The Force India Formula One team will race in this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix as a new mid-season entry stripped of 2018 constructors' championship points.
Montreal-born Lance Stroll, who celebrated his 18th birthday on October 29 and has yet to pass his driving test, will be the first Canadian F1 racer since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who won his title at Williams and retired in 2006.
The team, who became Force India in 2008 after Indian beer baron Vijay Mallya bought Spyker F1, were taken over in August by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll after going into administration.
They said creditors would be paid in full and all 405 jobs at the Silverstone-based team, that was co-owned by embattled Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and finished fourth last year, were safe.
Canadian Lance Stroll celebrated an astonishing first Formula One pole position for Racing Point in a crazy weather-hit Turkish Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.
As impressive as those results have been, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner took the opportunity after the race to issue a scary warning that his team is capable of winning every grand prix this season.
Racing Point have put the cash-starved Force India days behind them and now have the resources to show Formula One what they can really do, the Canadian-owned team said.
Canadian Formula One driver Lance Stroll said on Wednesday he tested positive for COVID-19 after the October 11 Eifel Grand Prix but is now clear and ready to race in Portugal this coming weekend.
Nico Hulkenberg will continue as a stand-in for Racing Point at Formula One's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, on Sunday, after Mexican Sergio Perez again tested positive for COVID-19, the team said on Friday.
Mercedes and Ferrari, Red Bull's main rivals, had both said any breach would bring carry-over benefits for this season and next, and the implications were huge and had to be addressed.
The pole was Charles Leclerc's second in a row
The report also revealed the parlous finances of the Vijay Mallya-owned team at the time they were taken into administration last July.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Red Bull have given "a definite no" to four-times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel's hopes of returning to them next year, team boss Christian Horner said on Friday. The German, who is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the season and facing an uncertain future, had said on Thursday he would say yes to a Red Bull drive if one was offered.
Doubts about Force India being able to race at Spa, the first Grand Prix since the August break, emerged on Wednesday with reports of legal complications.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen started the season with a commanding Bahrain Grand Prix win from pole position.
There has been speculation within Formula One that Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire father of Canadian driver Lance, is willing to invest in Force India as part of a move for his son from Williams.
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer and technical Andrew Green said in a video interview at last weekend's British Grand Prix that it was time to 'give credit where credit was due'.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel will race for Aston Martin, the new name for the Canadian-owned Racing Point team, on a multi-year deal after leaving Ferrari at the end of the season.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed pole position at the end of Qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Former Renault driver Robert Kubica suffered a life-changing crash in 2011 when a steel guardrail penetrated his car and arm in a minor rally in north-west Italy.
Force India did not say who the other driver would be, but that is assumed to be Canadian Lance Stroll whose billionaire father Lawrence heads a consortium that now controls the Silverstone-based outfit.
Russian fertiliser group Uralkali said that by turning down its higher bid for the company, the administrators had denied the extra funds that would have accrued to the shareholder of Force India - Mallya's Orange India Holdings Sarl - which is subject to a freezing order issued by the UK's High Court in favour of his 13 creditor Indian banks, led by the State Bank of India.
The Renault Formula One team will be renamed Alpine F1 from 2021, competing in French colours to showcase the carmaker's sportscar brand, new company CEO Luca de Meo announced on Sunday.
The Formula One season starts in Australia on March 17 with new regulations, changed lineups, a trio of young rookies fresh from Formula Two and the comeback of Poland's Robert Kubica.
Champions Mercedes are chasing a sixth successive double, and Lewis Hamilton his sixth drivers' title, but the task looks tougher than ever.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
