Force India’s design director Mark Smith is confident the team will not be at a disadvantage despite having missed the first test of 2010.

The Silverstone-based squad decided to skip the Valencia test last week in order to have extra days of development before it kicks off its testing programme on Wednesday at Jerez.

“I don’t think we’ve missed a great deal in that respect,” Smith told infomotosport about the Valencia test. “We always took the view that we’d rather keep going for another week with aero development.

“It’s always difficult with limited testing but as long as we are ready to go the Jerez test with a car that will run then it’s better for us tog go that little bit later.

“When you think about it, it is a bit different for us because someone else has already been running around with the same engine, gearbox and electronics and these are the things that traditionally are more likely to give you problems.”

Smith also claimed that Force India has not seen anything in rival cars to make the team worried about is own prospects.

“There’s a little bit of variety out there but predominantly we are happy,” he said. “You will always see something on each car that makes you think ‘that’s interesting’ but understanding how they work on your car is the key thing.

“We haven’t looked at photos and thought ‘we’ve missed something significant’ and we’re excited to get down to Jerez.”

The team will unveil its 2010 challenger tomorrow.