Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

New regulations cause a loss of downforce

Force India technical director Andrew Green says the 2015 F1 regulations have caused a loss of downforce for the teams.

While the technical regulations have remained relatively stable, one visible change relates to the front of the car, with the chassis lowered and more strict rules regarding the nose. At the launch of Force India’s new livery – where the front of the new car was also displayed on a 2014 chassis – Green explained the focus of the team’s work on the VJM08 has been to recover lost downforce.

“The front of the car looks very different from what we had developed previously,” Green said. “It is a redesign that involved a lot of work over the winter, as the new regulations caused a loss in terms of downforce and we’ve been working to claw back all that performance.”

Force India revealed that the new car will have a number of subtle differences to its predecessor as a result, including modified sculpting of the sidepods and new cooling intakes. The VJM8 will also feature a completely new rear suspension layout, with the team switching to a new hydro-mechanical system from the previous torsion springs.

Click here to see the full gallery of Force India's 2015 livery launch

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.