2011 Force India-Mercedes VJM04 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater
Chassis no. VJM04-04

Offered in show-car condition less engine and transmission.

Here Bonhams offers this most attractively presented, much-raced, modern-era Formula 1 car preserved in non-running 'show car' display condition. Its individual racing record during its active period in the Force India team's 2011 Formula 1 World Championship campaign is as follows:

Australian GP, Adelaide – Adrian Sutil – q.16th – 9th
Malaysian GP, Sepang – Adrian Sutil – q.17 – 11th
Chinese GP, Shanghai - Adrian Sutil – q. 11 – 15th
Turkish GP, Istanbul - Adrian Sutil – q.12 – 13th
Spanish GP, Barcelona - Adrian Sutil – q.17 – 13th
Monaco GP, Monte Carlo - Adrian Sutil – q.15 – 7th points-scoring
Canadian GP, Montreal - Adrian Sutil – q.14 – Rtd (accident)
European GP, Valencia - Adrian Sutil – q.10 – 9th points-scoring
British GP, Silverstone - Adrian Sutil – q. 11 – 11th
German GP, Nürburgring - Adrian Sutil – q.8 – 6th points-scoring
Hungarian GP, Hungaroring - Adrian Sutil – q. 8 – 14th
Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps - Adrian Sutil – q.15 – 7th points-scoring
Italian GP, Monza – Adrian Sutil - q.12 – Rtd (hydraulics)
Singapore GP, Marina Bay – Adrian Sutil - q.9 – 8th points scoring
Japanese GP, Suzuka – Adrian Sutil - q.11 – 11th
Korean GP, Yeongam – Adrian Sutil – q.10 – 10th points scoring
Indian GP, Buddh International – Adrian Sutil – q.8 – 9th points scoring
Abu Dhabi GP, Yas Marina – Adrian Sutil – q.9 – 8th points scoring
Brazilian GP, Interlagos – Adrian Sutil – q.8 – 6th points scoring
During this 2011 Formula 1 campaign, chassis VJM04-04 now offered here was also driven in pre-race Grand Prix practice by Niko Hulkenberg at Shanghai, Istanbul, Montreal, Silverstone, the Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka and Interlagos.

As can be clearly seen from the above racing record, here is a small-team Formula 1 car which punched way above its supposed weight at World Championship level, not least being guided by driver Adrian Sutil to the highly respectable total of 42 Drivers' World Championship points which earned him ninth place overall in the 2011-season's final title table.
During his frontline Formula 1 career Adrian Sutil was (uniquely) a German-Uruguyan driver, having made his motorised competition debut aged 14 in karting. After winning a Swiss Formula Ford title and shining in a parallel Austrian series, he stepped up to Formula 3, won the All-Japan Championship in 2006 and became test driver for Midland F1 in 2006. competed in seven seasons at World Championship level, 2007-2011, then after a bye season in 2012 from 2013-2014. In addition to his Force India career he had previously driven for Spyker F1, and later re-emerged with Sauber and eventually served as reserve drive for Williams Martini Racing.

Focus of the Force India VJM04 Formula 1 design, as offered here, was to incorporate the Mercedes KERS unit and to smooth further the peaks and troughs of performance which had dogged Force India's preceding VJM03 model through 2010.

The McLaren gearbox effectively dictated a switch to pull-rod rear suspension, inherently improved the potential of the underfloor surface generating a 'blown exhaust' extractor effectEarly-season re-working of the rear section's aerodynamic form proved dramatically successful as engineering director Dominic Harlow confirmed. In effect the VJM04 was more competitive at high-speed aerodynamically demanding tracks such as Silverstone and Suzuka. The team was immensely dedicated hard-working and industrious, and it is telling that during 2011 its workforce totalled only some 280 employees – tiny by modern Formula 1 standards.

The Force India Formula 1 racing team was founded in time to enter competition in the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship series. Its background dated back as far as 1991 when former racing driver Eddie Jordan's rapidly-growing équipe first entered the premier-league Grand Prix racing category, operating from its headquarters adjacent to the historic Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, England.
Jordan Formula 1 enjoyed many years in World Championship contention, winning four Grand Prix rounds and securing third place overall in the 1999 Constructors' Championship. However, fortunes deteriorated thereafter and eventually in 2005 Eddie Jordan sold the team to the Midland Group. Midland F1 Racing struggled at that level until owner Alex Shnaider sold the team to Dutch-managed entity Spyker Cars in mid-2006.
Spyker F1 took one World Championship point in 2007 and - after driver Markus Winkelhock briefly led the rain-swept European Grand Prix at the Neue Nürburgring - the team was once again sold, this time for 88-million Euros to the hyper-enthusiastic Indian chairman of the United Breweries Group and Michiel Mol, Spyker's contemporary Formula One Director. The venture became renamed the Force India Formula One Team for the 2008 season. Led by the experienced Colin Kolles, with Mike Gascoyne as chief technology officer, and drivers Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella, the revised team finished tenth place in that year's Constructors' Championship, best placing being tenth in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Force India retained the same drivers for 2009 when its VJM02 cars were powered by Mercedes-Benz engines, with McLaren-Mercedes gearboxes, hydraulic systems and kinetic energy recovery systems. Force India took its first pole position at the year's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, when Fisichella qualified fastest, and finally finished second overall.
For the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Adrian Sutil qualified second before finishing fourth and setting fastest lap of the race. Ninth in the end-of-season Constructors' table did not reflect vast strides made by Force India that season. Into 2010 the new VJ03 car proved not so competitive, and personnel changes mid-season handicapped team efforts.
On January 26, 2011, Force India reserve driver Paul di Resta was then announced as Adrian Sutil's freshly-appointed team-mate, and on February 8 the new VJM04 car was launched publicly. 2011 via an online launch. Designed under the direction of Andrew Green the car used Mercedes-Benz/McLaren motive power and applied technologies, the engine being a V8 delivering some 900bhp.
In the Brazilian GP finale round at Sao Paulo, Adrian Sutil matched his best finish of the season with sixth place, while di Resta finished eighth, the team securing an impressive sixth in the year's Formula 1 Constructors' Championship, only four points behind fifth-placed Renault and remarkable testimony to an under-dog team operating on restricting financing yet delivering arguably the finest Formula 1-return bang per buck in contemporary Formula 1 Grand Prix competition.

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