Force India extend deal to use Mercedes engines

2014 F1 season

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Force India will remain a Mercedes engine customer, the team has announced.

A new “long-term agreement” will see Force India continue to use Mercedes power in 2014 and beyond. They began using the Brixworth-built engines in 2009.

“Our new agreement with Mercedes-Benz for the coming years is the most significant in the history of Sahara Force India,” said team principal Vijay Mallya.

A new engine formula will be introduced in Formula One next year with teams switching to 1.6-litre V6 engines.

Under the arrangement Force India will receive complete power units including engine and Energy Recovery System, plus transmission and ancillary systems, from Mercedes. These are currently supplied to them by McLaren.

Mallya said he “can’t think of a better partner to work with as Formula One enters a new and exciting era”.

“The agreement gives us the long-term stability we require and will enable us to continue our journey towards the front of the Formula One grid.”

Mercedes other engine customer, McLaren, is rumoured to be switching to Honda power in the near future. Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff said: “It is a significant milestone to announce our first long-term agreement for powertrain supply under the 2014 regulations.”

“This long-term agreement offers excellent value in terms of the balance between price and performance. We hope it will mean Mercedes-Benz and Sahara Force India working together for the entire life cycle of the new powertrain generation,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “Force India extend deal to use Mercedes engines”

  1. No surprises there since they didn’t go with Bianchi

    1. Can’t wait to see Marussia equiped with a Ferrari engine

    2. that’s a direct consequence of that and now Marussia team may be the biggest winner from this , a talented driver with sponsorship + a Ferrari engine

      1. poor glock

    3. +1 my first thoughts exactly

      1. That will be very interesting, especially considering that, perhaps the Ferrari engines will give them an additional 1 second/lap over the under-powered Cosworth engines they’re currently using.

        1. Let’s just hope that Marussia team is on solid financial footing and their sponsorship doesn’t go the way of Razia’s, in a big and comprehensive way. Both Marussia AND Caterham strike me as continually teetering on the edge of financial collapse, but that’s pure speculation/projection on my part.

        2. Cosworth are not underpowered at all. They are at least level pegging in that department and have, at times, produced a superior power level. After all, switching to a ‘more powerful’ Renault motor hardly seems to have benefited either Caterham or Williams has it, at least not very consistently.

          I don’t believe that the Marussia chassis (at this time) can even use what power IS available from the Cosworth. but that of course may change. There is no doubt the Ferrari engine is good, but it cannot, alone overcome the design shortcomings.

          1. for a team like marussia isn’t it better to be able to compete with midfield teams and for points inconsistently then to just beat the caterham and lag behind the lower-midfield teams like williams and toro-roso consistently??
            btw i think caterham would be ahead of marussia if they didn’t have Bianchi

  2. MALLI (@mallikarjuna)
    28th March 2013, 10:56

    very good decision.

    1. they had to take it quickly to have the spec for next year’s car I guess …

  3. Will they even be in F1 by then?

    1. see my comment above (re. finances)

  4. It certainly was expected after they signed Sutil over Bianchi. But I am not at all sure it does mean that Marussia will end up with Ferrari engines.

    1. @bascb Yep, not sure Bianchi will stay at Marussia in the first place so why provide them some ferrari engines ?

      1. Because it’s another €20m per year for Ferrari?

        1. @iamjamm And it’s another €20m per year for Marussia. They won’t be able to afford it. Given that they don’t have a contract with CVC. Hope everything works out for them.

      2. Well somebody is going to have to, Cosworth aren’t producing a V6, and Renault aren’t interested in increasing the number of teams they supply…so that leaves two.

        Though it may only leave two for one year, if they went with Honda in 2015.

  5. Very interesting indeed! Could be that Mclaren have told Force India they won’t be providing Merc compatible ERS Units etc going forward and that might be due to Mclaren’s rumoured engine switch actually being true. Mclaren would be unlikely to entice Honda into the fray without signing up to use Honda engine/ERS systems as its the hybrid technology that interests the Japanese giant. Therefore Mclaren would have no reason to develop their own in house ERS just to supply it to Force India. Also, Mercedes Benz probably wouldn’t like the idea of a customer team using ERS units supplied by a rival team that was in bed with a rival manufacterer. Long story short, Honda and Mclaren is go in my opinion.

    1. I don’t think you can separate them like you could with KERS. I’d think ERS comes with the engine deal. Or fo you have any information about that?

  6. Intersting that McLaren will be priority no.3 for Mercedes in 2014, with the new V6s..
    But this is bad news for Ferrari, a team which prefers to have multiple customer teams. Marussia could be in the equation, but…

  7. It’s all good but get some good liveries guys.

  8. So Bianchi won’t go to Force India this year and so on, probably. That’s good news for other midfield teams such as, well, saying Sauber for example. Also I expect Ferrari would seek Marussia as 3rd(if Toro Rosso quits) engine customer even if Bianchi is not there anymore.

  9. It has been only going better for FI since they switched to Mercedes power. So it was a no brainer for the team to carry forward this progress. Moreover Mercedes is also looking good at the moment and the factory team seems more serious than ever with their F1 plans.

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