Pride of India

It took one amongst the richest Indians to form India’s first Formula One motor racing team, formed in October, 2007. The consortium was led by Vijay Mallya, owner of Kingfisher Airlines, and Michiel Mol who for a whopping eighty eight million pounds bought the Spykar F1 team. The change in the name from Spykar to Force India on 24th October was confirmed by the Federation International de l’Automobile.

The Path is Set

Force India Formula One is based in Silverstone, Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom, Vijay Mallya being the team principal, and James Key the Technical Director. Kingfisher, the brand owned by Mallya is the primary sponsor. There were other sponsors for the year 2008 like ICICI Bank, Kanyan Capital, Medion and reliance Industries limited, most being Indian brands. This is the first foray into Formula One racing by India, truly pioneering. Kingfisher is also the sponsor for FMS International, another GP2 team which is owned for Fisichella. Airbus and EADS supports Force India F1 technologically and from 2009, will partner technically with McLaren.

Short Career Span

Even the roots of the team are relatively new which began in 1991 as Jordan Grand Prix, although the current team was created in 2007. Although Jordan had the pleasure of competing in the Formula One and even running close to the title in 1999, financial problems crept in with the result of the team’s performance drying up. Eddie Jordan who was the owner then realized that the team’s future was in hot water and the only escape would be by selling the team. It was sold to the Spykar team in the end of the 2006 season but again, the exorbitant costs of running even a small Formula One team brought about the sale of the team to Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol, the Orange Holdings group, which took over the team’s ownership. Force India team selected to use the VJM-01 chassis which was the updated version of Spykar’s car the previous year. In 2008, Ferrari engines were used with the deal that they would be continued till 2010. Also, much to the pride of the country, the Indian flag was used as its team logo. It has a contract with Adrian Sutil till 2008. At the Monaco Force,Force India almost scored their first points as Sutil had run almost as high till third early in the race. However, Kimi Raikkonen’s move forced him to retire. Force India made the announcement that they would continue with the same drivers even in 2009 on October 17, 2009. The VJM-02 is the newer version which is powered by Mercedes-Benz from the season of 2009, signing a ten year deal on 10 November, 2008.

Debut

Its debut was made in the Australian Grand Prix, 2008 and its latest race was in the 2009 British Grand Prix. Its position in 2008 was tenth.