Beschrijving
This car is Lot 116 to be auctioned by Bonhams|Cars at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on 11 July, please see the Bonhams website for full details.
Public Viewing:
Available Thursday 10 July from 09:00 until 17:00 and Friday 11 July from 09:00 until 17:00, at The Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Lot 116
2017 Force India-Mercedes VJM10 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
Registration no.
Chassis no. VJM10-03
Liveried as a show car in the 2020 Racing Point Livery
Offered in show-car condition less engine and transmission
Offered directly from the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team
Test car for the 2017 Formula One Season
Here Bonhams|Cars offers this most attractively presented, modern-era Formula 1 car preserved in non-running 'show car' display condition. It is offered as assembled in show car form around its original 2017-season monocoque chassis, but with bodywork including its prototype protective windscreen 'halo' framing device - and livery representing the taken-over and renamed team's 2020 Racing Point RP20 Formula 1 contender.
This is an historically significant Formula 1 car since at core as the perennial 'underdog' Force India team's test chassis it completed no fewer than 2, 574kms running purely on test during that year's vital update development programme.
In those test sessions it was driven by none other than both team leader Sergio 'Checo' Perez and second works driver Esteban Ocon. They were joined in putting test mileage upon this chassis by emergent Mexican driver, ex-Formula Renault 3. 5 and GP3 racing, Florian Celis, by lavishly-funded Russian hopeful Nikita Mazepin and by Lucas Auer. The latter Austrian driver later to make his name in German National DTM touring class competition - is the nephew of former-Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren Formula 1 star Gerhard Berger.
These five drivers' test and development sessions in 'VJM-03' offered here were as follows:
April 18, 2017 - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir Alfonso Celis - 168kms (am) 216kms (pm).
April 19, 2017 - Bahrain Esteban Ocon 325km (am)
April 19, 2017 - Bahrain Sergio Perez 379kms (pm)
May 18, 2017 Silverstone International Circuit, England Esteban Ocon 42kms (am)
May 18, 2017 Silverstone Alfonso Celis 54kms (pm)
August 1, 2017 Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary Nikita Mazepin 228kms (am)
August 1, 2017 - Hungaroring - Lucas Auer 237kms (pm)
August 2, 2017 Hungaroring Lucas Auer 215kms (am)
August 2, 2017 Hungaroring Nikita Mazepin 211kms (pm)
October 31, 2017 Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City Alfonso Celis 297km (am)
October 31, 2017 Mexico City Alfonso Celis 202km (pm)
During the following winter of 2017-18, with the Force India team struggling to survive financially, this test chassis was prepared in the general non-running show car form in which it is now offered here. It was re-liveried into 2020 style, after the 2018 season the team had been acquired by a consortium of investors headed by Canadian entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll, who had high ambitions for his racing driver son, Lance Stroll, to build a Formula 1 career. Indeed, the livery the car carries now has race number 18, the number Lance Stroll has raced under since 2017.
Of the five drivers who test-drove 'VJM10-03' now offered here, 'Checo' Perez is the best known and most successful. Meanwhile, Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane is a French racing driver whose father was a Normandy garage owner of Spanish extraction, and who sold both the family home and the garage to help fund his son's early racing career.
By the age of 14 Esteban had achieved such karting success he was signed up by an affiliate of Renault F1 enabling him to learn the ropes of world-class circuit racing in Formula Renault single-seaters 2012-13. Over the following three years he worked his way through Formula 3, winning the 2014 European F3 Championship and in 2015 he won the GP3 title while also serving as reserve driver for Renault F1. When another Force India driver candidate fell ill, Ocon tested for the team in Barcelona, but in 2016 made his Formula 1 debut with Manor Racing, before being signed for Force India's 2017 campaign, teamed with the admired Mexican Sergio 'Checo' Pérez.
In their Force India team cars, both finished so consistently well that they placed seventh and eighth overall in the Drivers' World Championship standings. Only three teams accumulated more Formula 1 Constructors' Championship points than Force India; Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. With these VJM10 cars, Force India headed the likes of Williams, Renault and McLaren that year.
Focus of the Force India VJM10 Formula 1 design was to prove competitive under revised Formula 1 technical regulations for 2017. The Mercedes power unit and gearbox defined the general layout of the VJM10 as a long-wheelbase car, but the Force India technical team under Andy Green pursued a high-rake aerodynamic concept in contrast to the works Mercedes team's low-rake preference. Chief aerodynamicist Simon Phillips worked with the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. Team direction was by Otmar Szafnauer, under whom Force India displayed an immensely practical, common-sense approach to racing strategy, particularly with tyre choice.
Some rear-end instability became characteristic of the VJM10 design but it was improved as the season progressed though never fully corrected. This trait was believed to be aero-derived but certain aspects of the rear suspension geometry had been compromised because the Mercedes gearbox's suspension pick-up points had been tailored to Mercedes' own low-rake concept, whereas Force India's was increasingly high-rake the cars running nose down/ tail high to achieve their optimum performance.
Through the 2017 season the four Force India-Mercedes VJM10s built saw the design's superior reliability and consistency offset its mid-field rival Renault's greater development budget and pace.
The Force India team title that had been adopted in 2008 was replaced prior to the 2019 Australian Grand Prix when the new team formalised their constructor entry title as being 'Racing Point'.
But as 'Autocourse' annual had summed-up at the close of the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship racing season: "Force India did a near-perfect job in maximising its resource...". And here we offer an enduring example of that heart-warming saga, updated to 2020-configuration show car, as viewed.
All lots are sold 'as is/ where is' and Bidders must satisfy themselves as to the provenance, condition, age, completeness and originality prior to bidding. Visit the Bonhams|Cars website for all pertinent auction information.
