Force India's (ex?) boss is a wanted man.

The increasingly oddly coiffed Indian businessman Vijay Mallya is in such hot water with creditors that they have petitioned authorities for his arrest and the seizure of his passport.


It seems Mallya's defunct Kingfisher airlines defaulted on $1B+ in loans,  creditors want to get their hands on a $75M severance package the Force India principal negotiated in exchange for stepping down as chairman of his liquor company, United Spirits Limited.

The fate of Force India is murkier.  Malaya insists he is still in control but it's rumored he put up his stake in the team as collateral for a $135M loan liquor giant Diageo, the company which bought out United Spirits,  guaranteed to finance the company Mallya uses to finance his F1 team.

The other shareholder in Force India, the Sahara Group is trying unsuccessfully to sell its stake. Subarea Roy, Sahara's founder and friend of Mallya has been in jail for fraud on such epic scale that indian courts turned down a $5B offer for bail to release him!

For his part,  Mallya insists there is no problem with the team.   Look to the Monaco GP this year to see if the Indian tycoon  will host his customary no holds barred party onboard his yacht, the Indian Empress

The Force India VJM07 is the first 2014 F1 car to break cover

Sort of,  obviously a rendering so don't expect this to be the final configuration but this is the new look for the Indian team.  More black and the addition of Mexican sponsors brought by Checo Perez.

The nose is not clearly visible but looks fairly traditional (and attractive) in this "launch" guise.

F1 news: Force India on the verge of collapse?

Paul di Resta, Brazil 2012

Force India in crisis.  According to some, the English team is on the verge of total collapse.
Vijay Mallya, the team principal who in 2007 bought the dutch Spyker, has run into serious financial difficulties with his companies and cannot support his team any longer.    According to OneIndia, Mallya's airline, Kingfisher, is in dire straights having failed to meet yet another reorganization plan demanded by Indian Civil Aviation authorities.  Other businesses Mallya is involved in, United Spirits and Diageo (owners of the Johnny Walker brand among many others) are also in some trouble.

VJ Mallya

Losing another team after the demise of HRT would be disastrous so Bernie Ecclestone  is said to have activated a plan to rescue the team, or at least the entry for 2013.

In 2005, Ecclestone was instrumental in keeping what was Jordan in F1 when it got into trouble.   At the end of that season, Jordan, the team where Schumacher started his F1 career, was bought by Midland, owned by the Russian-Canadian Alex Shnaider.  Shnaider only lasted one year before giving up and selling the spot to Spyker's Michael Mol.  A failure as well,  the team was bought by Mallya at the end on 2007.   Mallya had ample pockets and this gave the team some stability but in the past few months this has all changed.

There is talk of a possible return of Colin Kolles, dentist and manager trusted by Ecclestone who was already involved in  operations at Jordan and HRT.   Another name floating about is that of Flavio Briatore.

Paul di Resta,  confirmed for 2013 has been telling the press he could not explain why it was taking so long for the team to name a second driver.  That second seat at Force India, or whatever it will be called if Ecclestone's operations are successful, will certainly be sold at a very high price, possibly as an expensive training spot for Ferrari's Jules Bianchi?

(via Massimo Costa/ItaliaRacing)

UPDATE:  Plot thickens, in essence from the german text, team spokesman predictably denies but evidence exists of a deal to sell the team....

Spaghetti Gangsta!

Who said Formula 1 drivers have no sense of humor: this is Tonio Liuzzi's helmet for Monza! FTW!

Actually there is more to it than that: the helmet , by Kaos-Design, glows in the dark and has heat sensitive paint!...don't believe it, check it out after the jump
(Kaos-Design via Omnicorse.it)


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Force India VJM03 Testing.

VJM03 track footage: Footage from the shakedown of the VJM03 at Silverstone (Stowe Circuit). Adrian Sutil puts the car through its paces in advance of the official test.





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Rule of Thumb: in Formula 1, NO means YES

When just over twenty four hours ago Vijay Mallya declared that the has been no contact with Ferrari and Fisichella was looking forward to driving for Force India at Monza, what he really meant was, it's a done deal.

Of course when yesterday he declared that there had been no financial quid pro quo with Maranello, what he meant was: yes, we made a deal for that 2008 engine bill I still have not paid.

I don't think for a second that Ferrari paid 4.5 million, the rumored amount outstanding debt from Force India, for Fisichella's services but I'm sure some restructuring and accommodations were made.

It is also interesting to note that Fisichella had a "per point" contract with Force India, apparently at 200000 Euro per. Fisico scored eight points in Belgium and might have scored more at Monza. He may have actually just bought his way out of the Force India contract!

Luca di Montezemolo in an interview to Italy's RAI 1 declared he chose Fisichella because he's "in good form, he's experienced and especially because he's Italian" . Again, one can't help being skeptical, Fisichella has been passed over by Ferrari all these years, despite "being Italian" for quite a while now.

Ferrari needed a driver with no prospects for the future and who would not demand a racing seat in 2010, this is certainly why Kubica, for example, was not chosen. Then again, Di Montezemolo stated Fisichella will be "Ferrari's third driver" in 2010, most likely this just means he will be the reserve driver but, who knows, maybe the three car team option will materialize at which point Fisichella will be set aside until Schumacher decides if his neck looks best with a HANS or a tiger claw necklace around it.

Everyone is happy for Fisichella, he's been a consistent driver who never quite got the right ride at the right time and in this whole affair is the only guy who's words can be taken at face value, when he says driving for Ferrari is a dream come true, he really does mean it.




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Horse Meat Vindaloo!

...that must be what Fisichella had for breakfast this morning. Dangle the possibility of even a temporary Ferrari drive in front of someone and look what happens!

I'm sure it escaped no one that the top three places on the grid went to three drivers fighting for their place in Formula 1 next season, Trulli and Heidfeld and three teams with uncertain futures.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the last time two Italians qualified on the front row of a Grand Prix was at the 1953 French Grand Prix when Alberto Ascari was on pole in a Ferrari 500 next to Felice Bonetto in a Maserati. Seems incredible, any historians out there?

Meanwhile, Button seems to have totally crumbled under pressure, despite his protestations to the contrary. Getting shellacked by Barrichello in the same car does not look too good for a potential champion.

The Mclarens are in trouble on a track with long fast corners but the real surprise is Red Bull who must be concerned about engines blowing up.

Raikkonen looks pretty racy, it will be interesting to see the qualifying weights later.

Check out Fisichella and Force India's historic lap.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Q1        Q2        Q3      
1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.102  1:44.667  1:46.308
2.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:45.140  1:44.503  1:46.395
3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.566  1:44.709  1:46.500
4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.237  1:44.834  1:46.513
5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:45.655  1:44.557  1:46.586
6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:45.579  1:44.953  1:46.633
7.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:45.450  1:44.877  1:46.677
8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.372  1:44.592  1:46.761
9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:45.350  1:44.924  1:46.788
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:45.486  1:45.047  1:47.362
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:45.486  1:45.119
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.239  1:45.122
13.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:45.767  1:45.136
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:45.707  1:45.251
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:45.761  1:45.259
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.705
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:45.951
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:46.032
19.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:46.307
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               (B)  1:46.359

All Timing Unofficial

Here are the weights, Force India is running light but so are Glock and Kubica, Barrichello is even lighter. Trulli, Raikkonen, Heidfeld and Webber are on the same strategy while Rosberg and Vettel are running heavy.

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)
 1.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  648.0           
 2.  Trulli       Toyota                656.5           
 3.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            655.0           
 4.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        644.5           
 5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            649.0           
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               655.0           
 7.  Glock        Toyota                648.5           
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      662.5           
 9.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      658.0           
10.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       670.0           
11.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  678.5*          
12.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      693.5*          
13.  Alonso       Renault               684.4*          
14.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        694.2*          
15.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      697.0*          
16.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    685.0*          
17.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    704.5*          
18.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       706.1*          
19.  Grosjean     Renault               704.7*          
20.  Badoer       Ferrari               691.5*          
                                                        
* declared weight

And here is the rest of it.

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Can we give Force India bonus points?

...what race fan does not feel terrible for Adrian Sutil? In a race that showed how being good is not as good as being lucky and good, the sight of the Force India car stopped in the pits after getting punted by Raikkonen was just devastating.

Hamilton proved the point about luck and skill when he was awarded the Golden Safety Car (and Magic Padded Guard Rail) award early on an then took full advantage of his skills in the rest of race. Kubica, another great race. Ferrari an embarrassment with Raikkonen's penalty. Massa tossed a race win away. And Kovalainnen? what if?

But join me in a salute to Force India and Adrian Sutil, the underdog stars of the race!



And here is another guy who could not catch a break today. On the SpeedTV broadcast they were speculating that Rosberg hit an inside curb and slid wide, from the replay it looks like he loses the rear end on turn in and is just a passenger from then on, hard to say for sure without an onboard.

Blowing Hot Air

Team Force India are the first, as far as I can tell, with this clever new brake cooling solution.

Usually, as soon as an F1 car pulls into the pits, mechanics rush to in with these modified leaf-blower things but the ex-Spyker team have these elegant carbon fiber clip on extraction fans.

Of course if they move to a Ferrari style wheel shroud those will become very expensive rechargeable desk fans laptop coolers!

Formula Bollywood

I think the ill fitting leather Nerhu jackets and jodhpurs might finally have bested Coulthards Superman suit.
The look on Fisichellas face ... And he raised millions to buy that jacket!