Force India first to announce launch date

18/12/2012

Though it has yet to name its driver line-up, Force India has become the first team to reveal the date of the launch of its 2013 contender.

The VJM06 will be unveiled on Friday 1st of February at Silverstone, four days before pre-season testing gets underway at Jerez.

With Adrian Sutil widely tipped to be joining Paul di Resta, though Jules Bianchi is also thought to be in the frame, the Indian outfit is looking to take a further step forward next season having finished seventh in this year's constructors' Championship.

Despite talk of financial problems, last month team boss Vijay Mallya announced that a £50m capital investment programme has been made available to the Silverstone based outfit.

"We had a board meeting in India after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the board has approved a £50 million capital investment programme for the team," he said. "We are going to invest heavily in new technology and give more tools to our design team to try and move further up the grid.

"Looking back at the season so far, we have every reason to feel proud," he added. "We've scored more points than in any previous season and every year we've demonstrated that we've gone up the ladder. And we've taken fairly significant steps, not just baby steps. Given the tools that we have, which are mostly of the Jordan era, we have done exceptionally well."