13/02/2015
NEWS STORY
Force India has confirmed that its 2015 contender, the VJM08, will not run until the second of the forthcoming tests at Barcelona.
The confirmation follows weeks of speculation and the team's own admission that the car was unlikely to run at the opening test at the Circuit de Catalunya which gets underway next Thursday.
Other than the fact that this means the car will get just four days running before taking to the track in Melbourne two weeks later, the news comes amidst mounting speculation as to why the car has been delayed.
Whilst deputy team principal Bob Fernley has cited an issue involving Caterham's booking of the Toyota windtunnel as part of the problem, an excuse which has caused raised eyebrows in the paddock, he also claims that his team has been hurt by cash-flow problems as suppliers "hurt very badly by the Marussia and Caterham demises" wanted money up front.
Then there is the saga of the team's owners, Vijay Mallya and Subrata Roy, the former under pressure from a consortium of mainly state-owned Indian banks seeking more than $1bn loaned to his failed Kingfisher Airlines, whilst the latter is currently in jail in New Delhi following a court order for his Sahara Group to pay back billions of dollars that were invested in illegal bonds.
What is it about F1 that attracts these people?