Winter preparation time is a crucial time for all teams. With a few months only in hand to prepare for the 8 months of gruelling racing, the work done during this time can decide how the season goes.

In 2009 when Dr Vijay Mallya made a rather late decision to change over to Mercedes power and a McLaren transmission, the team had to make a lot of changes to a car design that was already in progress. That the decision was vindicated in due course made it worthwhile. But for 2010, there are no such problems.

However, the big difference in the Force India factory is the buzz about the place. After fighting at the back of the field for several seasons, last year the team earned a pole position and regularly challenged for points. Everyone expects that form to carry on in 2010.

Dominic Harlow, chief race engineer, confirms that there’s a great atmosphere in the camp. “I can't remember a better winter build period for the team in the time since I’ve been here,' he says. 'It's been good in terms of continuity, the general feeling, and the aims and the goals that we are setting ourselves. That's all been very positive. It’s still a time for change and regrouping and planning and so on, so all of that is going on as normal.”

Continuity is the key. Under its various identities over the years, the team became used to changing engine suppliers at relatively short notice, so carrying over the Mercedes from 2009 - not to mention the fact that the same engine that won the World Championship - is a major boost.

And Harlow agrees. “It certainly is (a boost),” he says. “We’ve kept the whole powertrain. The regulations are basically the same, although that helps every other team as well. We’ve been able to start everything much earlier and everything is as you'd want to have it now, rather than just being a reaction to everything else that’s going on around.”

Although the regulations are essentially unchanged after the huge upheavals of last winter, there are some issues that have to be addressed. “We have a narrower front tyre. And the tyres generally always change and are a little bit of an unknown - we’ll be interested to find out about them when we go testing. The deletion of spinners, or wheel discs, also has a big impact.'

The biggest change is that there is no refuelling at pit stops in 2010, so cars will start races with a much heavier fuel load than previously. Thus a major task over the winter has been to determine the size of the fuel tank - in other words, calculate how much fuel would be required to finish the race which is heaviest on fuel consumption. Getting the numbers wrong is not an option since it would mean that the tank is too small, and that can be a major embarrassment.

“We were pretty systematic,” says Harlow. “We looked at everything we could think of that affects fuel consumption - the drag of the car, the circuits we run at, driving style, the way we run the engines, the fuel itself. We forecast that forward to 2010 and came up with a prediction based on the worst circuit in terms of fuel use, which is now Valencia. Then you have some design factors to include, such as the way a calculated fuel tank size never quite becomes a manufactured one - it’s a slightly inexact science.”

The lack of refuelling means that race strategy is now going to be quite different. Drivers still have to use both the prime and option tyres during a race, so there will be pit stops. But determining the best time to change - given that the heavy fuel load at the start will put more stress on the tyres in the early laps - is an extremely complicated equation.

“It's quite a big unexplored area, and there's still a lot of modelling for the fuel consumption and the tyres that we still need to do. Depending on where we’re racing, I think people are going to be a bit more cagey at the start of the race,” adds Harlow.

The extra complication for the drivers is that the car behaviour will change dramatically between the early laps, with a full load, and the latter stages of the race. “The car balance will change quite a lot as the fuel weight goes down. I think it's another challenge, and as always, the cream will rise to the top. It will help the fastest learners. And for us it’s where the continuity and the relative experience of our guys is going to favour us. In wet conditions the extra weight of the cars will be another interesting factor, and will probably accentuate the differences between the drivers even more than previously,” he says.

Unlike last season, one thing is sure. Force India is no longer a backmarker team. They are a midfield team and many expect them to do  better. With a new points system, more teams and some more novices on the track, that could just mean that Force India has its best season ever yet.