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.

 

[Bill Boddy]

For some time he has been the emperor with no clothes, a bit like Robert Maxwell; the world's press knew that he was bankrupt but also knew that if they said anything his lawyers would be down on them like a ton of bricks.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Isn't it funny how Vijay is short of cash yet his team isn't doing too badly where as Tony Fernandes was loaded and Caterham were rubbish.

 

[teabagyokel]

VJM should have a crack at QPR.

 

[Mephistopheles]

ut also knew that if they said anything his lawyers would be down on them like a ton of bricks.

How can a person afford a team of lawyers if he is brassic....

 

[Il_leone]

cider_and_toast Tony Fernandes jumped ship early because he came across as some rich guy and really ambitious and got his fingers burned and still is recovering from the situation at QPR

How can anyone think giving money to sign 29 players over a summer would transform QPR from a championship team to a premiership powerhouse... it was toxic because a lot of them were there for the money and were not committed and used their agents to promote their impressive Cv to justify their wages ---- sounds like a few F1 drivers who don't deserve to be on the grid

Fernandes had to get out at the detriment of Caterham.. VJ has been discrete certainly he is less well known unless you 're in the airline business and Indian Premier LEague cricket

VJ got Sahara in so there is less attention on him funding Force India but Sahara are proving just as suspicious as they don't seem to be want to be fully involved in the team and have their own financial concerns

 

[Bill Boddy]

How can a person afford a team of lawyers if he is brassic....

He just took more money out of the workers pension fund.

 

[RasputinLives]

Force India want everyone to know their is no truth in the rumour that they aren't going to make it to Melbourne for the first race of the season.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/31126707

Thats great news............although it worries me that they feel the need to deny a rumour that I actually don't think existed in the first place. The lady doth protest to much.

 

[cider_and_toast]

And it's now wonder the powers that be are falling over themselves to ensure that Marussia are on hand as a back up plan against the "three car rule"

It's all getting a bit messy isn't it?

 

[RasputinLives]

Renault to buy Force India and run factory team rumour.

http://www.f1nova.com/renault-could-buy-force-india/

Anything could happen at this stage and I wouldn't be shocked.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Whaaaaat ??

Why on earth would they do that when they could have almost certainly purchased Team Enstone back last year?

This is getting stupid.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Oh what a tangled web....

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/indias-sahara-says-bank-letter-183941921.html

So Sahara's assets may be sold off. I wonder if Force India is an asset or a liability.

 

[Titch]

Will anyone, other than the top three teams, make it to the start of the season?

 

[teabagyokel]

They could well regret pulling the plug on Manor soon.

 

[Il_leone]

Does anyone notice most of Force India's recent comments seems to be coming from Bob Fearnley not VJ Mallya these days when trying to address the press about speculations

 

[TomysF1]

Renault to buy Force India and run factory team rumour.

http://www.f1nova.com/renault-could-buy-force-india/

Anything could happen at this stage and I wouldn't be shocked.

I can't imagine Renault desire to enter Formula One with entire team. Particularly when they have lot to do on power unit side

 

[TomysF1]

Does anyone notice most of Force India's recent comments seems to be coming from Bob Fearnley not VJ Mallya these days when trying to address the press about speculations

It's usual for him. He effectively acts as Team principal. He was the only one considering USGP boycott when everybody else didn't hear it, including his boss VJM.

 

[RasputinLives]

Delay on Force India is all Marussia and Caterhams fault shocker

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/...in-part-by-collapse-of-caterham-and-marussia/

That 'little teams stick together' attitude has gone right out the window hasn't it?

 

[cider_and_toast]

"As you know we’ve recently started working with Toyota’s wind tunnel at their facility in Cologne,” Fernley told the Press Association. “However, the Toyota people had agreements with Caterham, and quite rightly until they could resolve their Caterham issues we could not move in with our contract."

Absolutely understand this and since the Toyota wind tunnel is the only one available in the whole world I can also see why they couldn't make any alternative arrangements until the Toyota one became available.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yes. Basically they are saying if the other teams hadn't ran up massive debts then people wouldn't have been alert to teams running up massive debts and then they'd have been free to run up a massive debt before anyone asked them for cash.

Hmmmm.

 

[teabagyokel]

If Toyota's wind tunnel was so good etc. etc.