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.

 

[teabagyokel]

They led the last race...

They're a farce!

 

[Brogan]

A couple of interesting articles about Sahara.

SEBI orders freezing of two Sahara firms' assets

Sahara - massive, splashy ... and mysterious

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

Maybe you're right as Di Resta confirmed Force India actually don;t get any help from Mercedes just the engines which they have to pay

I think when Mercedes were still part of Mclaren there was more involvement in getting drivers like Di Resta some mileage and experience into F1

But since Mercedes bought Brawn they've obviously reduced their efforts in their engine partners

It was Di Resta's association with Mercedes that got him his break in F1 with Force India
--------------------------

Di Resta was rated highly by Norbert Haug and the rumours kept persisting he was going to replace Schumacher given Mercedes tradition with young drivers


Now Norbert has quit - it is not as clear for Di Resta as Wolff who would have known from DTM days seems to be asked to concentrate on all motorsport activities and not solely F1

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

I remember Force India's predecessors Spyker (remember them!) saying their other businesses doing badly would not affect the status of the F1 team then and guess what they sold the team .

Looks like history is repeating itself

There is something shady about the owners of Force India ...VJ has been in the news - bad publicity over his faltering airline and now Sahara as well

I seriously think now Hulkenberg has made a good move at the right time .

 

[gethinceri]

Di Resta, in to F1 on Mercedes coin? Possibly. Into F1 on DTM and Mercedes coin? More likely. Having to fend for himself now that the Mercedes link is tenuous? Probably. Put up in 2013 or shut up? Definitely.

 

[Il_leone]

DI Resta has to prove himself why he deserves a top drive now and come out with more credibility this season

Not like Nick Heidfeld who ended up getting sacked by Sauber ruthlessly and his career could have been finished then after getting rejected by Mclaren

I know he is under the same management of Jenson Button but it would create some irony if Jenson has a poor season and the management team are then working on Di Resta to replace him at Mclaren
-------------------------

The only thing Di Resta can do is to beat his teammate comprehensively even a rusty Sutil who may come back

 

[Bill Boddy]

It would definitely be better for di Resta to edge it over Sutil than to beat Karthikeyan by a country mile.

 

[Brogan]

Sutil just confirmed on Sky that he hasn't brought any sponsorship at all to Force India.

So FI are taking a gamble that Sutil will earn the team more money through WCC points alone than Bianchi would have provided via sponsors + WCC points.

 

[teabagyokel]

Well, their theory seems to be to stick with what they know. Fair enough.

I just suspect that what they know is they've just let the best driver they've ever had go off to a midfield rival.

 

[Il_leone]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20202254

Just something about VJ's struggling airline business for those interested in aviation

 

[KekeTheKing]

Force India looked utterly helpless/hopeless/hapless in the pit lane today. Seriously embarrassing.

McLaren you've got a new benchmark for ineptitude.

 

[Fenderman]

Force India looked utterly helpless hopeless in the pit lane today. Seriously embarrassing.

McLaren you've got a new benchmark for ineptitude.

A small edit.

 

[Brogan]

It was a problem/failure/defect with the new wheel nuts.

 

[Fenderman]

That's okay then

 

[Il_leone]

The pitstops were comical and lost the team points

I get the feeling it is going to be one of those seasons for Di Resta where the team will let him

Last week they told him not to pass Sutil despite being about 2 seconds a lap faster at the end and doing all the hard work getting in Q3

THis week they stack him behind Sutil and when he was on a charge to get some points he was screwed over on his next pitstop

Have the team spent too long dily dallying about who should be driving in their cars that they forgotten how to do pitstops

Meanwhile Hulkenberg beat both of them in the race just to rub it in

 

[Brogan]

Sigh...it wasn't the pit stops, nor anything to do with any team member.

The design of the new wheel nuts is defective so they had to retire both cars due to safety reasons.

 

[siffert_fan]

This is the sort of thing that is supposed to be detected and corrected during pre-season testing. I'm afraid that the team was too distracted by their driver-selection circus to get maximum benefit from the testing, perhaps thru not pushing the cars hard enough to reveal such problems.

 

[Il_leone]

Force India confirms they will run Mercedes engines from 2014 on a long term that makes them the junior team I guess

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21964897

Interestingly the article said the deal breaker was getting Sutil back into the team rather than Bianchi with Ferrari engines

hmmm something tells me Mercedes want at least a German driver in that team

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Awesome start to the season for Force India. Having continued with what they were developing from the end of last season. I bet Nico Hulkenberg's kicking himself now seeing as how much better the FI car is and without that cock up with the wheel nuts in Malaysia the team would have had even more points over Sauber. Paul is really starting to turn in some stellar performances and I hope that FI can continue to develop the car throughout the season. Big race from them today and that Podium will surely be not to far around the corner, sneaky beat for Canada .

 

[Il_leone]

HammydiRestarules

At the moment the car is quicker than the Mclaren so said it was the fastest car race pace was Sutil

I'd be interested to see how long they can maintain the performance to hang in with the big boys

That is before the rumours about money troubles fly around again about the owners