Adrian
Sutil

Vitantonio
Liuzzi

Team Biography

It was in September 2006, during the Italian GP weekend, that Shnaider sold the team to Spyker Cars NV, the Dutch high performance car manufacturer. One year later, days after the 2007 Belgian GP, it was officially confirmed that Spyker was selling the team to a consortium led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol for 88m euros.

Billionaire Mallya, who enjoys a high profile in India, where he is an MP in addition to being chairman of both the Federation of Motorsports Clubs in India (FMSCI) and Motorsport Association of India (MAI), is keen to raise his country's profile, and in addition to purchasing Spyker and renaming the team Force India, has been instrumental in getting India its own Grand Prix.

Under new ownership, Spyker saw out the remaining races of the 2007 season with a new livery but retained Sutil and Yamamoto, the German getting the new relationship off to the best possible start by scoring a point in Japan, the first race under the team's new ownership.

Over the course of the two final tests of 2007 the team ran a number of hopefuls as it sought to define its line-up for 2008, amongst those pounding the tarmac at Barcelona and Jerez were Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher, Christian Klien, Tonio Liuzzi, Franck Montagny, Roldan Rodriguez and Adrian Sutil, who seemed a shoe-in for one of the 2008 seats anyway.

After weeks of speculation, at a special ceremony in Mumbai on 10 January, Mallya confirmed his line-up, with Fisichella and Sutil taking the race seats and Liuzzi assuming the role of test driver.

Mallya was at pains to warn that race fans should not expect too much too soon, however, he was also keen to point out that Force India is a descendent of Jordan, a proven GP winner, with many of the original personnel still in place.

If nothing else, in the short term Mallya's arrival meant Force India had a decent budget, certainly compared to the previous couple of seasons.

However, armed with the VJM01 a derivative of the Spyker F8-V11, which was itself a derivative of the 2006 Midland M16, the Silverstone-based team was always going to be up against it in its first season proper.

Mark Smith was brought in from Red Bull, to join Mike Gascoyne, the duo having previously worked together at both Jordan and Renault. Smith was handed the role of 'Design Director', and given the immediate job of overseeing both the 2008 and 2009 cars.

2008 was always going to be an interim year, however, by season end, despite the obvious handicaps, the Silverstone outfit was giving Honda a run for its money, though perhaps that says more about the Brackley team.

The 2007 car was re-bodied and the team updated its windtunnel, with further work being done in the Lola and Aerolab facilities.

The introduction of a new quick-shift gearbox and a major aerodynamic upgrade at Silverstone clearly made a difference, but in all honesty it was too little too late. The Ferrari powerplant did its bit, as expected, but Mallya knew that if his team was to make improvements serious changes were needed.

The precise details of the deal are unknown, but shortly after the end of the season, following weeks of speculation, it was announced that a deal had been done with McLaren and Mercedes. While the German manufacturer would provide engines, McLaren would be responsible for gearboxes, hydraulic systems and operational support. McLaren Mercedes would also provide the Silverstone team with a KERS system.

However, this was not all. A number of highly respected people moved across to Silverstone, most notably Simon Roberts, who was appointed Chief Operating Officer. Indeed, according to Pitpass sources, McLaren personnel now populate most key departments at Force India, even in marketing. Mike Gascoyne, not for the first time, left the Dadford Road facility before his contract had expired, while (Design Director) Mark Smith and (Technical Director) James Key were given joint responsibility for the design of the VJM02.

The McLaren deal led to talk of Force India becoming the Woking outfit's B-team, and when Ron Dennis announced that he was standing down as Team Principal some people started putting two and two together and coming up with all manner of scenarios, most of them highly unlikely.

Neither driver was really given the opportunity to shine in 2008 however, there were two obvious landmark moments. The first was Fisichella's twelfth place on the grid at Monza while the other was Sutil's superb performance at Monaco, where a sure-fire fourth place was taken snatched away by Kimi Raikkonen's out-of-control Ferrari.

Both drivers were retained for 2009, the Italian now the second most experienced driver on the grid. Tonio Liuzzi was also kept on as test driver though under the new rules it was unclear - as was the case with so many other test drivers - what exactly he'd be doing.

When Mallya first came into F1 there was speculation as to his staying power indeed, the depth of his pockets however, the deals with McLaren and Mercedes indicate that he is in for the long haul and fully prepared to bankroll the team and its ambitions.

While the record books will show that Force India scored 13 points in 2009, that in no way tells the full story, far from it. The raft of new regulations which meant that all the teams were starting with the same blank piece of paper, not to mention the drive to reduce budgets, was always going to work in favour of the Silverstone-based outfit. While there was also the McLaren-Mercedes deal, many were of the opinion that this was done too late to have any significant impact on Force India's 2009 season. They were wrong.

Originally designed for the Ferrari engine and KERS package, it was all hands on deck as technical director James Key, chief aerodynamicist Simon Philips and design director Mark Smith worked to accommodate the Mercedes FO108W powerplant, the McLaren gearbox and Mercedes KERS system.

For much of the season the team was "one development step behind," Key was to admit, none the less once the FIA had given its blessing to the double diffuser the Silverstone outfit was the first team to have one on both of its cars (Bahrain). Key subsequently admitted that over the off-season his team had looked at the concept of the double diffuser but was convinced it would never be allowed.

Once again, the team suffered appalling bad luck with Sutil skidding off in China when seemingly destined to take sixth place ahead of Lewis Hamilton, while at the Nurburgring the hapless German was forced to make an extra stop after crashing into Raikkonen when leaving the pits. At one stage he had been running as high as second.

Race by race the VJM02 was clearly improving and by the time the 'circus' arrived in Spa - for the first of the season's two seriously low-downforce races - the car was truly on song.

Up to this point Force India had struggled in qualifying, Sutil's 7th in Germany one of the rare occasions when the team made it into Q3. However, all that changed in Belgium where Fisichella took pole.

To prove that this was no fluke and that his team had finally arrived, Giancarlo finished a highly impressive second in the race, a Safety Car at the very start of the race robbing him of what could have been his team's first win. Finishing just 0.939s behind Kimi Raikkonen, the Italian posted the fastest lap of the race just to prove a point.

At Monza, with Giancarlo now deputising for Massa at Ferrari, Sutil put his car second on the grid while new teammate Liuzzi started from seventh. The following day the German brought the VJM02 home in fourth the Force India only out-paced by the Brawns and the ubiquitous Raikkonen. Liuzzi also seemed destine for a points finish until sidelined by a gearbox failure.

While there were no more points, Sutil did qualify fourth in Japan and third in China, as the Silverstone team continued to punch well above its weight.

As we said, 13 points and ninth place in the championship doesn't begin to tell the story, and while most people regard Brawn as the true fairytale of 2009 spare a thought for the fantastic efforts of the entire team at Force India.

For 2010, the Silverstone based outfit has retained Sutil and Liuzzi while former director of strategy and business planning for the Honda F1 Team Otmar Szafnauer has been recruited as chief operating officer taking over from Simon Roberts who heads back to McLaren Applied Technologies after just one year at Dadford Road.

Statistics - at the end of the 2009 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Constructors' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 2
Grand Prix:35
Wins: 0
Points: 13
Poles: 1
Fastest Laps: 1

Best result in 2009: 2nd (Belgium)
Best qualifying 2009: Pole (Belgium)
Worst qualifying 2009: 20th (2 times)
2009: Fisichella out-qualified Sutil 6 times
2009: Liuzzi out-qualified Sutil 1 time
2009: Sutil out-qualified Fisichella 6 times
2009: Sutil out-qualified Liuzzi 4 times

2009: Completed 1629 out of 1976 laps (82.4%)
2009: Finished 28 times from 34 starts (82.4%)

Management

Chairman and team principal: Dr. Vijay Mallya

Co-owner: Michiel Mol

Team director: Bob Fernley
Chief operating officer: Otmar Szafnauer
Director of business affairs: Ian Phillips

Team manager: Andy Stevenson
Design director: Mark Smith
Technical director: James Key
Production Director: Bob Halliwell
Design Project Leader 2010: Akio Haga
Head of composites design: Bruce Eddington
Head of mechanical design: Dan Carpenter
Head of vehicle dynamics: Richard Frith
Head of research & development Simon Gardner
Head of electronics: Mike Wroe
Head of production: Simon Shinkins
Head of aerodynamics: Simon Phillips
Head of information technology: Adrian Collinson

Chief race engineer: Dominic Harlow
Race engineer car no 20: Brad Joyce
Race engineer car no 21: Jody Egginton
Race Support & Strategy Engineer: Oliver Knighton
Chief mechanic: Andy Deeming
No 1 mechanic car no 20: Damien LeBreuilly
No 1 mechanic car no 21: Richard Wrenn
Head of car build: Nick Burrows
Car build supervisor: Mark Gray

Press officer: Lucy Genon

Technical Specifications

Force India VJM03

Chassis: Carbon fibre composite monocoque with Zylon legality side antiintrusion panels.
Front suspension: Aluminium uprights with carbon fibre composite wishbones, trackrod and pushrod. Inboard chassis mounted torsion springs, dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.
Rear suspension: Aluminium uprights with carbon fibre composite wishbones, trackrod and pushrod. Inboard gearbox mounted torsion springs, dampers and anti-roll bar assembly.

Wheels: BBS forged wheels to Force India specification
Transmission: McLaren Racing 7-speed, semi-automatic, 'e-shift'
Lubricants: Mobil 1 products
Spark plugs: NGK
Clutch: AP Racing carbon clutch
Tyres: Bridgestone Potenza
Brake system: AP Racing
Brake material: Carbone Industrie
Dampers: Penske

Dimensions

Wheel base: 3500mm
Front track: 1480mm
Rear track: 1420mm
Overall height: 950mm
Overall length: 4900mm
Overall weight: 620kg (with driver, by regulations)

Mercedes-Benz FO 108X

Capacity: 2.4 litres
Cylinders: 8
Maximum rpm: 18,000
Bank angle: 90°
Piston bore: maximum 98mm
Number of valves: 32