Force India

Force India

FIA Entry: Force India F1 Team
Car 14: Adrian Sutil
Car 15: Paul di Resta
Engine: MercedesV8
Team Principal: Vijay Mallya
Technical Director: Andrew Green
Race Engineer Car 14: Brad Joyce
Race Engineer Car 15:Gianpiero Lambiano

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2008
Races Entered 55
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 1
Fastest Laps 1
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Team History

In 1991 Eddie Jordan made the leap from the lower formulae to F1 with the Jordan Grand Prix Team. Jordan Grand Prix raced with varying degrees of success until 2005, taking part in 250 Grand Prix, winning 4.

In 2006 Jordan was sold to Canadian businessman Alex Shnaider and was rebadged as Midland F1 – entered as the first Russian Grand Prix team. Midland had little success and by the end of 2006 the team was sold to Dutch car sports car makers Spyker and the entry changed to Spyker MF1. Spyker were as unsuccessful as Midland and at the end of 2007 the team was sold again, this time to Vijay Mallya, and Force India was born

Force India

For the 2008 season Force India used an updated version of the Spyker car, designated the VJM01, married to Ferrari engines. Adrian Sutil and Ginacarlo Fisichella were the drivers with Vitantonio Luizzi as the tester. The season wasn’t massively successful, Sutil missed out on potentially scoring points at Monaco when Kimi Raikkonen crashed into him, otherwise the highest placing they managed was 10th for Fisichella in Spain.

Mercedes Power

For 2009 Force India moved from Ferrari power to Mercedes engines. With the same drivers as 2008 the early part of the season showed that Force India VJM02 had made steps forward in performance. Sutil ran 6th in China, before aquaplaning off the circuit, and was as high as 2nd in Germany before another coming together with Raikkonen as he exited the pits. The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa proved to be the high point of Force India’s season. Fisichella, to the amazement of many on the grid, put his car on pole and brought the car home 2nd only to leave the team to substitute for Felipe Massa at Ferrari for the remainder of the season. Sutil followed up Fisichella’s points scoring exploits with a 4th in Italy now partnered by test driver Luizzi.

For 2010 Mercedes engines were retained, as was the driver line up the team ended 2009 with. The VJM03 was another step forward for the 2009 model and Force India scored points regularly in the mid-field. Sutil managed the teams highest race finish with a 5th in Malaysia and the team ended the season 7th in the Constructors Championship

2011

Test driver Paul di Resta replaces Luizzi for 2011 in the VJM04 chassis. With continuing support from Mercedes High Performance Engines and McLaren Applied Technologies Force India are looking to head the mid-field in 2011.

 

[sportsman]

Even more problems for Force India.Somehow can't see them being on the grid next year.

http://articles.economictimes.india...gfisher-airlines-engineers-and-pilots-flights
MUMBAI: Facing its worst employee unrest that has forced a shut down all of its flights and operations since Sunday night, cash strapped carrier Kingfisher Airlines' management has now decided to meet its striking engineers and pilots to see if the deadlock can be resolved.
Kingfisher that operates around 80 flights per day with nine aircraft (as per schedule given to the regulator) was forced to cancel all its flights across its network after its engineers refused to certify aircraft for flying beginning Sunday evening. The engineers are protesting non-payment of salaries that are overdue for the past six months now.

According to sources the pilots too started reporting sick since morning making this first ever-cohesive action by Kingfisher employees to draw attention of the management to their plight.Kingfisher is struggling to pay not only its staff but it owes dues to all its vendors, airports where it flies to, statutory government authorities and has a massive debt burden of over Rs 8000 crore. The airline is fighting at least seven winding up petitions filed against it by different vendors in Indian courts.

 

[Bill Boddy]

The team is now known as Sahara Force India. A list of sponsors is given at http://www.forceindiaf1.com/partners , the main Kingfisher product is beer with 54% market share in India. Fly Kingfisher is amongst the sponsorship companies further down the list.

Hopefully the dispute and the financial status of Fly Kingfisher will have no effect on Force India.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Dr Vijay could always sell his Yacht, that would keep the team going for a few years.

 

[racecub]

Vijay Mallya has an arrest warrant out on him for bounced checks

 

[Josh]

It's going from bad to worse for him isn't it?

 

[snowy]

Sky and the BBC won't be wined and dined by Vijay at Buddh International in a fortnights time then.

 

[racecub]

nope. bit embarrassing for the team. Guess they'll just go without him?

 

[FB]

Who were the last team to have their cars impounded? Have a feeling it was our good friends Andrea Moda.

 

[RasputinLives]

Was just about to bring up Andrea Moda FB if they send Paul Di Resta out on wets when its bone dry we know whats coming?

I have a feeling the name Force India won't be on the grid next year. What odds do you think I'll get on it being team Sahra Schumacher Nercedes next season?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Cars could only be impounded if it were shown that they are owned by the person with the debts. This is not necessarily the case with Force India.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Didn't Force India get their motor-home impounded a couple of years ago at Monza?

 

[Brogan]

“We had a board meeting in India after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the board has approved a 50 million-pound capital investment programme for the team,” Mallya said proudly. “We are going to invest heavily in new technology and give more tools to our design team to try and move further up the grid.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/287623/force-india-receives-50-million-for-2013/

 

[RasputinLives]

Where the hell has he got that from? down the back of the sofa?

I don't understand the lives of the rich.

 

[gethinceri]

Well RasputinLives, let me explain.........................................................

 

[KekeTheKing]

"Safety Car in Brazil a Joke"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104605

Have to agree with Mr. Fernley here. It's hard to overstate how big a victory would have been for FI.

 

[gethinceri]

"Hulkenberg held the lead after the restart and stayed in front until an error on lap 48 allowed Lewis Hamilton through".
Hulkenburg's fault then, tough shit.

 

[RasputinLives]

Adrian Sutil is doing a big song and dance in the media about how he is able to get a visa to compete in every GP next year including China. Seems like he's sending a message to FI. I wonder if thats been a stumbling block as Force India said they'd announce it by now.

Media has it down to between Sutil, Senna and Bianchi. I think you know who I'm going for.

I reckon Senna will end up at Caterham if he doesn't land this one.

 

[siffert_fan]

Sutil will get the seat if FI are interested in performance at all. Senna is an embarrassment to F1 and rates right there with Piquet Jr (minus the intentional crash to benefit FA) IMHO.

 

[RasputinLives]

I'd much rather them give Bianchi a shot. Just think Sutil is the safe dull option and they already have a safe option in Di Resta.

Take a gamble on Bianchi like they did on Hulkenberg and it might pay off for them. They do say they're suppose to be moving forward.

 

[FB]

Doesn't Sutil bring sponsorship money with him though?