The Force India team elected not to attend the opening pre-season test session in Valencia last week as it, like Red Bull Racing, preferred to concentrate on the development of its new car, the VJM03, which was launched online on Tuesday morning.
With last season having been the best for the outfit under the Force India name, scoring a total of 13 points - the amassed total of the Silverstone-based team's previous four seasons - Otmar Szafnauer was a new recruit when becoming Chief Operating Officer at the beginning of November.
"There are two big improvements from 2009," explained the Romanian, former Vice President of Honda Racing Developments. "One has been the increase in our CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) resource, thanks to a new partnership with CRL in India, which has increased our capacity by five-fold.
"The other principal area has been the utilisation of the wind tunnel to a greater extent, almost 24 -7; coupled together, this has allowed us to take great steps forward."
Although three days on-track have been sacrificed, Otmar believes that advantages can be enjoyed with the team's strategy. "By missing the first test, we can gain a little bit more development time - a little bit longer in the tunnel, a little bit longer thinking about what's important on the car," he continued.
"It was just a trade-off decision. We completed a shakedown day before the testing started - that regains a little bit of what we've lost."
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