow it. one thing we can say is at least its not reciprocal of the ugliest car ever – the ant eater nosed Caterham

    33. Not a fan.

    34. A little disappointing. Livery is a step down from 2016 and certainly 2015. Don’t like the nose. Fin look weirds without graphics, though of course it is shark coloured.

    35. Not a fan, I don’t like the stepped nose, Renaults looks amazing, so smooth and fluent. I know Maclaren also run a stepped nose but I am hoping they wont have that on their car this year.

      hope its fast though

    36. Oh great, another silver car. Following on from the predominately black Renault yesterday, the inevitably silver Mercedes tomorrow, and the white Williams (admittedly, the lesser of the greyscale evils). Can the FIA force through a regulation that mandates each team must nominate at least one primary/secondary/tertiary colour to cover at least 80% of their cars’ bodywork or something? Sponsor mandated or not, it beggars belief how designers haven’t realised that attractive paintwork draws the eye to a car, and, in all likelihood, improves visibility of sponsorship. Black and grey don’t look chic or sexy–it just looks dull and boring, and has been done to death.

    37. Lewisham Milton
      22nd February 2017, 14:18

      They’ve gone to town with the straight edges, it must be right up at the maximum height all the way along.
      Not pretty but I bet it’s effective. Lots of sculpted and twiddly bits painted black lower down.

    38. It’s horrifing.
      But at least, very different from what we’ve seen so far, the front section is pretty interesting.

    39. Sidepods look really underdeveloped in this launch spec. Work in progress…

    40. Ugliest yet, by far!

      The phallic noses return… Looks kind of ok side on, borderline ‘interesting’, but head-on… yucko!

    41. Wow, Ugliest so far by far!!! That ‘shark fin’ needs some rigging and paint.

    42. What the _ is that? Awful… Glad Hulkenberg’s gonna be in the Renault instead of that monstrosity

      1. At least now if the McLaren’s orange, it’ll be the only orange car. Was worried the Force India would have more orange on and steal McLaren’s colour.

        1. HAHA….knowing McLaren the FI will still have the most orange on it on the grid. At most they are just going to change the Red stripe to orange no?

    43. Thanks, but no thanks.

    44. You cannot call THAT a sharkfin. If you are going to have what looks like an advertising board on the back of the car, you might as well use it as such and have something on there. Being completely blank and the same colour as the rest of the car, it just looks awful.

      Very lazy livery. Only the nose design is interesting.

      1. lol cannot agree more with the advertising board. Clearly feel the same way, kind of like a guy ducked taped that in before the launch because it was present on the Sauber & Renault.

      2. It looks like a very heavy sailboat painted in an unimaginative silver-grey tint.

    45. That is a very sad paintjob.

      1. looks like a poor man’s mercedes, which isn’t far from the truth. I wonder if they’re legally coerced to keep X% of silver on the livery.

    46. It’s strange that S-duck had gone. Clearly step back from the last year’s car.

      1. It’s still there just a bit lower there is a picture showing ducts coming from the opening of the nose to the part benneth the suspension. And the bump hides active suspension?

    47. Stepped and finger nose, i’ve just vommed a little

    48. I really like the other ones so far.
      This not so much.
      Livery is awful.

    49. Where are the lines and cleats for furling and unfurling that mainsail on the back? Are Perez and Ocon going to have to port tack and starboard tack on the long straights?

    50. Apologies for the double post, but boy, I don’t think these cars are attractive at all (I wasn’t particularly dismissive of the last set of regulations bar the occasionally hideous noses, which FI have retained here). The rear wing looks out of proportion and pointlessly slanted for ‘aggressive’ effect, the added overall length is cumbersome, the godawful sails/shark fins have returned, the cars aren’t really wider–we just have more floor–and on the whole, they mostly look like compromised messes of design. Even the wider tyres don’t look right, bloated as they are. It seems like I’m in the minority, but I’m really turned off by the 2017 cars so far.

      1. Agree, although I’ve been turned off by F1 design since 2009

      2. +100 kilos!

    51. Wow, compared to the Renault, this looks like it’s from another championship. Absolutely horrendous all around, as if all of the design team stood in from of the board and thought “hm, how can we make this any uglier?!?”.

    52. Ugliest car yet, they couldn’t find a better livery? Should have used more orange and green. They have used a uglier version of the nostrils. The shark fin is horrendous. I have liked the shark fins so far in 2017 cars but this makes me puke.

    53. Looks like a classic backmarker livery, in fact a bit of like the 1998 Minardi. Lots of silver and the Sponsors are too small and/or aren’t balanced very well.

      http://img05.deviantart.net/3fdb/i/2013/176/0/d/minardi_m198_launch__1998__by_f1_history-d6an5rn.jpg

      1. Racecar is racecar backwards
        22nd February 2017, 14:43

        Wow look how small the cars were then

    54. It’s like someone got last years car, repainted it in this years livery, then got the existing small engine cover fin and pulled back really hard. Then they grabbed the nose and pulled forward really hard until the front of the nostrils broke, then someone sat on the rear wing and voila! We have the 2017 car…

    55. PUAJJ!! is awful

    56. A blank canvas for a livery, and that was the absolute best they could come up with?

    57. People have to remember that this is a launch. There is so much development to go into these cars that they may even look somewhat different going to Melbourne compared to now. This is by no means the end result.

      1. VJ said (before the launch) that the car is almost complete and the vast majority of it will make it to Barcelona (95%). I hope between now and Melbourne they get some design inspiration because this is the worst looking F1 car I have see those last 20 years.

        1. Nah, that title still belongs to the 2014 Caterham imho

    58. Is it just me or does the picture quality look like they were take with a 10 year old flip phone?? The nose tip is ok,(unique) but the step is awful looking. I too am no fan of the shark fins. I know they help aero, but the side view of the cars would be way better(read more agressive) with out the billboards IMO. :)

    59. Shark F1

      1. Sheet Metal F1

    60. Well I hope it’s quick, because it needs something to redeem it. It’s as ugly as sin.

    61. Racecar is racecar backwards
      22nd February 2017, 14:41

      The sidepods look a lot “fatter” than the Sauber or Renault

    62. another car with an awful sharkfin :(

    63. Time for the Photoshop experts to show the team what their car could look like in a properly designed livery.

    64. Tim-Oliver Weiß
      22nd February 2017, 14:45

      The ugliest car with the poorest paint job so far!

    65. this car reunites the worst desings of 2012 and 2014 all in one package

    66. If it looks right it will fly right and this doesn’t look right from any angle. Bet Williams are holding a party right now.

      1. In hindsight that Williams car is the best looking car so far yet!

    67. Shark fin needs to be edged in black with a fade would help the look a lot. The nose needs to see a plastic surgeon unfortunately.

    68. All that stolen money VJ took at work wonder how many races he dares go to this year

      1. I think he can only go to 1 race: Silverstone. As soon as he sets foot outside of the UK he’ll get arrested and transported to India

    69. I don’t normally have a problem with the thumb noses. Not every team has them, so clearly the rules aren’t the issue. I also really liked what Force India did with the louvres on the front in recent seasons.

      This though is an abomination. Desperately horrible.

    70. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      22nd February 2017, 15:03

      Aesthetically this is rather unpleasant all round.

    71. The trailing edge of the driver’s side head padding falls away so very abruptly. Surely this not only look ugly but will stall the airflow for no good reason. Not as much of a waste as the 96 Ferrari’s padding, but still strange to see.

    72. doesn’t excite me, but not the worst design either.

      But that hideous shark fin just sticks out like a sore thumb!
      It reminds me of the model airplanes I used to bit. Some pieces still had the off bid of plastic attached to it from the moulding process.
      At least I took the effort to carefully remove it when putting the plane together!

      1. *build *odd

      2. Haha yes, a good analogy.

    73. I’d wish this were a beauty competition which it is not! So rather than worrying about the shape of the nose or the step or the shark fin..it’s the performance of the car that will matter at the end and as long as FI can keep their competitive edge over other teams like they have done over the years..I love every bit of this engineering wonder!

      1. You cannot on hand claim everywhere F1 is all about marketing and brand presentation, and in other hand design something that can only make to the horror museum.

        1. Brand presentation equals the car performance if I am not wrong! And even if the most hideous looking ca can be on the pole every race..I am pretty sure the marketing team will have a gala team securing new sponsors! Correct me if I am wrong! Thanks!

          1. If that is a championship winning car I would be tempted to agree with you (to some extend, coz a lot of the marketing is also done off race). However we are talking about FI there, if they finish 4th and get a few podium again this season that will be tremendous result for them in my opinion.

    74. I am happy, F1 CARS ARE BACK closer to what they should look like,
      yes the cars are too long and the fishgills frontwing should have been a smaller twoplane wing
      but again it`s a MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT on last year`s ugly car. and all recent F1 cars for that matter.
      F1 cars haven`t looked good sice the early 90`s.
      just the the wide slicks (not grooved) and the LOW wide rear wing alone makes an massive differace
      how anyone can like the UGLY “f3 like” cars of recent years better is unbeliveable.
      now i am looking forward to New lap records and seeing some very tired drivers after races.

      1. Except they aren’t. These cars so far are no way near the same ball park as any car pre-2009

    75. Egads… I have to say that unfortunately that is one of the uglier cars since the duck bills… hope it’s fast.

      1. indeed it is, yeah @maciek

    76. All right, that’s it: Formula One has jumped the shark.

      1. Thats pretty funny :)

    77. Lots of negative reaction to the car, some of it I can certainly understand however this is a very basic and most likely unfinished launch car.

      FI usually run S Duct’s around the area of the step is in the nose and I am betting it will appear before the tests with maybe a different panel leading to the nose.
      Similarly I think the engine cover slab is a mock up, i’m betting come Barca test 1 or 2 they will have a far more sculpted Fin.

      Didn’t like the livery at first but from directly in front or from the rear views it doesn’t look bad imo.

    78. Chassis to the nose blend looks strange and ugly,

      I hope there’s a good reason for that shape.

      Though I like how they added more silver, overall the livery looks chaotic.

    79. The last photo needs a caption.

      1. “Vijay, you can come out of there now. The bailiffs have left.”

        1. @ExcitedAbout17

          oh man, lmao :)))

        2. Already a winner haha !

      2. Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, look specks of green and saffron paint.

    80. A blank canvas, and this is the absolute best livery they could come up with?

    81. Worst looking 2017 car so far. Where should I start? The nose is revolting, the step in the chassis is fugly, the livery is bland and boring, the sharkfin is the ugliest of all so far(which says a lot). From no angle it looks decent. After 2016 when I thought the FI had one of the best looking cars, this is the complete opposite. Disgusting

    82. @keithcollantine – do you know if there are any OFFICAL images as per Renault’s lunch yesterday?

    83. Interesting that this car has produced more responses than the others already launched.
      The one thing I like about this car is it looks different to the others.
      However overall it looks like an expensive way to carry plasterboard.
      There are some lovely lines but that nose, dear oh dear.

      1. Perhaps its time to introduce a flat floor right to the tip of the nose?

    84. I don’t want to be negative, but this car is just ugly.

      Someone at the factory needs to be responsible for making [what is essentially] a billboard look decent before it breaks cover. I know it needs to be fast, but it’s nearly an equal failure if it looks like a fang-penis-shark. How hard is it to make a racecar look cool? Not hard.

      Also, the only team without these stupid pointed noses has won going away the last three years (Merc)….so it’s not as though they are providing some enormous gain that cannot be had otherwise.

    85. Bit of a Steffi Graaf on that! Shark fin is an obvious fake. Its not even joined properly. Front wing spectacularly complex as is the rear of the rear wing. Amazing. But gone are the days the car shown today is what will turn up in Melbourne.

      Bin the fin

    86. Where are the Indian colours?!! What’s with all the boring silver? With an Indian inspiration which is very colourful to say the least they could have come up with something more interesting than silver!! Needs way more green and orange.

    87. Also the front wings these days are way too intricate! Wish the regs would prevent these oversized monstrosities!! Should only be allowed 2 or 3 main plains. The cars these days rely way too much on aero. F1 should be going to towards mechanical grip, what relevance has aero got to anything?! Mechanical grip is much more relevant to everyday road cars if that’s the aim.

    88. I love the barge boards and is that a blown front axle i spy?

      1. That is what i wonder too. Could you have a blown diffusser and an other one in front?

    89. The shark fin looks like an upside down guillotine just waiting for a compliant neck.

      Overall, the most disappointing reveal so far. Being a fan of FI only makes it that much more difficult. The only saving grace can be a car that scores points regardless of its ugly duckling appearance.

    90. Horrible. So far the only car I don’t like. Boring livery, horrific nose on par with the 2014 cars.

    91. -Almost no green and orange, way too much silver
      -The lovable ‘Nostrils’ altered to the point they look like the infamous noses of 2014
      -Stepped nose
      -First unsightly shark fin
      Well, we’ve found our first candidate for Ugly Duckling of the Grid.

    92. Michael Brown (@)
      22nd February 2017, 16:38

      I for one like that it’s brighter than the gloomy liveries of 2014-2016, but it needs actual colours. Not just silver.

    93. Certainly not the prettiest 2017 car, but what I like is that this actually looks wide from almost any angle, unlike the Williams, Sauber and Renault.

    94. I think the kindest thing to say is ‘not finished yet’.

    95. A stepped nose AND a phallus. Hooray.

    96. God that’s ugly.

    97. They all look the same. Is it a specseries now?

    98. Cyril manages to anger anybody, no one has respect for him. The ever calm Andrew Green had a go at Cyril. Cyril did point out that budget is going to matter even more in the development race, that’s why Haas and perhaps even Renault tried to block the early payments to SFI and others.

      1. budget is going to matter even more in the development race, that’s why Haas and perhaps even Renault tried to block the early payments to SFI and others.

        I think so too. Early on there’s lot’s of quick gians to be made but if you don’t have the cashflow at the moment you need it, you’re screwed. From a competative standpoint I do get the veto but these things shouldn’t be in control of the teams to begin with imho. F1 should work on making the series as a whole bigger and better and leave the competition to the R&D engeneers and drivers out on track in stead of in the bureaucracy

    99. I liked the white livery from 2011-2013 as well as the more blackish livery from 2014-2016 but this??

      1. I still think the 2008 testing livery was the best they ever came up with. (Not a great photo at Wikipedia there, but it still looks pretty good.) Don’t know why they didn’t stick with it. I love that deep maroon colour.

    100. Well, not a looker, but it does give the impression it might be quick…

    101. Looks to me like they have done a lot of home work. An aerodynamic package that has been designed rather than copied

    102. Needs more black. Way too much Saffron and Green.

    103. Same question I had re: the Renault “shark fin”:

      Will that present a problem with strong cross winds?

    104. Ugly, the nose is something “back to the future” look!

    105. Ron Dennis to Force India, you heard it here first!

    106. Why are the cars so long? Front and rear view they look fantastic, then you see them in perspective and they look like last year’s cars.

      1. I think because they came with the fantastic idea that long cars with angled wings will “look fast”.

    107. The nose looks exactly like those of the F1 cars I designed as a kid in the 90’s :) It’s satisfying to see my ideas for real, 20 years later.

    108. Don’t like stepped Nose, and first I saw inlet radiator is minimize (in good way of design) but then the sidepod is very bulky .. are they (Merc) engine need more cooling for additional grip this year?

    109. It’s horrendous in the most grotesque of ways. I can’t think of a single positive to say about the car.

      However, personally, I like that fact that it’s super ugly and I hope the ugliest on the grid. They’re probably my least favourite team and I’m not VJM’s biggest fan either.

      Still……purely from a racing perspective, I hope it’s fast. The more fast cars the better!

    110. Trying to count how many wings it has on the front, but I lost it around 50 !
      Any ideas?

    111. Force India usually have one of the prettiest cars & liveries on the grid. This one’s probably not….

    112. How much one wheel weight this year?

    113. It’s interesting to me how the Airbox on a lot of cars is growing this season compared to last.
      You’ll see on the Renault and now the Force India, how the width of the airbox behind the drivers helmet seems so much bigger than previous seasons.
      This could be a reflection of more air going through and around the wider airbox, but then how did Mercedes manage to package their systems so much more effectively LAST season?! It really enables the rear wing and it’s associated airflow (everything at the back of the car) to be much more stable. Let alone a bit higher CoG.

      It’ll be interesting to see how teams develop their cooling systems through the start of the season, but it’s worrying that teams need all this space up high to mange their internal airflow!

    114. That’s a horrendous looking car, but I hope they do well. Best wishes.

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