After the Jerez test at the end of July, it seemed the team may have introduced the 'box at the next race, with tester Vitantonio Liuzzi commenting that it was ready to go. However, the team only ran it in Friday practice in Hungary and left its weekend introduction until the upcoming race in Valencia. Mike Gascoyne explains why: "We tested the gearbox for the first time at a shakedown in Silverstone, and then again for three days in Jerez, but for such an important component, it really isn't enough to be able to validate it.

"Running it on Friday in Hungary gave the opportunity to conduct further testing, plus we avoided the penalties of changing gearboxes in the middle of a four race cycle. The 'boxes we used in Hungary were three races into the four race cycle, and changing them would have incurred a grid penalty. It made sense to put some more miles on it, then use when we are at the start of another four race cycle."

Gascoyne knows that all may not go to plan though, "of course there are always risks associated with introducing a gearbox mid-season due to the limited mileage, but I think this was a step the team has had to make for the future.

"The first box we ran got to over three race event distances before stopping with a very minor problem, so a very, very good effort in terms of reliability. Obviously we will be fixing the small problems we have seen, but I think we should be able to cope with this."

When asked why it was not introduced sooner, Mike replied, "We've not been able to introduce it previously purely due to a resource and finance issue. We didn't have either the engineering resources or the budget to be able to take the risk to introduce it and it's only now as Force India that we have everything in place to be able to make it work.

"In terms of the actual project however, it's been very well done and pushed through, which is in itself a measure of the growing strength of the team."

He added, "With its limited resources the team has done a very good job to get it introduced this season. It is a big thing for a small team to introduce such a large component mid-season as we don't have the transient dynos and test rigs that the other teams have. Really we were only able to start work on the box when we became Force India and had reasonable levels of budgets and resources to make it work.

"From an engineering point of view the team has done an excellent job to get it ready on time, and the gearbox department has done well to make the introduction of the seamless box almost seamless in itself."

So, what can we expect this new gearbox to add to the performance of the car? Well, Mike reckons two to three tenths per lap, "and possibly more as the driver has the option to get on the power earlier as the car isn't upset by the gear change. The driver can therefore be much smoother with the acceleration, so there is less disturbance when cornering and under power.

"We will see an advantage everywhere as you will always ratio the gearbox to get the most out of it at each circuit, so its effect over a lap will be fairly consistent from circuit to circuit."

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