Mallya, Roy’s F1 team may drop ‘India’ from its force
BARCELONA: Force India unveiled their new F1 car on Monday but kept everyone guessing about what name they will race under this season. The Silverstonebased team, who have finished fourth for the last two years, have been considering dropping India from their name for some time to make themselves more attractive to potential sponsors.
Otmar Szafnauer, the chief operating officer said on the first day of testing with the VJM11 car at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya that they had a new name in mind but gave no details.
He said it was “more than likely” to be changed before the first race of the season in Australia on March 25. The team had previously said such a change could happen before the start of testing. “We’re talking to some people that are thinking of perhaps sponsoring the team and they are keen for a name change, but that’s not for 2018, That’s for 2019,” Szafnauer added.
“So it could very well be that it goes until ‘19 but, you know, why wait? That’s why I say it’s probably more likely than not that it will happen.” Any change of team name has to be approved by Formula One, with a majority of the teams also voting in favour.
Szafnauer said Force India had yet to make the formal request. Force India, who have Mexican driver Sergio Perez again partnering Frenchman Esteban Ocon this season, announced new sponsors in Mexican oil company Pemex and lubricants company Ravenol.
The team are co-owned by tycoon Vijay Mallya and Sahara Group founder Subrata Roy, who have both had well-documented legal problems. Russian development driver Nikita Mazepin gave the pink liveried car its track debut, with Perez and Ocon testing on Tuesday.
ALONSO LOSES WHEEL
Fernando Alonso did six laps before crashing into the gravel after a wheel came off his Mclaren. The former world champions, who are starting a new engine partnership with Renault after three troubled years with Honda, played down the incident. “We had a wheelnut issue, we’ll get back out here this afternoon,” executive director Zak Brown said.
The right rear wheel came off Alonso’s car during the first 40 minutes of a chilly morning in Spain as teams took part in their first official test since November.
TORO ROSSO HOPE HIGH
Toro Rosso began their new partnership with Honda in optimistic fashion with team principal Franz Tost looking forward to proving doom-mongers wrong.
Honda’s engine has been the least reliable and slowest on the starting grid for the past three seasons. Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso left Renault to become Honda’s sole partner. “We won’t have any troubles,” Tost said after presentation of the team’s new STR13 car. “The power unit is working well. I am convinced that Honda has the capacity and the know-how to develop the engine and that we will be where we all expect to be.”