Vijay Mallya rubbishes reports of selling out Force India – Formula 1 news
Vijay Mallya has blasted reports of him putting Force India F1 up for sale.
He said these reports have been “completely untrue and without any basis whatsoever.”
The news was first published in the Asian Age which claimed that a deal between Mallya and Sahara India had been brewing for the sale of Force India team and “was on the verge of being finalised.”
Mallya did close down his low-cost airline Kingfisher Red, which may have added fuel to fire resulting in Asian Age speculating the rumour. Sahara India founder Subrata Roy was reported to be interested in buying Force India and instil Indian drivers to
promote them.
While talking about the rumour Mallya said, “I was shocked to read a media report that I am selling the Force India Formula One team, this is completely untrue and without any basis whatsoever. I take great pride in having been able to put an Indian team
on the Formula One World Championship grid and have worked very hard to greatly improve the performance of the team.”
Mallya bought the F1 team back in October 2007 by purchasing Spyker F1 for reportedly €88 million.
During the 2011 season, Force India launched their new car VJM04 which was developed with McLaren Applied technologies and Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines. Mallya has been involved with the development of Force India Team, dually in terms of cars
and its drivers and has been able to get some important sponsorship deals for the team.
The news was doubly shocking as Team India in the ongoing constructors’ challenge has been performing well, and as Mallya had shown his desire to achieve the fifth position, Force India produced the results and is on-track to maintain it.
He also said that now that India is a part of the Formula 1 World Championship calendar, his devotion to Force India has grown considerably. He added that he has no plans to sell Force India and will continue to be the team principal.
Force India will be taking part in the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix scheduled to take place from October 7-9 at the legendary Suzuka circuit.
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