Force India will not change its name until next season, according to its Chief Operating Officer Otmar Szafnauer.
Rumours surfaced through 2017 that Force India was seeking an identity tweak, potentially as early as 2018, but such plans ultimately failed to come to fruition.
Ahead of the opening round of the new campaign Szafnauer told F1.com that a new name has been determined, but will not be implemented until 2019.
“It’s not going to happen this year,” said Szafnauer. “To change chassis name, from what I understand, you can’t do it in the middle of the season so we’ll have to get it done right at the end of the season.
“We went around to find the best name, we had some discussion with partners, sponsors and employees.
Then we went to the FIA and FOM and they said 'well, you’re a bit out of time'.
“It’s not every day you change your name. The process wasn’t well defined and still isn’t well defined. Now that we know it, we’ll do it at the end of the season.”
On track, Force India finished outside of the top 10 during practice at Albert Park, with Sergio Perez 12th and Esteban Ocon 15th as it evaluated a substantial upgrade package.
“There were a lot of new parts on the car and we needed to learn quickly,” said Perez.
“It’s only Friday and I think we can find more performance before qualifying. That’s always been our strength as a team and we need to work hard tonight understanding the data.
“I said during testing that all the teams are much closer together and if you look at the times it’s certainly the case.”
Added Ocon: “We had a lot of things to try on the car, but everything went to plan. It was all about learning and understanding the directions we need to take with the new package.
“We have already seen a step forward in performance compared to testing, but there’ is obviously some tuning to be done.”
