The Force India team braved a sub-zero Silverstone to unveil the VJM05 car which they will race in 2012, as the team looks to improve upon it's sixth place finish last season.
Drivers Paul Di Resta, former reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg and new reserve driver Jules Bianchi pulled off the wraps before Di Resta took the car for scheduled shake-down laps of the circuit.
Featuring a chisel-nose with a block appearance at the front of the tub, the Force India car was thought to be the first Formula One car to be run this season.
Bad weather prevented the Williams team from running their car on Thursday (February 2), while Ferrari were forced to postpone their test on Friday because of snow at their factory at Maranello in Italy.
The Force India team hope 2012 will see them head the mid-field behind the big four teams of Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.
This year the team has taken a gamble in dropping former driver Adrian Sutil, who scored the majority of the team's points, in favour of last year's reserve driver Hulkenberg and Di Resta.
In 2010 the team came seventh in the final points order, beaten by Renault by over 100 points and by Williams by just one point.
2011 saw Force India finish sixth, while Williams dropped away to ninth and Renault scored nearly 100 fewer points than the previous year, though still managing to finish four points ahead of Force India.
This was one point more than the year before, showing a displays consistency on which to build.
However the Indian-owned racing team dismissed their top points scorer Sutil at the end of last year. Over the last two seasons he delivered 47 and 42 points.
Di Resta, in his rookie year, scored 27, though he said he was not daunted by the task ahead.
"There were some great opportunities we missed last year through no fault of our own at some point. I believe me and Adrian were very equal all the way through the year. I think the points difference definitely did not come as a shock, that he was that much different," he said.
"We are just trying to score as many points as we can and really as a team that is really the only way we are going to achieve a better result," the Scot added.
Germany's Hulkenberg is well aware that taking fifth place among the teams is a challenge.
"It is a big task obviously, the team almost achieved fifth last year. It has not been far off that and with a better start to the season last year I think it is definitely possible to achieve that. But coming fifth in a Formula One championship, very competitive environment, is never easy," he said.
Hulkenberg achieved a surprise pole position in Brazil for the Williams team in 2010 but lost his drive. He spent 2011 as Force India's reserve and test driver before being called up as race driver this year.
The team's deputy principal Robert Fernley says he is very satisfied with his line-up of drivers.
"I think Nico is a proven package. I don't think we should underestimate what he did at Williams and he was in a holding pattern last year but I believe that the two of them together are probably, not probably, are one of the most exciting pairings on the grid today, and yes they are young but they are very talented," he said.
Frenchman Jules Bianchi joins the team as reserve driver., having worked in the same role for Ferrari last season.
"Force India Sahara team did really really well in the past three years so it is going to be a really great season for me, we have seen the car now," Bianchi said. "It looks really great so I can't wait to drive."
Despite a few snowflakes Di Resta took the car out for three or four laps of the track later in the morning, running at speed down the straight at Silverstone.
Reuters