Force India hope to debut new F1 car on Friday
By Alan Baldwin
LONDON (Reuters) - Force India will have a maximum of three days testing with their new Formula One car before the start of the season after the team said it would not debut in Spain until Friday.
"The VJM08 will arrive in Barcelona on Friday morning and the final set up will take place in the garage at the track," chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said in a team interview on Wednesday.
"We are aiming to get out on Friday and the new car will run as much as possible over the weekend."
Formula One's final pre-season test starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday, with cars and freight then being packed for Australia and the first race on March 15.
Force India, who finished sixth overall last year but whose owners have had financial troubles, missed the first test in Jerez.
They took part in the second in Barcelona with Mexican Sergio Perez and Germany's Nico Hulkenberg driving the 2014 car, because the new one was not ready.
Szafnauer said the new Mercedes-powered car had progressed well and been fired up at the Silverstone factory.
"We have seen a tremendous effort from every department over the last few months to get us to this stage and we're looking forward to seeing the car take to the track later this week," he added.
The winter months are some of the most challenging for cash-strapped teams, who have to meet the costs of building a new car while revenue payments from the commercial rights holder are not received until March.
Force India's two major co-owners are Indian drinks tycoon Vijay Mallya and jailed Sahara Group chairman Subrata Roy.
Both have hit trouble in India, with a consortium of largely state-run Indian banks seeking repayment of more than $1 billion (645 million pounds) of loans from Mallya's failed Kingfisher Airlines, which has not flown since 2012.
Roy has been held in a New Delhi jail since last March, and needs to post bail of $1.6 billion to get out, following a court order for Sahara Group to refund billions of dollars invested in outlawed bonds.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
