F1: Force India VJM10 passes crash tests

Force India's 2017 car – the VJM10 – has passed all of the mandatory crash tests ahead of its planned launch on Feb. 22.

Every team must pass strict FIA crash tests before they are allowed to run their cars on track in pre-season testing, which gets underway in Barcelona on Feb. 27. RACER has learned Force India has passed all of the necessary tests at the first attempt, having manufactured the tub itself for the first time at the team's Silverstone base.

"We're well on our way with the car build," chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told RACER. "We've passed all of our FIA tests which is great, first try. All the crash tests – the roll hoop test, side intrusion test, front nose test – we've passed, which is great because it's all new.

"For the first time ever we laminated and built the tub itself in-house, which worked really well. There's a few tests which happen on the chassis too and we've passed them all.

"We always bought [the tub] in. It was laminated and manufactured with a close eye of Force India overlooking the manufacturing process but it was never in-house; this is our first year doing it in-house."

With Force India having finished fourth in the constructors' championship for the first time in its history last year, Szafnauer says the additional manufacturing capacity is a sign of the team's consistent progress.

"Yeah, because now we have control ourselves we can cut down the manufacturing time and allow more design and development time. So that should help – a little bit anyway – the performance of the car. The later we can leave designing the tub and some of the other components, the better off we are."

Szafnauer also confirmed Force India was unaffected by a recent technical directive from Charlie Whiting, with the FIA responding to Ferrari's queries about a moveable spring seat in suspension concepts. A similar device has already used effectively by Mercedes and Red Bull in 2016, but Whiting informed teams he believes it would fall foul of an article in the Formula 1 Technical Regulations that essentially outlaws moveable aerodynamic devices.

Force India this week announced it will launch the VJM10 at Silverstone on Feb. 22, with Renault set to launch its 2017 car a day earlier.