Wow, really? Since A1GP rivals F1 and all...

To get a Le Mans entry.

David Murray always envisaged it as an international thing and wanted something that would resonate on the Continent, and would ideally be in French, the language of the international rules at the time. According to David Murray's book, anyway, Graham Gauld is more circumspect on the issue as there's no written evidence. But there were lots of Ecuries at the time.

Untraditional yes, but a bad name? Nah. One of the FIA GT teams was / is called GPC Giesse Squadra Corse. Great name in my book, and the F575's they raced looked amazing too.

Force India F1? There used to be Force One Festina in the GT's... If Bernie has his way for a GP in India; shouldn't it really be Force F1 On India? Djellison's right though, give it a year and it'll be owned by somebody else and re-named something else. Ikea F1 anybody?

These are the names of the current F1 teams:

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
ING Renault F1 Team
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro
Honda Racing F1 Team
BMW Sauber F1 Team
Panasonic Toyota Racing
Red Bull Racing
AT&T Williams
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Etihad Aldar Spyker F1 Team
Super Aguri F1 Team

With the above petty attempt by the old teams, I have difficulties seeing what is wrong with

Force India

I thought the thread would be about the prospect of Spyker being a better or worse team than what they are now, but in that I was mistaken.

So seemingly not on subject.

I think that Spyker have surprised in how they have actually bettered themselves as the season have progressed, despite the financial woes which are obvious from the fact that the team were sold. I have a higher appreciation of Gascoyne than I have previously had, and Sutil is a bona fide F1 driver, something I did not expect himself to prove before the season.

After mismanagement by Jordan, Schainder and the Spyker group I welcome a new owner, who have shown his interest in F1 for years, who is seriously rich, and who have so far said many positive things in regard the development of the Spyker team.

If they can hold on to Sutil and Gascoyne, I see them making positive steps upwards, and I expect that the team will be much better funded next season than they are in this.

It would be great if they teamed Sutil with a known quantity, be that Ralf Schumacher or Giancarlo Fisichella. I personally very much prefer Ralf over Giancarlo, either way they should do this as they will immediately know where they are with the car, and with Sutil.

Regardless of what they name their team, I will follow them with interest. There have been many odd names before, and I still find 'Super Aguri F1 Team' a far worse name for a team than 'Force India'.

Good luck Force India.

Mallya: ''Apart from Sutil we also have a contract with Rodríquez. The only problem is that he doesn't yet have a superlicense. If he doesn't get it then he won't drive. But that's not in my hands obviously (well it is if you let Rodríquez make enough miles... - AFCA)''

''The contract (with Rodríquez) was done before I got involved in the team. But I run this team in a professional manner, so the contract will be respected.''

Zimmerman (Sutil's manager) : ''There's a lot of attention for Adrian. It's nice to have the reassurance of the contract at Spyker, but you can't blame us for looking further than that.''

Yeah and guess what.. I think they would do much better with this guy onboard

It sounds more like a cheesy revenge over the British empire, FORCEing the people at Spyker to play part in this joke.

Bayerische Motoren Werke......

I guess Mallya is trying make a statement. He has tried it in the past

That is so naff, the team will be a laughing stock with that name and won't last more than 1 season before it is sold yet again when they realise that there are no decent Indian drivers around - so having an Indian team becomes completely pointless.

We have already had this "national team" idea from Midland and then Spyker, it doesn't work because you can't rely on one country to provide rich sponsors and talented drivers as Midland found out when no mega bucks or drivers came from Russia, and as Spyker found out with Albers and his fuel hose. It has worked a bit better with Super Aguri though, but they did have trouble with one large non paying Japanese sponsor.

Here is a prediction...If Sutil doesn't stay both drivers will be pay drivers or Ralf (is there a difference?), both cars stuck at the back of the grid all season, quickly turning into something like the Midland shambles with stories floating around about the team being sold again and running out of cash despite being owned by a billionaire...and the press will quickly rename the team Farce India F1.

Why don't they just call it Jordan again, at least they could say to potential sponsors "Jordan won 4 races".

Sums it up. More of the same.

Farce India F1

Great post

Well I truly regret I added to this thread, and I am disappointed in Bira adding what she did to it.

This reminds me of the old joke....How do you make a small fortune in F1? First start with a large fortune.....

It's a pretty stupid name.But,I think a lot of people here will be surprised by what Mallya can/will do with this team.

Sure it's cocky on Mallya's part, but I get the feeling that some of the opposition on this board is towards India and not the name.

If Toyota with their vast resources and a bottom less money pit can make such a pigs ear of running a F1 team,what chances indeed an individual like Mallya.

So? Teams with lesser budgets have been doing better.It doesn't help to infer anything at all...

Can't hurt to be optimistic, I guess.

It sure beats an accurate name like:

Backmarker Brigade

Blueflag Banditos

Lapped Again Land Racing

Not really, I'm neutral for such a far-away country like India, what I'm against is the idea of nationalism in F1, I couldn't stand it neither when Aguri came with the idea of an all-japanese team (an idea which failed spectacularly thanks to Yuji Ide, otherwise the Aguri team won my respect). It's good in A1GP because the series is based on it, but please, leave that concept out of F1.

Despite the utterly ridiculous name of the team, I do feel a good vibe coming from Mallya's ambitions, the single fact that they appear to be willing to go with a "real" driver (Ralf or Liuzzi) instead of a paydriver to pair Sutil, is already a way to show that they don't want to remain as the laughing stock of F1.

Spot on

People thought the same when an individual called Flavio Briatore was pulled in to run an F1 team a long time ago.

What's wrong with nationalism? Was F1 worse off when it was more nationalistic than it is these days? Senna displaying the Brazilian flag for example? Did someone find it ridiculous?

I also do know from my own experience of being in India for a time, that there is a desire to improve. And if this team name just inspires one Indian to have higher goals to achieve in live, even pursuing a career in racing, then it is well worth it IMO. Maybe we'll get even a F1 champ from India one day.

Other than that, like any other concept nationalism can be helpful or be abused.

And nobody ridicules BMW, But as pointed out above, it's full name is "Bayrische Motoren Werke".

It's not just about F1, I despise nationalism in most things in life. It's a personal thing.

You make it sound like nationalism doesn't exist in F1 now. Almost every team, including the major ones, are referred to as British, Italian, French or Japanese. Silverstone is McLaren's "Home" Grand Prix, Monza is Ferrari's "Home" Grand Prix and so on. And especially this year, we have heard a lot about the British rookie in the British team, how cheating Ferrari is like cheating the whole of Italy etc. It probably helps the teams garner more support from their "home" countries.

Obviously, Mallya has taken it one step forward. But from Mallya's comments, his intentions are largely guided by the business oppurtunities he sees, rather than any patriotism.



And I don't think it's even certain that the team would employ an Indian driver.

Sure we can criticise the name, but maybe we should wait a little before we start criticising the team.

they have inherited from Spyker the promise to run Rodriguez who was quite hopeless in GP2. even Karthikeyan would be better, also Neel Jani.

I have nothing against India. I get the feeling that, once again, we have an individual wearing his heart on his sleeve, touting some nationalist feelings, who (like Schnaider and Mols before him) will find that the realities of F1 are far different from the dream he seems to have. It, in short, seems to be lead by a desire that is utterly misconceived and doomed to the same failures.

Yes but these teams are not 'set up' with a 'National Status' (or whatever you want to call it). Macca and Williams are British, Ferrari Italian - yes I agree - but that's because they are based in those countries.

For the other teams its more a case of involvement from one country or another. ie Renault considered French for obvious reasons even though the main operation is based in the Uk (they often refer to Silverstone as one of their home races). Toyota are Japanese even though they are based in Germany. So in these cases it's the involvement of a Manufacturer that gives the team a 'National Identity'.

In the case of Super Aguri its the owner, a respected driver in Japan, that has given the team a Japanese 'identity' ...reinforced by the involvement of Honda engines (and a few other car parts!).

So what exactly is the involvement of India in Force India F1?

(Again this is nothing against India! The same would apply if a millionaire from Luxemburg brought a team and called it ‘Lackluster Luxemburg F1’)

I believe the whole point of the team's name was to draw in Indian sponsors. There are a lot of prosperous Indian companies that have tons of money to spend & are looking for a larger global presence. The idea is that they will attach themselves to a team that represents their roots: an Indian team. You could argue whether the team is in fact Indian or not, but to the casual on-lookers, if the name says India they think its an Indian team. Mallya did say he wants to leverage Indian talent in all areas of the team, so I wouldn't be surprised if over time he gets Indian engineers to help out. After all, TATA does have experience working with Ferrari on their engine & systems.

Having said that, I think the name 'Force India F1' seems pretty stupid. Sadly I'm not creative enough to come up with a decent name. All I can think of is Team India F1 or Spirit India F1 (which has a double meaning: spirit for the spirit of India as well as spirit as in the alcohol that Mallya sells). I actually think thats a pretty good name.

They will play the Indian national anthem when they win...

There was a mid-80s team named Spirit.. i'm not sure associating themselves with that one would bring good luck in terms of results.. it's not that bad of a name though!

Rodriguez only has a contract to run limited testing for Spyker, not a race seat. Apparently even the new owners havent figured this one out yet.

Jani's a quality driver, but if you want a good Indian in the seat, wait for him to do another season of GP2 and grab Chandhok.

Worse name ever.

Give two years tops. Either that or this fellow will go broke sustaining a team for 5 years. India do have some large corporations though, they throw a heap of $$$ at cricket.

I don't have a problem with Force India trying to field at least one Indian driver, as well as acting a bit nationalistic. They are trying to expand the sport in India. The best way to do that is to get national interest in a native driver of India who is also on an Indian backed team. Of course, that driver will need to perform semi-decent to get a good level of Indian fan support and interest beyond the initial period of curiosity fans wll have. Pairing a F1 veteran driver with an Indian driver would be a good strategy to use. There is great potential in Force India in terms of sponsorship and the growth of the sport in one of the world's up and coming economies. With the middle class in India growing by leaps and bounds a solid team based in India is great for F1.

Force India has announced GP2 rookie Roldán Rodriguez will be one their official drivers next season.

Source Marca.com

Odd that no one has mentioned Carl Haasʻ briefly Beatrice backed FORCE F1 team;

Formula
One
Race
Car
Engineering

Official test driver I guess.
Unless he's Vijay Roldan Rodriguez Singh or something like that

Someone did about 3 pages ago.

lol

Mallya loves the ladies too.

It's owned by an Indian - more than 'British' Mclaren, where the majority is held by a middle eastern businessman and a German - American company. Just because Mclaren and Williams don't paint a union jack on their cars and Ferrari (oh wait, they do use the Italian flag) doesn't mean they don't appeal to and benefit from the same nationalism (and a highly biased nationalistic press).

No, it says official race driver.

link (spanish)


No need to be called Vijay Rodriguez... RichDaddy Rodríguez is good enough.

50% owned by a Dutchman. In the case of McLaren and Williams - they are based in Britain. As Ferrari is based in Italy. Force India F1 is based in.....Britain.....

And, quite how anybody supporting Ferrari can keep a straight face while exclaiming "and a highly biased nationalistic press" is beyond me.

Not 50% since Mallya paid twice of what he paid.

In the case of McLaren and Williams - they are based in Britain. As Ferrari is based in Italy. Force India F1 is based in.....Britain.....

And Toyota is based in Cologne, Super Aguri is based in Britain. So what's your point again?

So I support Ferrari, therefore the British and Italian press are not nationalistic? Nice non sequitur there.

If they are anything like Spyker this year, everyone in the planet who has a few quid and ever sat in a kart at any point in their life will become one of their "official test drivers".

I think it will be Indian team with no Indian Drivers ATM

50% of the shares are owned by Mols, that means that he owns 50% of the company - doesn't matter how much they paid for their shares.

My point is that Force India F1 is a bout as Indian as.....Renault F1 is French.....

That last point isn't what you implied.... or so it seemed to me.(I don't remember you mentioning Ferrari or Italy in your post...)

Now we know who designed the Renault colour scheme!

I just looked at your signature !

May I thank you for the funniest video I've seen since, well, ever... I haven't laughed this hard since South Park took a stab at Tom Cruise, and I didn't laugh three minutes in a row then!