Adam Cooper
The Williams and Force India Formula One teams are the first to unveil their 2015 liveries.
Williams:
Williams was the first team to show an image of its 2015 F1 contender, namely the FW37.
The team scored a string of podiums last season, and is hoping to make the next step with the new car.
“The notion for the FW37 was to look closely at the FW36 and its performances,’” said the team's chief technical officer Pat Symonds. “We then went about recognizing what had worked well and identifying and resolving the areas that we felt needed to be improved. Although the aerodynamics of the car were impressive there is always room for improvement particularly as we handle the new 2015 nose regulations.
“The first conceptual stage of the FW37 came before the FW36 had turned a wheel. The main element to this is understanding the rule changes and how they will affect the design of the car, from here we can start see if our ideas will fit within the regulations.
“The change in regulations offered us a slight headache. The new front bulkhead and nose geometry had much more of an impact than we had initially anticipated and the effect on the aero was profound. The team have worked hard on pulling back the deficit these regulations have made for us.”
Symonds says work on FW37 was not compromised by a development push with last year's car.
“The desire to beat Ferrari to third place in the Constructors’ in 2014 meant we pushed our development through to late autumn, but the size of the team is now at a point where it was able to sustain this development whilst still working on the FW37.
“We felt we came up against design barriers in the FW36 and so took the opportunity to remove those barriers for the benefit of the performance. The FW36 carried a reasonable amount of ballast, so we were able to make alterations to the design for added performance without the fear of adding excessive mass.”
Summing up the season to come he added: “The more rule stability there is, the closer the field gets. I hope as a team we are more capable of maintaining the forward momentum to catch Mercedes, than the teams behind us are of catching us. It’s not just about stable regulations but also about the team and every individual that works here moving forward and improving.”
Force India:
Force India unveiled its new 2015 livery in Mexico City on Wednesday, albeit on an old car.
The VJM08 is not scheduled to be seen until the second test of the season at Barcelona in February.
The livery is similar to last year with the notable exception of a change from white to silver, perhaps reflecting the team's improved position in the Mercedes pecking order now that McLaren has moved on.
New sponsors on the car include Quaker State oil - replacing Roshfrans - and NEC, which is usually associated with Sauber.
Regarding the new design team boss Vijya Mallya said: “It’s another evolution of the contemporary look we introduced last year, which reflects the growth of the team and the global brands with which we are working. I love the addition of silver, which makes the car appear more sleek and aggressive and I’m sure it’s something that will appeal to the fans as well. Our traditional team colors remain integrated in the livery, but we’ve given it a very modern twist.”
Mallya stressed that the team's move to the 60 percent Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne was the key to this year's form.
“The front of the car looks very different from what we had developed previously,” said technical director Andrew Green of the yet to be seen car. “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.”