FORCE INDIA SAVED
New owners should help struggling F1 team deliver crucial updates
Force India’s new ownership will allow it to press on with crucial upgrades that could be ready in time for the first race after Formula 1’s summer break.
A consortium that is led by Lawrence Stroll, father of current Williams driver Lance, agreed a deal last week with the team’s administrators to take control of the outfit and secure its future.
Force India’s creditors will be paid in full, all 405 jobs at the team have been saved and on-going funding has been guaranteed.
The new set-up, which signed an exclusivity agreement last week, takes over ownership of the team from Vijay Mallya and Orange India Holdings Sarl.
The team’s chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said he was hopeful the squad would have its upgrades by the Spa race next weekend, but admitted it may need to wait a little longer.
“I hope that’s the case,” he said. “If not, definitely by Monza.
“There are some components that have been put on hold and I don’t know where the suppliers will get to because they don’t work over the break.
“So, we’re only going to have a couple of days before Spa. But if not before then, before Monza.”
The team will receive some funding immediately with more to come in the next two to three weeks, once its emergence from administration is complete, which will also allow it to resume work on its 2019 challenger.
“We definitely need the funding otherwise this doesn’t work,” said Szafnauer.
“We have to start paying our suppliers and purchase some needed materials for both upgrades for this year and for next year’s car.
“We’re in the midst of building next year’s car and without funding we wouldn’t have been able to do that.
“It’s much needed and couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Szafnauer admitted the team feared it would suffer the same demise as Caterham and Manor after falling into administration.
When Caterham and Marussia went into administration at the end of 2014, only Marussia continued, having gained fresh investment under the Manor name. However, it was placed in administration again at the end of 2016 and then collapsed for good.
“Once we went into administration, there were a couple that have been there and didn’t come out,” Szafnauer said. “So, there is a lot of trepidation amongst all the
team members, and a lot of anxiety, because we didn’t know where it was going to go.
“It’s a huge relief to know there’s a future for the team. We’ll be able to continue as a normal Formula 1 team.”
Szafnauer played a key role in helping the administrators find the investors ( for details on the consortium, see right).
The new owners’ plan regarding senior team personnel is unknown. Mallya, co-owner of the team for the last 11 years, had been its official team principal, with Bob Fernley acting as his deputy.
Szafnauer said he did not know if he and Fernley would retain their positions.
“It’s early days,” Szafnauer said. “I would hope they would keep the senior management on. This just happened, I haven’t sat down with the new owners to say ‘what do you want to do?’”
Stroll has been helping bankroll Williams recently, and his son Lance made his grand prix debut with the team in 2017.
The younger Stroll is now expected to switch to Force India, which is likely to pursue a name change for 2019 now it is not under Vijay Mallya’s control.
Szafnauer said that situation was currently as uncertain as the one facing the team’s senior personnel.
“In the near future, we’ll have all those conversations,” he said. “But that’s looking forwards, not looking backwards.”
Force India still has an outside shot of fourth in this year’s constructors’ standings.
It has finished fourth the previous two seasons and, despite its financial difficulties holding back development, it is sixth in this year’s contest, just seven points behind Haas and 23 behind Renault.