Force India presented their new Formula One car on Friday with only one driver, Britain's Paul Di Resta, in attendance and mystery surrounding the identity of his likely team mate.
Force India has launched its 2011 car, the VJM-04, which will carry the hopes of Adrian Sutil, British rookie Paul di Resta and test driver Nico Hulkenberg in the coming Formula One season. The team finished seventh in the constructors standings in 2010 -- its best-ever finish -- and chairman and team principal Vijay Mallya is expecting even better results in 2011.
Renault discard Giancarlo Fisichella and highly-rated German Adrian Sutil will lead the Force India F1 while another Italian Viantonio Liuzzi will be its another test driver.
Both the Force India drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil clocked up impressive timing in last week's testing on the same circuit in Barcelona which would host this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. Force India's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne reckons the team is moving in the right direction and he says both the drivers would be upbeat as they go for the Spanish Grand Prix and the subsequent races.
Mexican Sergio Perez will stay at Force India next year for a fourth straight season, the Silverstone-based Formula One team announced after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Force India stayed ahead of Williams in the Formula One constructors' standings after a post-race protest at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday. Force India's Adrian Sutil, who had finished eighth, was first handed a 20-second penalty for having gained an advantage on lap one by going off the track. That dropped the German down to 10th.
Force India, without a point in their debut Formula One season, achieved a modest but noteworthy first on Saturday when they reached the second phase of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella will start his home race from 12th on the grid on Sunday after mastering the wet qualifying conditions better than world champion Kimi Raikkonen and championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who were 14th and 15th respectively.
Force India team owner and team principal Vijay Mallya on Wednesday spoke of how his team turned things around after a difficult start to Formula One in 2008. The billionaire tycoon also announced Force India's partnership deal with Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons to offer a fully automated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution to aid the design of the F1 team's next generation race cars.
Eddie Jordan had fun in Formula One and now Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya intends to bring back the good times after buying the team founded by the Irish entrepreneur.
The Indian businessman, who has a 42.5 percent stake, said there was a possibility of main sponsor BWT getting more involved and changing the team's name.
Having an Indian driver in Force India just for the sake of it would have been counter-productive for the Silverstone-based outfit, said Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
In absolute terms, both types of cars must cut emissions by about 28-29 g/km. But in percentage terms, the lighter 900-kg car must reduce emissions by 27 per cent, while the 1,500-kg car needs a 22 per cent cut. And the target becomes progressively stringent for both -- but, once again, the tightening is sharper for the 900-kg car than for the 1500-kg car.
Force India were reprimanded by stewards at the German Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday after mixing up their drivers' tyres.
Actor-politician Vijay held his first public meeting in Puducherry, criticising the central government for neglecting the union territory's demand for statehood and praising the local government's impartiality. He also targeted the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, suggesting they could learn from Puducherry.
Force India will give their new Mercedes-powered Formula One car its track debut at Jerez in southern Spain on Sunday, the team said in a statement.
Ace German driver Adrian Sutil will continue with Force India for a fifth consecutive season while Paul di Resta is set to make his debut with the Silverstone-based team in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship season.
Germany's Adrian Sutil and Frenchman Jules Bianchi, rivals for the coveted last remaining seat on the Formula One grid with Force India, will both test for the team in Barcelona this week.
Four months into his new job as chief operations officer, effectively overseeing the Silverstone-based team's day-to-day workings for billionaire owner Vijay Mallya, Simon Roberts is convinced Force India is set to go places.
Force India collected one of Formula One's stranger sanctions on Sunday when they were given a suspended 25,000-euro ($27,317.50) fine for a breach of the rules concerning driver numbers on their cars.
It had been an extraordinary tale of misfortune, podium, pole and bloopers for Force India and the born-again outfit now wants to sign off with some more points in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Paul di Resta said the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix would be an interesting one as it is considered as one of the toughest races of the year.
There seems simply no end to Force India's misery, as the Formula One outfit finished its 'home' race at the British Grand Prix on Sunday with another double retirement against its name. Neither of the Force India cars could survive the tough, wet conditions at the rain-lashed Silverstone track and Adrian Sutil was the first to crash out after 10 laps.
Germany's Adrian Sutil stole some of the limelight from Michael Schumacher in Bahrain on Friday by putting Force India on top of the timesheets in first practice for the Formula One season. Sutil lapped the newly extended Bahrain Grand Prix circuit in one minute, 56.583 seconds while seven-times champion Schumacher, making his comeback with Mercedes at the age of 41, was 10th and 1.079 seconds slower.
Tail-enders Force India could be Formula One's surprise package this season with the help of McLaren and Mercedes, former driver David Coulthard said on Monday.
Force India driver Adrian Sutil was warned on Monday he faced legal charges for physical assault after a nightclub incident at last month's Chinese Formula One Grand Prix.
Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta made their apologies to rivals and colleagues on Sunday after a disappointing Korean Grand Prix for the Formula One team.
Williams and Force India have rejoined the Formula One Teams' Association as full members after being suspended earlier in the season, FOTA said on Wednesday. The association, which represents the teams as a united body in talks with the governing FIA and commercial rights holder, said in a statement after an executive committee meeting it had welcomed them back while also remaining open to new entrants.
German driver Nico Hulkenberg will race in next year's Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race with Porsche as well as Formula One with Force India, the German manufacturer said in a statement on Thursday.
The Spyker Formula One team will be renamed as Force India next season, new owner Vijay Mallya said on Saturday.
Sauber's newly-appointed Indian-origin Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn, the first woman to reach this position in Formula One, says she is well aware of the competition her outfit faces from Sahara Force India.
Force India, who finished sixth overall last year but whose owners have had financial troubles, missed the first test in Jerez.
Formula One drivers sought reassurance from tyre supplier Pirelli on Friday after world champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso suffered punctures in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Force India, co-owned by Vijay Mallya, is set to sell a minority stake in the Formula One team to Sahara Group, which also sponsors the national cricket team, a source with knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Wednesday.
Paul di Resta added six more points to Sahara Force India's kitty with a seventh-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix of the Formula One Championship, while teammate Adrian Sutil finished 13th in Barcelona on Sunday.
The renamed team, formerly Spyker, said on Wednesday that the two would each have a full day of testing in Jerez from December 4-7, joining fellow-hopefuls Christian Klien of Austria, Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi and France's Franck Montagny.
Force India answered any lingering doubters on Saturday by roaring onto the front row of the Formula One starting grid for the second time in as many races. Team owner Vijay Mallya allowed himself to savour the moment after Germany's Adrian Sutil qualified second at the Italian Grand Prix.
Force India are making significant changes to their car in their quest for a first point in Formula One this weekend.
Force India regained fifth position in the team standings with a double points finish at the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday.
A Force India Formula One team employee has been allowed to return home from Bahrain after expressing safety fears ahead of this weekend's controversial Grand Prix.
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