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Force India
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| Base: |
Silverstone, UK |
|
| Drivers: |
A Sutil |
|
G Fisichella |
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| Test Drivers: |
V Liuzzi, R Rodriguez, G van der Garde |
| Chassis: |
|
| Engine: |
Ferrari |
| Tyres: |
Bridgestone Potenza |
| First Season: |
2008 |
| World Championships: |
0 |
| Highest race finish: |
0 |
| Pole Positions: |
0 |
| Fastest Laps: |
0 |
|
History
The rebranded Force India squad will carry the hopes of a nation on its shoulders.
Billionaire new co-owner Vijay Mallya has promised to give the team once known as Jordan the resources it has dearly lacked in recent years.
He believes Force India can help Formula 1 tap into India's vast passion for sport.
Mallya's initial ambition is for a Force India driver to finish on the podium in the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2010.
Given that his team – in its previous Spyker incarnation – spent most of 2007 on the back row of the grid, there is plenty of work to be done in the next two seasons.
But the raw ingredients are in place.
In its late 1990s heyday, Jordan was a title contender, and many of the personnel from that era remain on board.
Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne is among them, having returned to the team after playing pivotal roles in setting Renault on the path to title glory and giving Toyota its sole impressive F1 season.
Force India also has a very determined driver line-up in the experienced Giancarlo Fisichella and rising star Adrian Sutil.
It will take more than a year to close the gap even to the midfield runners, but Force India has a fighting chance of achieving its backer's New Delhi podium goal.
F1 track record
Force India personnel hope they are now entering a period of stability after four changes of ownership in as many seasons.
The team began life as Jordan in 1991, when charismatic Irishman Eddie Jordan decided to move his ultra-successful team from the junior series to F1.
The squad arrived with a bang – its attractive 191 chassis earning fifth in the constructors' championship.
After that the harsh realities of F1 hit, and it would be three seasons before Jordan reached the podium, and another four before it won a race.
Two more victories followed in 1999, when Heinz-Harald Frentzen looked like he might even snatch the title for Jordan.
That proved to be the team's high point, for Jordan was ill-equipped to match the lavishly funded manufacturer squads that flooded into F1 in the early 2000s.
A shock win in Brazil in 2003 provided a last hurrah for the team, which slithered ever further down the field before being bought by Russian Alex Shnaider's Midland corporation in early 2005.
Even before the team's 2006 relaunch as MF1 Racing there were rumours that Shnaider had already lost interest, and sure enough a Dutch consortium took over later in the year.
Their reign also proved short-lived.
The team was renamed Spyker, in deference to the Dutch sportscar company that formed part of the ownership group, but the car firm's financial troubles threatened to filter down to the F1 operation.
The team pressed on amid this uncertainty, but with little money to spend and no stability, the cars were firmly rooted to the back of the grid.
The news last autumn that existing director Michiel Mol was joining Mallya in a buy-out finally gave the hard-working squad some cause for optimism.
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