Beschreibung:

2017 Force India-Mercedes VJM10 Formula 1 Racing Single-Seater Chassis no. VJM10-01• Offered without reserve • Offered directly from the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team • Nine points-scoring finishesFootnotesOffered in show-car condition less engine and transmission. Here Bonhams offers this most attractively presented, ten-times-raced, 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 monocoque chassis, but with bodywork and livery representing the taken-over and renamed team's 2019 Racing Point RP19 Formula 1 contender. This is an historically significant Formula 1 car since at core it was one of the vital tools which carried the relatively under-funded and tiny Force India team to an incredible fourth place finish in the 2017 Formula 1 Constructors' Championship. Chassis 'VJM10-01's racing record during its active period in the Force India team's 2017 campaign – for which it was driven by Esteban Ocon to no fewer than nine points-scoring finishes from its nine starts - is as follows: Australian GP, Melbourne – Esteban Ocon – q.13th – 10th – points-scoring finish Chinese GP, Shanghai - Esteban Ocon – q.17th – 10th– points-scoring finish Bahrain GP, Sakhir - Esteban Ocon – q.14th – 10th– points-scoring finish Russian GP, Sochi - Esteban Ocon – q.10th – 7th– points-scoring finish Spanish GP, Catalunya - Esteban Ocon – q.10th – 5th– points-scoring finish Monaco GP, Monte Carlo - Esteban Ocon – q.15th – 12th Canadian GP, Montreal - Esteban Ocon – q.9th – 6th– points-scoring finish Azerbaijan GP, Baku - Esteban Ocon – q.7th – 6th– points-scoring finish Austrian GP, Red Bull Ring - Esteban Ocon – q.9th – 8th– points-scoring finish British GP, Silverstone - Esteban Ocon – q.7th – 8th– points-scoring finish 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 when guided by the promising young French driver – today a Grand Prix winner, of course, having triumphed in the 2021 Hungarian GP when driving for the Alpine (Renault) team. 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. While the pair had some controversial moments during that 2017 season, Pérez and Ocon both finished so consistently well that they placed seventh and eighth overall in the Drivers' World Championship standings come year's end. And 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 d