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Force India Profile

Friday 15th January 2010

Force India Profile

Force India Profile

Four names in four years in the story of the Force India, formerly Spyker, formerly Midland, formerly Jordan, Formula One team. And that used to be the only note-worthy fact regarding the team until their "breakthrough" season in 2009.

Jordan entered F1 in 1991 and was largely regarded as a stepping-stone outfit for drivers such as Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello, who all drove for the team early in their careers.

However, after encountering financial problems a decade later, it wasn't long before the team sold to Russian-born Canadian billionaire businessman, Alex Schnaider (Midland chief), who opted to retain the Jordan name and its canary-yellow livery for 2005.

But - for the third consecutive season - the team finished second to last in the championship, bagging just 12 points. And 11 of those were scored at the six-car United States GP where they only had to beat the Minardi to claim third and fourth.

Clearly Schnaider's changes hadn't worked but that didn't spot him ringing in the changes in the build-up to the 2006 season. But the name change, Midland, and a livery change, red-black-and-silvery, didn't cover the cracks.

The team's youthful line-up in Christian Albers and Monteiro struggled during both qualifying and the races and it took the team until the eighth grand prix of the season to break into the second segment of the new-look qualifying sessions. As for the grands prix, the M16 proved pretty reliable, but lacked the pace of the more established midfielders.

The team wasn't helped by a few get togethers with its own drivers, the most notable being their notorious start-line incident in Monaco.

However, the team persevered and as the gap between the M16 and the midfield closed, Monteiro and Albers made some progress, finishing ninth and tenth in Hungary, ahead of Scott Speed's Toro Rosso and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. But that result proved to be the high point of the season.

As for the low point, that came at the German Grand Prix when both M16's were disqualified after the FIA deemed the cars' rear wings illegally flexible.

Rumours also began claiming that Shnaider was looking to sell his team and in September it was confirmed that the team had been sold to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker.

Spyker quickly went to work setting up a better package for 2007 that included Ferrari engines along with various sponsors bringing in the much-needed funds. Sponsored drivers, such as Christijan Albers, also helped wet the coffers.

But it was quickly evident that money cannot buy instant success as the team languished at the back of the Formula One grid. Fourteen retirements, eight of which were crashes.

Spyker's only other highlight came at the Japanese GP when Adrian Sutil in eighth place earned the team their one and only point of the season.

And it wasn't long after that Spyker was once again up for sale, this time being bought by Vijay Mallya and Michael Mol, who have renamed the team Force India.

In 2008, with Sutil and experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella behind the wheel, Force India, racing under the Indian colours, hoped to move up from last place on the grid.

However, they found things a lot tougher. Their main high point - or low point, if you like - came at the Monaco Grand Prix when Adrian Sutil was 10 laps away from finishing fourth and scoring the team's first points. His dream, though, was shattered when reigning Kimi Raikkonen drove into the back of his Force India.

That was the closest the team came to scoring any points and they eventually finished the season bottom of the pile without any points.

The end of the 2008 campaign also marked the end of several partnerships for Force India. Technical director Mike Gascoyne and team boss Colin Kolles announced that they are moving on after just a year at the team.

However, the biggest change came just days after the final race of the season in Brazil when the team announced that they have ended their engine deal with Ferrari with immediate effect. That announcement was swiftly followed by the signing of a technical support agreement with McLaren Mercedes. McLaren will supply them with gearboxes, hydraulic systems and Mercedes-built engines for the foreseeable future.

Despite speculation that McLaren wanted to send one of their drivers to Force India, the team stuck with Sutil and veteran Fisichella and they were richly rewarded.

Although the team continued to find itself at the back of the grid during qualifying in the early parts of the season, it was quite clear that they've made up ground on the other teams. During a wet Chinese GP, Sutil was in sixth place and appeared to be on course for their first points, but he skidded off the track with just sixth laps to go. A few months later at his home GP, Sutil found himself in P2, but his dreams of a points finish were once again shattered when Kimi Raikkonen (who else?) collided with him after his first pit stop.

Force India's luck finally changed at the Belgian GP when Fisichella claimed the team's maiden pole position after pipping Toyota's Jarno Trulli to P1. The brilliant weekend didn't end there as the Italian finished second behind Raikkonen to give the team their elusive first podium and points finish. A few days later Force India revealed that they had allowed Fisichella to join Ferrari for the remainder of the season and handed test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi his seat.

The loss of Fisichella didn't stop them and their purple patch continued at the Italian Grand Prix where Sutil qualified second and Luizzi seventh. Sutil picked up his first points with a fourth-place finish while Luizzi was robbed of a dream debut when he had to retire with gearbox failure while running fourth.

Although there were no further points finishes in the remaining races of the season, their 13 points were enough to keep them off the bottom of the Constructors' Championship and prove that they've come a long way.

The team have always maintained that continuity is key to their development and they've opted to keep Sutil and Liuzzi on for 2010. The season began with points in Bahrain as Liuzzi finished tenth while Sutil, although qualifying P10, was involved in a first-lap incident with the Renault of Robert Kubica.

He repeated the feat in Australia but retired with an engine problem, while Liuzzi brought home more points with his P7. In Malaysia, though, it was Sutil's turn to score as he brought his car home in fifth place. The German went on a run of six successive point-scoring results from Spain to Britain with Liuzzi adding another two top-ten results of his own.

The team's solid mid-season run saw them an intense battle with Williams for sixth place in the Constructors' Championship. But with only four top-ten results in the final nine races, the position went to Williams by one point.

For 2011, Sutil will remain at Force India, partnering rookie driver Paul di Resta, who has finally been handed his F1 break. But with a number of senior personnel having left the team during the season, including technical director James Key, Chief designer Lewis Butler and head of aerodynamics Marianne Hinson, the campaign could be a difficult one for a team forced into rebuilding their technical department.

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