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Force India Signs with McLaren
Days after Force India announced it was ending its engine partnership with Ferrari, the rookie F1 team has signed a new long term technical agreement with the Italian marquee's main rival, McLaren. Starting next season, the engine, gearbox, hydraulic system and KERS energy system will all be supplied by McLaren-Mercedes. It's the first time in F1 history that Mercedes has supplied a second team with engines.
"Force India Formula One Team has been in existence for only one year, and inevitably our first season has constituted a learning period," said team boss Vijay Mallya. "But we said at the outset that we meant business and were not interested in merely making up the numbers. "McLaren and Mercedes-Benz are two of the most famous names in motorsport history, having achieved great success in Grand Prix racing over many years, and most recently, a superb victory in probably the most dramatic World Championship Formula 1 has seen. "These new resources and developments will provide an enormous boost to our technical armoury and, as a result, we have high hopes of making good progress in 2009 and beyond."
Terms of the deal were not announced but its believed to be for the next five years. Following the decision to terminate the Ferrari engine agreement one year early, Mallya overhauled the team's front office structure, bidding farewell to team boss Colin Kolles and technical head Mike Gascoyne.
McLaren's Operations Director, Simon Roberts, will move over to work full-time with Force India as part of the new partnership but team officials said McLaren's influence on the Indian team would be limited. "This isn't a takeover by McLaren. This is an independent team that we happen to be partnering, and I hope that we can bring business benefit to this organisation," McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh tells autosport.com. "We will make proposals and recommendations that we think are enhancing the prospect of good performance. They are a partner, but although there will be a range of strident suggestions and recommendations, this team have to decide."
There have already been suggestions that McLaren may push one of its stable of drivers onto Force India and Mallya did not rule out that possibility. "They will recommend what will be in the best interests of my team and I will be hard pressed to ignore their advice," said Mallya. "If we don't have a car then there's no point having a driver! The whole idea is first to get a car now. The driver comes next."
Force India were the only team this season who failed to score a point. They completed the fewest laps of any team and were the only squad who failed to lead at least one lap this season. Mallya says his goal is to regularly score points in 2009 and while scoring the team's first win in 2010 might sound ambitious, he is determined to be on the podium when India hosts its first F1 race in 2011.
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