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.

 

[Il_leone]

Plutus

Using your money and "pretending" to invest in some sporting project is a good way to money launder. Force India have been in the same position now for 3 or 4 years ... I am not saying they throw silly money to bankrupt the team but show ambition that they want to move up the grid

Supposedly when Sahara bought a large controlling stake in Force India .. it was meant to help relieve the pressure of VJ supplying the funds for the team by himself

Last year they had a car which was capable of getting on the podium but the results never came . There seems to be very shoddy and at times amateurish operational errors creeping into the team witnessed by their pitstop bungles and strategy running in qualifying

they are still relying on pay per drivers

 

[Plutus]

Plutus

Using your money and "pretending" to invest in some sporting project is a good way to money launder. Force India have been in the same position now for 3 or 4 years ... I am not saying they throw silly money to bankrupt the team but show ambition that they want to move up the grid

Supposedly when Sahara bought a large controlling stake in Force India .. it was meant to help relieve the pressure of VJ supplying the funds for the team by himself

Last year they had a car which was capable of getting on the podium but the results never came . There seems to be very shoddy and at times amateurish operational errors creeping into the team witnessed by their pitstop bungles and strategy running in qualifying

they are still relying on pay per drivers

The results you expected never came because the car wasn't capable of beating the other cars. Apart from the one race in Malaysia the team didn't do to much wrong. If you describe that as amateurish, I'd like to know your stance on the McLaren Team, who have been battling with similar issues and various other ones that seem to keep returning for years. By the way, they invest twice the money Force India does.

Are they relying on Perez? Look at the space Telmex has on the car, do you think Slim is throwing 20 Mio.$ or more at the team for that advertising space, you must be out of your mind. Hulkenberg has something like 3 Mio. $ he could bring to the team, well that really makes him a pay driver, every team must be after the guy. I wonder why he didn't land the seat at Lotus.

Your posting doesn't make any sense to me, quite clearly it is flawed.

 

[Il_leone]

Plutus Force India did not have a bad car last year it was even better than Mclaren's at the start of the season

They could have got a podium in Bahrain as on race pace it was the 2nd fastest car
They should have scored more points with that car

My point with Force India is VJ has now got a business partner in Sahara who suppose to have slosh of money to invest in the team and therefore rely less on VJ. However it appears to me Sahara do not really want to be involved in the Force India at all
and the fact you constantly here the team is in money trouble makes you wonder what is the purpose of the owners anyway when F1 is an expensive business to run

Is Perez a better driver than Di Resta who they replaced him with .. not really so what do you think could have swayed the team apart from Di Resta's sulking?

 

[teabagyokel]

The fact that di Resta guaranteed limited exposure for sponsors since the only time the camera ever saw him, the car was in the wall.

 

[Il_leone]

teabagyokel Whilst Sutil last year was more interested in blocking Hamilton to settle a personal score and costing the team points

 

[teabagyokel]

Il_leone - I can't criticise Force India for keeping Sutil on, because they haven't!

I happen to think Hulkenburg/Perez is an excellent driver line up for a team of Force India's size.

 

[Plutus]

Il_leone
It was a great race by all 4 drivers in Bahrain. Di Resta stood no chance against Red Bull and the Lotus. The Lotus was the faster car on a long run and more easier on the tires than the Force India, it was clearly the third fastest car. Di Resta finished higher than he actually should have because Webber was nowhere, once again. Sutil got caught up in an accident, I think that happens it is just bad luck.
Last years car was good at nursing the tires but it lacked speed. The combination of both was better at other teams and as the season progressed and the tires changed they also lost their main advantage to McLaren. It was inevitable that they would probably lose the development race against McLaren due to tremendous funding difference at the teams.

Sahara did invest in the team by buying 42% of the shares according to various news sources that alone cost him 100 Mio. $.
Your point was that the team have no sporting ambitions. Business issues do not interfere with sporting ambitions and that Mallya, who lacked the finances and may have seen his team in danger, sold shares for 100 Mio. $ indicates to me that he does have ambitions for the team to do its best under his leadership.
The loss against McLaren in the WCC and the possibly missed podiums do not imply that he is lacking the ambition to improve. A team owner is always limited in the ways he can make his team successful. He has to put responsibility into other people hands such as technicians, designers and drivers etc.. If they have proven not to meet the expectations under the given circumstances the team owner must decide whether the employment relationship should be continued.
As we know now Mallya was not happy with his drivers and replaced those of last season. Hulkenberg who has proven his qualities and should be an improvement compared to Sutil and Di Resta on the condition that he performs as well as he did the last two years.
The other is Perez, he has also shown that he is skilled driver and that he is worthy of a seat in F1. He put up a fight against former WC last year. I personally believe that Perez is a better driver than Di Resta. Even if they are equally bad why not sign Perez if he brings bags of money with him. And there we are. Back to the finances. Perez's money may help the team this coming season and beyond because they want to make progress.
Do you think there is any other better driver than Perez available at the moment, a driver who has proven himself in F1?

 

[Il_leone]

Plutus

Nope but then again I wonder if Heikki could have done more with the car if he was given the chance

We don't know if Algarsuari would have done a better job who is one driver if the stories are true whose been messed around by VJ

Last year was a bit ridiculous - they tested 4 different in the 2nd car before plonking for Sutil given the limited track testing time !

 

[Plutus]

Who is Alguersuari?

You wonder if Heikki could have done more with the car?
Heikki who was beaten by Petrov in 2012 and beaten by Trulli in 2010. Admittedly he looked good against him in 2011, probably because Trulli had given up due to the teams attitude towards problems with the power steering.

Sutil proved he didn't need more track time his racing was excellent at the first race in Melbourne.

 

[Il_leone]

For Hulkenberg this season he needs to thrash Perez if he wants a future drive at Ferrari or Mclaren

----

Sutil showed he was not race rusty but why did the team dither for so long then?

 

[Plutus]

Contract negotiations, I guess.

 

[RasputinLives]

Jamie Alguersauri = The man who would be god!

I was never convinced by him I have to say. Maybe he'll prove me wrong in Formula E when it kicks off.

As for FI's driver line up last year - It became very clear as the season went on that going for experience (Sutil) over talent (Bianchi) was the wrong move. Would have been interesting to see what Jules would have done and it certainly would have fired a rocket up Di Resta's backside.

But that was last year. Can't really fault their driver line up this season.

 

[nenoste95]

Two drivers about 10th position during the practices this morning. What position they could reach tomorrow?

 

[teabagyokel]

They are going to average out at SHP*, aren't they?

*SHP - Standard Hulkenburg position - 4th-9th

 

[Titch]

Hulkenberg is a good driver. I wish he was Vettels team mate.

 

[RasputinLives]

I bet Vettel is glad he's not. Hulkenberg is team mate killer and I think Perez is his next victim.

 

[mjo]

Looks like they've got some new sponsorship:

 

[RasputinLives]

Either that or their delievering parcels now.

 

[teabagyokel]

So that is white, black, red, yellow, green and orange. All on one car? Even MC Lola had a theme!

 

[sushifiesta]

Ewww.