Paul di Resta has sent out a message to his Force India team: “Give me a faster car and I’ll get a podium. The Scot drove an impressive race in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, leading at one point and spending much of the grand prix in the top three. However Di Resta was passed by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who was on fresher option tyres, in the closing stages and had to settle for fourth. Despite just missing out on the first podium finish of his career, Di Resta told JA on F1 after the race that the team More…
Force India have today announced an extension to their engine agreement with Mercedes-Benz, which will see the German firm supply the team with the new powertrain system from 2014. The deal will see Mercedes supply Force India with the full Power Unit, transmission and all necessary systems for when the new regulations are installed next year. With 2014 bringing back turbo engines, Mercedes have spent much of their recent years developing the new 1.6 litre Power Unit that is expected to be the leading system in Formula One. The change to small, turbo charged engines has been driven by the More…
Force India’s Adrian Sutil has set his sights on a maiden podium in Formula 1 after twice leading the Australian Grand Prix before finishing seventh on his return to the sport. The German, 30, missed the 2012 season after being convicted of grievous bodily harm following an incident with Lotus F1 co-owner Eric Lux in Shanghai 2011. However, Sutil was given another chance by a team whom he drove for between 2007-11, beating off competition from Jules Bianchi for the seat alongside Paul di Resta. And the German, who only had three days of testing, delivered a brilliant performance to More…
Sahara Force India F1 team today ended the long running sage of who would fill the final seat on the F1 grid in 2013. Just 16 days before the drivers hit the track for Free Practice in Melbourne, Adrian Sutil was confirmed in the seat alongside Paul di Resta. Sutil, 30, who missed the 2012 season after being convicted of grevious bodily harm following an incident with Lotus F1 co-owner Eric Lux in Shanghai 2011, has been restored to F1 and has a point to prove. “I’m delighted to be back in Formula One, especially with a team I know More…
Vijay Mallya, the co-owner of Sahara Force India F1 team, has come under intense pressure from 17 creditor banks in India, who have lost patience and announced they are calling loans on his failing Kingfisher Airlines business, which is $1.3 billion in debt. The airline has been grounded since October last year, the debts mounting up. And according to the Financial Times newspaper today, some of Mallya’s trophy assets are being targetted as banks look to recoup their losses, “Now that his creditors have run out of patience and are calling in loans to Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, some of them More…
Force India launched its new car at a chilly Silverstone this morning, following on from launches by Lotus, Ferrari and McLaren. The VJM06, which is visually very similar to last year’s model, was rolled out in the pit lane by deputy team principal Bob Fearnley, driver Paul di Resta and technical director Andrew Green. There was no second driver announcement. Fearnley said that it is up to the teams’ shareholders to decide on who will fill the second seat and they aren’t there yet. Paddock gossip suggests that currently Jules Bianchi is in the strongest position, although Adrian Sutil has More…
Sebastian Buemi has revealed to Swiss paper Blick that his chances of returning to the F1 grid with Sahara Force India are finished, after he was informed by the team that he is out of the running. According to veteran Blick writer Roger Benoit, this leaves Jules Bianchi (pictured above with FI’s Bob Fearnley) in pole position for the seat, with former FI driver Adrian Sutil still a possibility. Bianchi’s case is apparently being helped by discussions with Ferrari over a supply of engines for 2014. It seems that there is a possibility that Force India could switch to the More…
In the third part of our series comparing team-mates’ head-to-head records at the end of 2012, we’ve taken a look at something slightly different in analysing how the very close battle for supremacy played out at Force India between Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg. Unlike the respective pairings we’ve covered at McLaren and Mercedes, di Resta and Hulkenberg’s time as team-mates has ultimately lasted just one year with the latter having decided to switch to Sauber for 2013. Their head-to-head data is therefore limited to just 20 races – but it’s a comparison still very much worth making given More…
Adrian Sutil says that there are no legal reasons why he cannot return to F1 as a Force India driver for next season. Sutil, who will turn 30 in January, lost his Force India drive in 2011 after being convicted in a German court of wounding Lotus F1 team executive Eric Lux in a night club brawl in Shanghai. But with Nico Hulkenberg moving on to Sauber for 2013, Sutil and his agent have worked hard behind the scened to force his way into contention. And he says that his criminal record will not be a barrier to getting visas More…
Sauber has confirmed the worst kept secret in F1 of the past two weeks: Nico Hulkenberg will drive for the Swiss team in 2013. With Sergio Perez moving to McLaren to replace Lewis Hamilton at season’s end, and Kamui Kobayashi’s future at the team looking increasing uncertain, Hulkenberg had moved firmly into view for Sauber particularly after rumoured suitors Ferrari opted to retain Felipe Massa. Rather like Lotus earlier this week, Sauber unusually didn’t confirm both of their drivers for next season together, simply stating that Hulkenberg’s team-mate would be revealed “at a later date”. Mexico’s latest young hope Esteban More…
Force India driver Paul di Resta has confirmed that he is no longer working with Anthony Hamilton, the father of McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton. The story broke in the Telegraph a couple of days ago and speaking in the FIA press conference at Silverstone, Di Resta refused to be drawn on the reasons, but said, “I can confirm that we are no longer working together. “At the moment I am focussed on the racing. It’s results that count and what drives me forward. To be one of three Brits racing here this weekend you get a feeling of what it More…
Vijay Mallya has set his Force India team the target of emulating the feats of perennial midfield rivals Sauber and Williams in achieving podium finishes this year so not to be left behind in the constructors’ championship. Force India went into this season appearing to be the most upwardly mobile of Formula 1’s midfield teams after a strong points-scoring run in the second half of last year secured them their best finishing position under Mallya’s control, sixth, and also nearly overhaul the team now known as Lotus. But in addition to seeing Lotus regroup over the winter and remerge as More…
Caterham technical director Mike Gascoyne has been awarded £400,000 in costs as the legal dispute between Force India and 1 Malaysia Racing Team (now known as Caterham, formerly Team Lotus) moved another step closer to conclusion today. In the original judgement in March, the judge found that a copyright infringement had taken place, but that it was not the ‘systematic copying’ which Force India alleged. He found that the windtunnel supplier Aerolab had misused Force India’s confidential information when Team Lotus was in a rush to design its first F1 car ahead of the 2010 F1 season. But he cleared More…
The first day’s running at the Sakhir circuit took place against in an edgy atmosphere as, for the first time in this Bahrain saga, events outside the circuit had a direct effect on the running of the Grand Prix. Force India decided not to run in second practice, to respect the wishes of their staff who have expressed concern about their safety travelling back from the circuit at night. They came under pressure to revise their decision over the lunch break, but clearly there is a lot of anxiety among team members, especially as there appears to have been a More…
A judgement has come out in the Force India legal case against Caterham over alleged intellectual property theft – and both sides are claiming a win. Force India issued a statement this morning saying that the judge had found “Team Lotus (now known as Caterham) and Aerolab liable for copyright infringement and using confidential information respectively. Some parts created using Force India confidential information were used on the Team Lotus race cars in the early part of the 2010 season.” Force India has referred the judgement to the FIA, who fined McLaren $100 million for taking Ferrari Intellectual Property in More…
Sahara Force India revealed its new car today at a freezing cold Silverstone, with a young dynamic driver line up and an ambitious target; to attain fifth place in the constructors’ championship. Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg and third driver Jules Bianchi look a potent force, with Force India’s proven system of developing young drivers through the Friday morning practice sessions working on several levels. It helps to bring through young drivers and to give them valuable track time, helping them to get race sharp and it puts constant pressure on the race drivers, which keeps them sharp and it More…
Former Force India driver Adrian Sutil has been in Munich this week appearing before public prosecutors charged with grievous bodily harm surrounding an incident with the co-owner of the Lotus F1 team in a Shanghai nightclub last April, and on Tuesday the court found the German driver guilty and gave him an 18-month suspended sentence. The 29-year-old was also handed a 200,000 euro (£166,139) fine, which will be paid to charities, according to the BBC. The two-day trial had centred around an incident following last year’s Chinese Grand Prix when Sutil had been in a nightclub celebrating his close friend More…
Today the Sahara Force India team confirmed the story which we first ran during the Brazil GP weekend: that Jules Bianchi will become its third driver. The 22 year old Frenchman will have the opportunity to drive on at least nine Grand Prix weekends in the Friday morning practice session. He will join a small but growing number of young drivers getting some regular track time on Fridays, including Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Lotus’ Jerome D’Ambrosio. Caterham are likely to have someone in that role and Marussia has also made use of the Friday morning opportunity too. It’s the right More…
Another midfield team has unveiled its driver line up for next year, but unlike Toro Rosso, which sacked both incumbents this week, Sahara Force India has gone with the line up which was predicted in the final third of this season. Paul di Resta keeps his seat for another year and Nico Hulkenberg steps up from reserve driver to race driver alongside him. This means that there is no place for Adrian Sutil, who has been with the team for four seasons. Sutil’s manager was a man on a mission in Brazil, which was the tell tale indicator that this More…
Force India boss Vijay Mallya today confirmed that he has sold 42.5% of the F1 team to Sahara India Pariwar, described as “a leading promoter and patron of sports in India.” The fee is US$100 million The deal therefore values the team at $235 million (£150 million), a significant uplift on the price Mallya paid to buy the team known as Spyker. It is the same Silverstone based team which was originally known as Jordan, founded by BBC pundit Eddie Jordan. “With this investment both the Sahara India Pariwar and Dr. Mallya will own 42.5% each in the team. The More…
McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh, Mercedes’ Ross Brawn, Virgin Racing’s Graeme Lowdon and Force India’s Robert Fearnley met face to face with 300 F1 fans at the FOTA Fans’ Forum, UK at McLaren Technology Centre to discuss topics raised by the fans and hear their points of view. Top of the agenda was fans’ concern that F1 should stay on Free to Air TV and the rumoured NewsCorp take over was discussed. The team principals also tackled the subject of F1′s green credentials, with Fearnley putting forward a slightly different tone from the others, describing F1 as “a celebration of excess.” “The More…
Spare a thought for Paul di Resta this weekend; the Scot finds himself in an unenviable position going into qualifying and the race after his car was crashed in Friday morning practice at Valencia by reserve driver Nico Hulkenberg. Di Resta did only three times laps at the end of the second session. It puts Di Resta at quite a serious disadvantage, as he has not been able to do any set up work, nor assess the new medium Pirelli tyre. As it’s a street circuit, he also has the problem of building up to the limit, where having those More…
Here is a video with Part 2 of the FOTA Fans Forum in Montreal, featuring F1 drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Hulkenberg as well as Team Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne discussing the stewards’ decisions on overtakes, collisions and “racing incidents” this year and also explaining to fans why F1 changes technical rules mid season, such as the blown diffuser, part of which looks set to be banned from Silverstone onwards.
It has just been announced that Force India’s case against 1 Malaysia, the owner of Team Lotus, for infringement of intellectual property, will be heard in the High Court in London on January 16 2012. Force India is also pursuing Lotus Technical director Mike Gascoyne personally as well as Aerolab, the wind tunnel where the two teams were working on cars when the alleged IP leakage is said to have occured. This may prove to be Lotus’ third appearance in the High Court in 12 months, following the one starting two weeks today between Group Lotus and 1 Malaysia Group More…
The second official test starts on Thursday at Jerez in Spain and in the last couple of days we have had the launch of the new Virgin and Force India cars. Hispania has yet to launch, but it released some images of the car today, just in front of Force India. It also announced that it will not take part in the Jerez test but will instead test in Italy on a Pirelli filming day. Virgin held a showbiz event at the BBC TV Centre on Monday. The car is the second F1 product from the digital nerve centre at More…
With five days to go until the start of the new testing season, the worst kept secret of the winter was confirmed today when the Force India team announced that its two race drivers this season will be Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta. Williams refugee Nico Hulkenberg becomes the reserve driver. It’s a great step for Di Resta, 24, who impressed last season in his role as Friday driver and as champion of the DTM with Mercedes. The support of the Stuttgart manufacturer has been instrumental in him getting the role. Di Resta beat reigning F1 champion Sebastian Vettel More…
The Force India team has yet to decide who will drive its cars, but behind the scenes the team has made some changes to the engineering management. Dominic Harlow becomes Head of Circuit Engineering, a role which is similar in scope to that of Pat Fry in the new Ferrari set-up. In addition to his role in charge of engineering operations at the races, he takes an overview role on the design and development side. Meanwhile Andy Green moves into the technical director’s chair, replacing Mark Smith, who will soon leave the team to join his mentor Mike Gascoyne at More…
Still no word from Force India on its driver line up for the coming season. There are three jobs available; the two race drivers and the Friday/test driver. There has been speculation that the race drivers will be Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta with Williams refugee Nico Hulkenberg taking the test slot, but no confirmation. It truly is a buyer’s market for Force India at the moment. But one person for whom this does not work is Tonio Liuzzi, who has broken his silence today with an interview on Italian website 422.com. Liuzzi would not be doing this if More…
Welcome to our look-back at the key decisions which made the Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is normally a frustrating race for team strategists. Qualifying is so important, it sets the tone for the race and only the start and the sole pit stop give any real opportunity to gain track positions. That said, a safety car at the right moment can make a big difference and this is what happened for Fernando Alonso. For the rest, the start was decisive in the battle between Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel, while the timing of the pit stop led to some changes More…
Today saw the penultimate launch of the ‘established’ teams in Formula 1. Force India unveiled their VJM03 to the world and tomorrow it will run for the first time in the test at Jerez. Tonio Liuzzi will drive the car for the first two days and then Adrian Sutil will take over for the final two days. Last year’s car turned out to be one of the revelations of the season on the low downforce tracks in particular. Giancarlo Fisichella stuck his car on pole in Spa and raced to second place, while Adrian Sutil got a front row slot More…
It’s rare in Formula 1 that a team gets to enjoy a moment of pure ecstasy, without something coming along to spoil it. And so it is proving for Force India, which scored a magnificent podium from pole position in yesterday’s Belgian Grand Prix, but today is having a very public internal argument about whether its podium hero Giancarlo Fisichella is moving to Ferrari for the next race. Fisichella was faster than Kimi Raikkonen in yesterday’s race and it was only because of the KERS on the Ferrari that the race swung away from him. The team could still have More…
The Force India team had an embarrassing moment this morning when a legal dispute spilled over into the paddock as German police officials tried to impound their motorhome and other assets. It relates to a dispute with a supplier over the motorhome. It happened at breakfast time and guests of team sponsor Medion were forced to go to the Williams motorhome for a coffee. The team were able to compete in both practice sessions and it has indicated that the situation has been resolved and there will be no more disruptions this weekend. Giancarlo Fisichella had a strong first practice, More…
Things are really starting to hot up now as the new season approaches and the final two tests before the first race are upon us. This week Jerez, next week Barcelona. We will know who’s looking good and who’s not in the next fortnight. The new Force India package has been launched and this team are demanding that we take them seriously. There is every reason to. They have made a very smart technical and strategic alliance with McLaren. This means that in addition to a McLaren man moving in as the CEO of Force India, they will run the More…
The news that Force India has established a five year technical collaboration with McLaren and Mercedes comes as no surprise, indeed both sides have been talking about it for some months now. But it is quite a significant move for several reasons. It marks the first time that Mercedes has supplied a second team with engines. They’ve considered it many times, but never actually gone through with it. Meanwhile Ferrari has had a very nice little business going for years supplying Toro Rosso, before that Red Bull, Spyker, Prost, Sauber. And that was in the good old days when they More…
Fernando Alonso
Kimi Räikkönen
Felipe Massa
Sebastian Vettel
Mark Webber Nico Rosberg
Paul di Resta Jenson Button
Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Sebastian Vettel Kimi Räikkönen Fernando Alonso Lewis Hamilton Felipe Massa Mark Webber
Romain Grosjean Paul di Resta Nico Rosberg Jenson Button Sergio Perez Daniel Ricciardo Adrian Sutil Nico Hulkenberg Jean-Eric Vergne Esteban Gutierrez Valtteri Bottas
Pastor Maldonado Jules Bianchi Charles Pic
Giedo van der Garde Max Chilton
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