Despite finishing in fourth place last season and becoming one of the rising stars of the sport, Formula 1 team, Force India is looking at a name change.
The move comes from the owner of the team, Indian tycoon Vijay Malaya. It seems that legal and financial challenges have forced the team’s hand.
Malaya is currently essentially in exile in Britain and he is facing extradition back to India over fraud charges. Malaya’s airline company Kingfisher collapsed a few years ago and it seems the Indian government thinks Malaya had a large role in this collapse due to fraud committed by the billionaire.
This has naturally caused a PR nightmare for the team who doesn’t need any bad publicity at the moment as their star is on the rise. Malaya is hoping a new name would give the team a fresh start, separate from the media scandal surrounding the tycoon’s personal and business life.
Opening Up For Investment
He also added that the name change would also entice more investors to fund the racing team. He had always dreamed of a 100% Indian formula one team, which is why he began Force India in the first place, but local Indian investors and businesses have been loath to take a bite of the formula 1 pie.
Despite this Force India has actually been performing incredibly for such a young team. As Malay put it, for the continuing financial stability of the team, he will have to reach out to international investors.
Deputy Principal for the team, Bob Fernley agrees with the move for a name change. He said that the team needs to go for something completely different, to essentially experience a rebirth. Pre season testing will commence next month in Spain as fans get buckled in for 2018. Many fans are filling the time to the start of the testing with online pokies NZ.
Force India Drops Anti Competition Case
In other news Force India and Sauber have seemingly given their approval to F1’s new owners, the US based Liberty Media. The company ousted former head Bernie Ecclestone who turned F1 into the billion-dollar powerhouse it is today.
Force India and Sauber have dropped a case they logged with the European Commission over anti competitive practices in the sport. The case apparently names Ferrari and Mercedes who are the two biggest and most decorated teams in the sport.
Sauber and Force India felt that there were ingrained biases in the industry that put other teams at a serious competitive disadvantage against the two top teams when all vehicles are supposed to be essentially equal.
Force India and Sauber dropped the case however after talks with Liberty Media who vowed to address the concerns through dialogue. Many voices have spoken up about the apparent imbalances in the sport where certain teams or drivers have been dominating the circuit.
This naturally has a huge impact on viewer enjoyment as it is no fun when you see the same top 3 teams in all the top 3 finishes.