Turun Sanomat is reporting that Force India had planned to put Sergey Sirotkin in the car for the Jerez test, but the money he was supposed to pay never arrived - he's had a few problems with his backers being targeted by sanctions over Russia's role in Ukraine and MH17 - and so they cancelled the test.
Here's a link which is in accord with that idea:
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/sirotkin-money-key-to-force-india-absence-report/
And here's a link which takes a somewhat different view:
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns29853.html
Indeed, the highly-respected German publication Auto Motor und Sport on Thursday repeated rumours of Force India
falling so behind in bills to key suppliers - such as one that provides the all-important carbon fibre - that it is the reason for the delayed debut of the VJM08.
But chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer insists the delay is more about the move from the team's own wind tunnel to the state-of-the-art Toyota facility in Cologne.
"We want to see some of the results flowing into the car for the Barcelona test," he said.
Szafnauer said he is "90 per cent" certain Force India's 2015 car will be fully up and running for that second test, beginning on 19 February.
He said sitting out Jerez altogether is "saving us 500,000 pounds."
http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/third-cars-f1-not-required-lawyers-say
F1’s contracts with the teams state they may have to run a third car if the grid drops below 20. It didn’t come into effect in Austin or Brazil because the contracts also say teams are allowed to miss up to three races.
However, the discussion about running third cars raged throughout both race weekends, with F1’s smallest teams claiming they had seen an e-mail outlining a plan to have Red Bull and Ferrari supply a third car next season.
Whether this actually happens now looks far less important. Instead, the fact that a discussion took place about it may prove to be significant as it could show that
Ecclestone attempted to procure 16 cars and used his reasonable endeavors to do so. If less than 16 cars race next year, then it is this fact which could keep F1 under his control:
Should he breach his contract with the FIA, the governing body could use it as justification for reclaiming the commercial rights. Ecclestone paid the FIA $313.6m for a 100-year license to those rights beginning in 2011, which means the governing body will have to wait a long time to reclaim them unless Ecclestone’s F1 Group breaches its contract.
