Force India become Racing Point Force India

Date published: August 23 2018
Force India are able to compete at the Belgian Grand Prix after being renamed and rejoining Formula 1 as Racing Point Force India.

A number of legal issues have prevented a quick takeover from a Lawrence-Stroll led consortium as he required consent from 13 Indian banks, while drinks company Diageo have also filed a lien – the right to keep possession of property until a debt is discharged – that relates to a loan between themselves and Dr Vijay Mallya.

But, in the meantime, Stroll purchased all physical assets from Force India in order to go racing, yet the sticking point was the racing license which still belonged to the Force India name.

All mention of ‘Force India’ and its major sponsors were in the process of being removed from the paddock in Belgium, all in preparation of the name change to Racing Point Force India.

But, as Force India are now back as a new, renamed team, they have been stripped of all 59 of their World Championship points earned this season and must start from scratch.

The FIA has officially annulled the former Force India entry from Formula 1 and it has been excluded from the World Championship with immediate effect.

Racing Point Force India have also confirmed chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer as the new team principal with deputy team principal Bob Fernley stepping down.

Szafnauer said: “The new Racing Point Force India Team is delighted to be able to race when the championship resumes in Belgium this weekend.

“This heralds a new and exciting chapter for us. Just a few weeks ago, an uncertain future lay ahead, with more than 400 jobs at risk; now the new team has the backing of a consortium of investors, led by Lawrence Stroll, who believe in us as a team, in our expertise and in our potential to achieve success on the track.

“We are grateful to the FIA, the Joint Administrators and Formula One Management for their support in helping us achieve such a welcome outcome and ultimately, we trust, for the sport and its many fans.”

FIA president Jean Todt added: “I am very pleased that a strong, positive outcome has been reached and welcome the mid-season entry of Racing Point Force India.

“Creating an environment of financial stability in Formula One is one of the key challenges faced by the sport, however thanks to the hard work of the FIA, the Joint Administrators, Racing Point and Formula One Management we have a situation now that safeguards the future for all of the highly-talented employees, and will maintain the fair and regulated championship competition for the second half of the season.”

Valtteri Bottas may have an upgraded Mercedes engine for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, but it comes at a cost. He’ll start the race from the back after exceeding his allocation of power unit components. And the Finn will have Nico Hulkenberg for company after the Renault driver also took a fresh unit…

With a new engine available, Mercedes opted to change all six engine elements in Bottas’ power unit, incurring penalties for each change that will ultimately confine him to the back row of the grid.

Speaking before the engine change was confirmed, Bottas was upbeat about the prospects given the track characteristics of Spa.

“If I do need to take a new engine there is going to be a penalty but in any case, Spa is one of the best places to take it because you can overtake,” he said.

Renault have carried a complete change for Hulkenberg, too, giving him the same penalties as Bottas. The German is out of sync with team mate Carlos Sainz after suffering a turbo failure earlier this year in Austria.

Ahead of the penalty being handed out, Hulkenberg said: “I think then it’s very hard [to get back into the top six or seven starting from the back], especially a track I think here and Monza are two challenging weekends for us.

“If you start from the back of the grid, it makes it harder. I don’t know. I don’t want to sound negative, but let’s see what happens and how it unfolds. Always try our best and our hardest.

“If you start out of position, then you try and recover as much as you can and still do a good race, and climb up as high as possible and do what you can.

“The starting point makes it much harder, but I think from an approach and a mindset, it’s not too different.”

Sainz gets a fresh ICE while Renault customer McLaren have given Stoffel Vandoorne a new ICE, turbo, MGU-H for his home race. Both will avoid penalties.

Renault, of course, are bidding to maintain their grip on fourth in the constructors’ standings, with Haas breathing down their necks.

The 'arrival' of Racing Point Force India in the middle of the Formula 1 season is a highly unusual event that has required some complex rules to be navigated.

The process of a new team joining the world championship, last undertaken by Haas in 2016, is a highly complex one, and few F1 insiders believed that it was possible mid-season.

But the FIA's sporting regulations leave a little-known door open for a late entry, and Force India - with the full support of the governing body - has been able to use it.

The option is so unusual that the FIA didn't actually have a late entry form for the team to use.

The FIA and Liberty had to follow a legally watertight process, and not just in terms of how the nine other teams would view it. They had to ensure for example that if a Force India was involved in a serious accident no one could claim that the car shouldn't be on track.

This was a highly unusual case, with no precedent, and therefore it establishes one.

It's important to note, though, that it won't become a licence for struggling teams to walk away from debts in the middle of the year and re-emerge with a new identity.

Lawrence Stroll's original plan was to buy the team as a going concern, go through the legal process of taking it out of administration, and then arrive at Spa pretty much as if nothing had happened.

That strategy was derailed largely because of the legal situation of shareholders Vijay Mallya and the Sahara Group, and the involvement of 13 Indian banks in agreeing to what happens to their assets.

Agreement for the sale to Stroll could not be completed within the two-week deadline set by the administrator, so at the last minute it became not a share sale but an asset sale, with Stroll acquiring the cars and everything else needed to go racing through a new company - called Racing Point.

He therefore had a team, but not an entry, which was still tied to the original Force India company and consequently the Mallya and Sahara shareholdings. The only option was to enter as a brand new team.

The key to the success of the whole process is that the FIA was given guarantees that all the original Force India team's creditors would be paid by new owner Stroll, that the 400-plus jobs were safe, and that there was a sound business plan - one that was not relying on future F1 prize money income.

The first step that the FIA used was an investigation into the original team under its 'judicial and disciplinary rules', in essence because the original Sahara Force India was no longer able to compete.

In its statement the FIA noted that "following a disciplinary investigation and prosecution by the FIA under article 4 of the FIA's judicial and disciplinary rules, the Sahara Force India F1 team has accepted its exclusion from the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship with immediate effect, due to its incapacity to comply with article 8.2 of the sporting regulations moving forward, and forfeits all constructors' championship points under article 6.2."

The specific part that Sahara Force India could not comply with was article 8.2.f, which says that when entering the championship a team has to give "an undertaking by the applicant to participate in every event with the number of cars and drivers entered."

Clearly that was no longer possible as the team had sold its cars and other assets.

Article 6.2 referred to by the FIA meanwhile is simply a basic reference to points: "The title of Formula 1 world champion constructor will be awarded to the competitor which has scored the highest number of points, results from both cars (see article 8.6) being taken into account."

Having cancelled Sahara Force India's entry, excluded it from the world championship and ended its history as an active F1 team the FIA then had to find a way for its replacement to enter at Spa under the Racing Point Force India name, with the same cars.

As reported on Wednesday night, the key in the sporting regulations is article 8.1, the first part of the section that refers to "competitors' applications."

Initially it spells out how entries have to be submitted by November 1 of the previous year, with the entry fee - calculated on points earned - paid by November 30.

Crucially article 8.1 then goes on to note the little known fact that late entries can be accepted: "Applications at other times will only be considered if a place is available and on payment of a late entry fee to be fixed by the FIA."

Clearly a place was available - what we haven't been told so far is the size of that entry fee, but it is understood to be a significant sum.

The FIA says that the new team has complied not just with article 8.1, but also with article 8.2 - the basic requirements that apply to any entrant.

That also explains why Force India remains part of the team name, alongside Racing Point, because under the regulations it is impossible to change a chassis name in the middle of the season.

Those entry requirements are as follows:

"a) Confirmation that the applicant has read and understood the regulations and agrees, on its own behalf and on behalf of everyone associated with its participation in the championship, to observe them.

"b) The name of the team (which must include the name of the chassis).

"c) The make of the competing car.

"d) The make of the engine.

"e) The names of the drivers. A driver may be nominated subsequent to the application upon payment of a fee fixed by the FIA.

Plus as noted earlier there's an "undertaking by the applicant to participate in every event with the number of cars and drivers entered."

All of these items were easily ticked off, allowing the FIA to finally sign off the Belgian GP entry list on Thursday afternoon - the first official sign that Racing Point Force India is in business.

Racing Point Force India's team principal Otmar Szafnauer has confirmed that the new organisation will retain the prize money accrued by the original team.

All nine other teams had to approve of the arrangement, and after lengthy debate in recent days, they eventually all signed off, with McLaren and Williams understood to be among the last to do so.

The biggest concession that the new team has made is giving up the points that the previous Force India had earned in 2018, meaning that it has to start afresh at earning its place in the constructors’ table, which will have a bearing on future income.

“The remaining nine teams have signed, so to speak, a document that enables us to keep the money that Sahara Force India earned in years past,” said Szafnauer.

“I think the biggest consequence is that we start from zero points, we forego the [59] points, because they belong to Sahara Force India, which is not an entrant any more. We are a new entrant, and start from zero.

"We will do the best we can and try to score as many points as we can in the remaining races, and see where we end up at the end of the season. And that will determine some of the prize fund for the following year.”

Szafnauer was keen to thank rival teams and other F1 stakeholders for agreeing to the change of entry.

“It started off as a share sale that then transferred into an asset sale, for reasons that I don’t quite understand. Once that happened we needed a new entry, into F1, and to gain a new entry in a short period of time takes a lot of work.

“The last 48 hours were about working towards having Racing Point Force India F1 team gain its new entry, and that was a lot of work, to do that.

"Fortunately with the support of the FIA, FOM, and our fellow competitors, our colleagues within the community, we got it done. I’ve got to thank the teams for supporting us.”

Szafnauer confirmed that the Racing Point name is a stop-gap solution.

“The reason is we started the year with Force India as our chassis name. And F1 and the FIA, they don’t like chassis name changes, and I understand why, because it confuses the fans.

“And we thought it was prudent to keep Force India for the fans. The car is still pink, we still have the same sponsors, we still have the same drivers, we have the same motorhome, we have the same employees. If you look at us, we’re exactly the same.

“I think it would have been confusing to remove Force India. Racing Point was added in front of Force India instead of Sahara. That was just so we could distinguish between the old and the new.

"Racing Point just happens to be the name of the company in the UK that own the assets. That’s the only reason for the name being there. But the chassis name remains Force India, and I think from a fan perspective, that’s the right thing to do.”

Szafnauer said the team has "got a few months to think about” what it will be called in 2019.

Szafnauer did not deny the obvious suggestion that Lance Stroll will switch to the team from Williams before the end of 2018.

"For the short terms it is the same two, what happens thereafter, it is not impossible to change, that’s for sure, but a lot of agreements would have to happen. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to predict for the future.”

Stroll’s current team boss Claire Williams hinted that a change was not impossible.

“There are a lots of twists and turns in F1, aren’t there?,” she said. “I think we’ve seen that over the past few weeks alone. So I think we’ll have to wait and see what the future brings. It might be odd if Lawrence [Stroll] owns one team with his son in another, but hey, this is F1.

“At the moment as I said Lance is contracted to us, he is driving for us this weekend, and as soon as we have more information, when we know, then we will share that.”

Mercedes goes aggressive with new wheel design

Mercedes has introduced an aggressive update to its rear wheel design at the Belgian Grand Prix as it bids to seek further gains in its battle with Ferrari.

Stroll set for Force India seat fitting

Lance Stroll will have a seat fit with Force India on Tuesday ahead of joining the team for next week’s Italian Grand Prix.

That is according to Racefans.net, who believe Stroll will replace Esteban Ocon at Monza, which will in turn pave the way for Robert Kubica to return to Formula 1 with Williams.

Ocon, who has been linked with a move to McLaren, is set to be without a seat until the end of the season, with Stoffel Vandoorne claiming he is “100 per cent” confident he will keep his seat for at least the rest of the 2018 campaign.

[...]

Stroll’s Force India switch to trigger moves for Ocon, Vandoorne, Kubica and Ericsson

Lance Stroll’s widely-expected move to Force India could lead to four Formula 1 seats changing hands as early as the next race at Monza, RaceFans has learned.

By displacing Ocon at Force India, Stroll could set in motion a chain of moves which will see Esteban Ocon and Stoffel Vandoorne change teams, Robert Kubica return to F1 and Marcus Ericsson left without a drive.

When asked by RaceFans, Stroll did not deny reports he will have a seat fitting at Force India next week. Ocon gave a similar response when asked about rumours he has already visited McLaren for the same reason.

During a McLaren media conference today, sporting director Gil de Ferran passed up three opportunities to deny Ocon has already been measured to see if the MCL33 can accommodate the tallest driver on the grid.

Ocon is therefore expected to be McLaren-bound in the event that Stroll pushes him out of Force India. He will replace Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren, who is believed to be heading to Sauber.

De Ferran told media Vandoorne will “be in the car for the rest of the year” but added the caveat “at present we have no other plans”.

However Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur is understood to have leapt at the opportunity to hire Vandoorne, who drove for his GP2 team ART. Vasseur and Vandoorne’s manager Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who is a director at Sauber, have persuaded the team’s co-owner Finn Rausing to hire Vandoorne as a replacement for Marcus Ericsson, who has fallen short of rookie team mate Charles Leclerc this season.

[...]

Horner ‘nearly got violin out’ for Hamilton

Date published: August 27 2018
Lewis Hamilton received no sympathy from Red Bull boss Christian Horner as Ferrari powered to victory in Belgium.

Hamilton’s World Championship lead has narrowed from 24 points to 17 after he conceded that he was “blitzed” by his title rival Sebastian Vettel and his SF71-H.

The Brit also said in his post-race interviews that Ferrari had “a few tricks” on their car, but clarified those comments and denied that he was suggesting the Scuderia were cheating.

But, as Hamilton bemoaned the power of the Ferrari and how Vettel went past him on the Kemmel Straight “like I wasn’t even there”, Horner was not ready to give Hamilton a shoulder to cry on.

The Red Bull boss was asked if he took confidence from the performance of Pierre Gasly and Honda as they took P9 on a power-hungry circuit, and replied: “[Honda] need to make a step.

“As you can see, Ferrari and Mercedes… just to hear Lewis moaning about Ferrari, I nearly got my violin out!

“But the gap is significant. I think if we just close that, and Honda are making great progress, they’re scoring points regularly, Pierre [Gasly] has been very, very upbeat about them and you can see they’re making headways.”

FIA director Charlie Whiting was also “amused” by Hamilton’s post-race comments about Ferrari.

“I’m quite amused about it really,” Whiting said. “Because we know quite a lot about Ferrari’s car and there is no way Lewis would know about anything about the Ferrari car.

“They are doing a good job at the moment and Mercedes have got to try to counter that, haven’t they?”