Gary Anderson interviews Andrew Green

Twenty-one years ago, Gary Anderson and Andrew Green were at Silverstone for the first run of a Jordan Formula 1 car ahead of the 1991 season. Back then, Anderson was technical director and Green was part of the very small design 'team' that produced the car. Today, Green is technical director of Force India, the team that Jordan became, and Anderson is AUTOSPORT's technical correspondent. Here is what happened when they met again at the launch of the Force India VJM05.

Gary Anderson: We were here 21 years ago - well, not quite here...

Andrew Green: Silverstone south circuit, 1991.

GA: We had a lease on one of the lock-ups over there. It was a bit smaller than this room.

AG: Black car, with yellow Jordan stickers on the side.

GA: Much difference nowadays, Andrew?

Anderson and Green worked together on Jordan's much-loved first F1 car, the 191 © LAT

AG: Oh, none at all. (laughs)

GA: How many people are in the design and aerodynamic team now?

AG: I'd say about 120-ish. Probably 60 in each.

GA: And there were three of us then.

AG: That's right. There's been a bit of a change.

GA: I remember Andrew and I used to head out to Southampton University on weekends to use the windtunnel down there. And then on other weekends my job was to draw windtunnel bits at home. So I'd do that, then Andrew and I would head out...

AG: Drive down on Saturday morning in the van with the model in the back.

GA: It was a nightmare when you look back! But it was good fun. Moving on to current times, what do you think about the current situation with teams and how you structure them and manage them?

Force India is still a relative underdog in F1 terms © LAT

AG: For us, it's all about planning ahead. Incremental changes. We recognise... we're not a small team, we're just a mid-sized team, and we do recognise that the more resources you have, the quicker the developments get to the car, and ultimately, the quicker the car goes. And if we want to break into those 'premier league' teams, we have to expand. We have to give the guys we have better tools, and we need to have more guys to work with those tools. And that's what we've presented to the board, and said, 'look guys, if your ambitions are to get up there, you can't do it on a shoestring. You've got to invest in the team'. And hopefully with Sahara coming on board, we can convince them that that is the way forward. If they really have ambitions to move into that 'premier league', I think they'll have to do it.

It's not an overnight change. The last thing we want to do is lose the tightness of the team now and just throw people at it. It would just explode, and then we'd go backwards. It's just a matter of building on what we've got. We've got a really tight team of clever engineers who work together really well. No politics. Everyone is focused on what they need to do. And it is a bit like the old Jordan days in that respect - very similar. And that's our strength. Our strength is in the people.

GA: It seems very easy for the big teams; you think they've got all this power and everything, but steering that ship is very difficult.

AG: It is, and you have to think a long way ahead. The decisions that you make 18 months ago are the ones that affect you as we stand here today. So there is a lot of long-term thinking. Obviously there's a lot of short-term, day-to-day stuff that goes on as well, but we have to have a vision for the team. And steering the ship... it's a big, old oil tanker, and when you change the rudder position, it takes quite a long time to change direction. And that's really what we did 18 months ago. We said, 'look guys, we can't keep going in this direction. We've plateaued. We've reached the top of this mountain, and there are lots of other mountains out there that we need to go and climb, so let's go over there and start exploring'. And the new car is part of that philosophy.

GA: I went to the McLaren launch on Tuesday, and they were very quick to say that what you see is not always what makes it quick. That's true - but it can be a good indication, and I didn't see much on their car that was going to move them forward. But on this car, I actually see quite a lot that I am very impressed with. So a) congratulations, and b) how did you get that vision so long ago?

The VJM05 features a major aero rethink over past Force Indias © LAT

AG: Again, it is looking at where we were at. We thought we had reached the pinnacle of that design philosophy, and there's a team out there going two or three seconds per lap quicker than us. Well, obviously, we've taken a path, but not on the right track. We have to change track. So those were the decisions that were made 18 months ago. And it's really about trying to understand how you generate that downforce, how you use it, how you deliver it to the driver. And that was the process that we've been going through for the last 12-18 months. It was quite an eye-opener for the guys. The guys who are developing the car now have a completely different mindset on how they look for aerodynamic performance to how they used to 18 months ago.

GA: Aerodynamic stability is what you're talking about, and having the confidence to use it to the maximum?

AG: Absolutely.

GA: Development plans? Obviously this is your launch car...

AG: We plan to do a very similar thing to what we did all of last year, which is just regular upgrades to all of the car, quantify them at the track, make sure they have delivered what we expect them to have delivered, and then move on to the next one. That's the philosophy we took last year. We used Friday to evaluate the parts, tick the box on Friday, and if everything looks the part then they go on for that weekend. That's the general philosophy. We'll keep bringing parts to every race, as much as we can.

GA: The front wing is a much more sophisticated piece of kit than what you ended last season with. Windtunnel correlation to track is one of the most critical areas - are you happy with that?

AG: Yeah, it's an area we spent a lot of time on last year, and will spend even more time on this year - instrumenting the car. Understanding how the car reacts on the track compared with how it reacts in the tunnel. The front wing is a big part of that - you'll see instrumented front wings during winter testing, and fully instrumented cars during winter testing as well, to map that car out and make sure that it is performing as expected.

The VJM05's front wing © LAT

GA: Last year everybody was talking about Red Bull and their elasticity on the front wing, and Ferrari trying it and ending up with a bit of a flutter. It's only really on the track that you can work that out.

AG: To do that in the tunnel is very, very difficult. The FIA have given a bit of a clampdown on that just before Christmas - it was nice of them to give us that much notice. So the stiffness of the wing has effectively doubled, and not just a symmetric doubling, it's also asymmetric. When you've committed to a chassis and a nose shape and then they come along and say, 'actually, you need to make it twice as stiff' is a bit of a challenge. So that was a bit of a headache over the winter months to get that to pass. It's a very stringent test now.

GA: So you won't see so much of that [flexing] this year?

AG: I wouldn't think so, no. Now we're looking at 100kg on one side of the wing and moving it 10mm.

GA: That's quite difficult.

AG: That's you standing on the endplate!

GA: Going back to 1991, one of the press guys then said to me, "is that wing strong enough?", because it was very low to the ground. And I said, "well, it's strong enough to hold me up," and then stood on one side of it.

AG: That's effectively the test we've got to do now.

GA: I'm ready!

Force India was chasing Renault down at the end of 2011 © LAT

AG: I'll see you at the flat patch!

GA: So what are the team's expectations?

AG: The target is fifth. Like [deputy team principal] Bob [Fernley] said, we were very close to achieving that last year - one more race, and we'd have got Lotus/Renault. I think it would be nice to finish fifth. It's a tough target. The midfield is so fierce, and you only have to be slightly out to go from fifth to ninth. So it's a tough target, but I think as the team stands, it's probably about where we can get to.

GA: I agree. From what I see, unless there's some fundemental error in there, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a pain in the arse for a few teams.

AG: I hope so. We don't know what everyone else has brought out, we don't know if they have done a good job or a bad job. We think we've done an OK job, but we'll find out when we hit the track. If some team makes a mistake and goes back, then yeah, we will capitalise. We're not out to finish fifth, we're out to try and win each race. But we're realistic, so...

Di Resta and Hulkenberg will push each other hard © LAT

GA: Your drivers - very young, very hungry...

AG: We're massively excited about that.

GA: It's one of the strongest line-ups in the pitlane.

AG: I think they will be wringing the neck out of that car. I'm quite sure that we will see the performance of the car on the track. There will be no question marks whatsoever.

GA: You know my feelings on the young driver versus the resident old one - I'll always go for the young guy...

AG: And it's great that the team principals backed that as well. We're under so much pressure, 'oh, you're an Indian team, why haven't you got an Indian driver...', but Dr [Vijay] Mallya's principle is that we'll have the best drivers that we can get. If they're Indian, so be it. And when an Indian driver comes through, maybe it will happen. It's great to hear that message from the top, because what you really hate is to try to produce the best car you can, and then know that there is a guy in it who is not extracting 100 per cent. It's gut-wrenching.