A detailed look at the history of Formula 1 team, Force India – Part 1
Force India are one of those few teams who in just a matter of a couple of years, established their name as one of the competitive mid-running teams of Formula 1.
However, Force India were formed from the ‘ashes’ of a former established Formula 1 team by the name of Jordan GP. The team was owned by Eddie Jordan and it became a part of the sport back in 1991.
The team had a roller coaster ride in Formula 1 as they became a mid-running team at one point but most of its time in the sport, it was a back-running team but a competitive one.
Jordan GP was later on bought by the Midland group in 2005 after which a team by the name of Midland F1 Racing was formed.
The team competed in the sport just for a year after which the Spyker group bought it. The team was then known as Spyker but it did not last longer either. Until the end of the 2006 Formula 1 season, the team was sold yet again but this time it was bought
by a more reliable group that is the Orange India Holdings group alongside the Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya.
Mallya has been attached with Motorsports for a long time and his dedication and work is the reason why Force India are where they are currently now.
After Vijay and the OIH group bought the team from Spyker, it was named as Force India and in the 2008 Formula 1 season, the team took part in its first full Formula 1 season.
The team signed Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil keeping in mind that Fisichella was a very good experienced driver back then. He was a part of Renault during its peak time and he played a major role for the team in securing its constructors’ titles
back in 2006.
Nevertheless, the team was unable to score a single point in its first run in the sport but their performance was quite competitive and they proved that they were better than the back running teams of the sport.
The following year, they scored 13 points to secure the 9th place in the constructors’ standings with the help of a podium position and a pole position as well which was quite outstanding for a team that just became a part of the
sport a year earlier.
The team kept the same drivers’ line-up in 2009 as well with Fisichella and Sutil. However, they signed Vitantonio Liuzzi and since then, they have been keeping 3 drivers by their side who actively compete and score good results for the team.
They even enable them to improve their respective car each year which is quite impressive as Force India are one of those few teams who have been improving each year since their debut.
The team used Ferrari engines at first in 2008 but in 2009, they signed a deal with Mercedes and since then, they have been using Mercedes engines which seem to suit their car a lot. As a result the team signed a long-term deal with them and up until now,
it seems that they will stick with them for a long time.
Continued in Part 2…
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