India-based Sahara Group buys into Formula 1 team, Force India – Formula 1 news
Force India team owner Vijay Mallya has announced that Sahara Group has bought 42.5% stake in his team.
Sahara will be investing around 100 million dollars in the team and the Force India team will be renamed as Sahara-Force India.
The news first came in Asian Age recently, which claimed that Vijay Mallya is looking to sell Force India. The team principal did not wait too long to quash the rumours and said that he was shocked to hear news of him selling Force India. He expressed that
he does not intend to sell Force India especially now that it is doing well, and the first ever Indian Grand Prix was scheduled at the newly developed Buddh International Circuit.
Both Mallya and Sahara now own 42.5% of the team while Michiel Mol who owned 50% alongside Mallya in an € 88 million deal, now only holds 15%.
Vijay Mallya said, “I am delighted to welcome Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara as Chairman of Sahara Force India.”
“It has indeed been a matter of pride for me to put India on the F1 map with Force India and raise the performance of the team to its current levels. The Sahara Group has played a very important role in the development of sport in the country and is an ideal
partner to take the Force India F1 Team to greater success in the Formula One world championship,” the Indian business tycoon added.
Sahara India already owns an Indian Premier League cricket team and sponsors India’s national cricket and hockey teams.
Sahara India founder Subrata Roy is reported to be interested in the promotion of Indian drivers. It would be interesting to see if the newly named Sahara-Force India will have Indian drivers in the 2012 season or will Vijay Mallya stick to his stance of
hiring the best in the business.
Let’s see whether this decision has an impact on the performance of Force India in the upcoming Korean Grand Prix starting this weekend, Friday, October 14, 2011.
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