Force India may not have new car at next test

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In the round-up: Force India’s VJM08 may not run until the final pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya.

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More delays for 2015 Force India (Autosport)

Bob Fernley: "Everybody is pushing to try to make it happen, but it's far more likely the VJM08 will run at the final Barcelona test at the end of February."

Wish they were here (ESPN)

"Circuit contracts include a minimum grid size, and the next six weeks will see F1's major players move heaven and earth to ensure 18 cars for the Australian Grand Prix."

Nico Rosberg Q&A: Tough times make you stronger (F1)

"At the moment I am totally falling for the 'silver myth'! There is no room for anything red. I love the history of the 'silver myth' - looking at Fangio's car, Stirling Moss's car winning the Mille Miglia. That is our history - and I am very proud of it."

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Comment of the day

Nissan launching their LMP1 car in the coveted Superbowl advert break was a coup for the World Endurance Championship:

I think it says a lot about F1 and WEC when Nissan reveal their LMP1 in a Superbowl advert.

Millions of people saw that car be revealed compared to the sponsorless twitter announcements we see these days. I hope a team like Mercedes could reveal their car in the same way next year.
Theo Parkinson (@Theo-hrp)

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On this day in F1

He’s already won one world championship with them, but two years ago today Lewis Hamilton was driving a Mercedes for the first time.

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43 comments on “Force India may not have new car at next test”

  1. Great, most teams are just testing if their cars work as expected while Mercedes are doing intermediate tyre simulations…

    Dont’ worry…..it’s just testing!!

    Can we have that as a catchphrase……or maybe mclaren could have it on a t-shirt.

    Keep Calm
    It’s just testing

    1. Hahaha! couldn’t help but laugh at this. So true

  2. dun dun dun, Force India bites the Dust
    (Or so it would seem!)

  3. Love that Alonso picture!

  4. Wow, sad. I hope we’re not about to lose a midfield team due to Bernie’s greed. :(

    1. According to the article it isn’t for financial issues but for production delay from suppliers, that’s why they could bring the 2014 car.

      1. it isn’t for financial issues but for production delay from suppliers

        @hunocsi as I understand it, Force India’s suppliers have refused to extend credit, and imposed COD terms.

        It seems pretty clear that FI haven’t been able to find the cash to make up front payments to those suppliers in time to meet their build deadlines.

        It might not be terminal yet for Force India, but the signs aren’t good.

      2. As @tdog mentions, the reason for the delays is that suppliers want to get their outstanding bills settled before doing more work for the team, therefore a delay is mostly caused by cashflow issues.

        Quite a worry.

        1. it’s a big worry and probably caused (at least in part) by what happened to marussia – many of their suppliers are said to be massively out of pocket (not just ferrari, many smaller organisations too)

    2. Firstly i do agree F1 is in trouble. But if most have taken noticed of two things. Firstly all the teams that are in trouble or has failed this year are teams that has billionaires as there primary sponsors and secondly Force India made the same mistake as Lotus in 2012. They where near the top and was chasing one of the big teams. By trying to do so they over shot there budget and are know in trouble. That is why i like Williams so much, they have a budget and stick to it. If the car is good they they stick to the budget and if the car is bad they stick to there budget. they do not over spend and that is how they have served so long in F1.

      1. …and this is exactly why they had their last title almost 20 years ago.

        1. True but have had a profit for the last 6 years and do not worry about finances. They have reliance that they can not compete with the big teams every year. Unlucky that is how it will stay. As long as the big teams can spend what they want it will not changes

          1. In fairness, Williams are one of the teams that receive additional ‘heritage payments’ from Bernie, on account of their longstanding participation and success in Formula 1. Their budgetary issues are never going be quite as severe as a team like Force India or Lotus.

          2. And Williams also has an engineering division that does business outside of F1. So they do have a source of survival apart from the F1 money they get, including ‘heritage payments’. This is an advantage FI or Lotus do not have.

  5. Rosberg there is space for red on mercedes cars, for a while now one would fear an affiliation with fascism but it has it’s place in history and that’s why Lewis’s 44 is red.

  6. Force India and McLaren are going to be so tough to tell apart this season.

    1. Not to worry. We probably won’t see them at the same time. One is on the verge of not running at all. The other is good for a couple of laps until it breaks.

  7. Looks like Force India is the new Marussia/Caterham. Someone will always finish last. If the other teams and you know who weren’t so self-absorbed they would have saved at least one of the back-markers. An FIA run by Mosley would not have led to this. Because, once Force India is gone, then who’s last, Sauber and/or Haas? Then when F1 is forced to have teams field three cars and/or worse customer cars to fill grids…Williams, Lotus? What will be left with…6 Mercs, 6 McLaren’s, 6 Red Bull’s and 6 Ferrari’s. Who will finish last then when you will be better off retiring the car??

    1. An FIA run by Mosely would have run F1 with a single standardised engine, so F1 would in reality be GP1 and by now ticket prices would have to be on par with Indycar if it was to survive at all.

      1. Exactly and more fans could actually afford to go to the races. Perhaps even in Germany.

        1. yeah, but you can go to cheap racing right now as well. And its pretty decent racing too (DTM for example, or you can go to WEC or others).
          Its just not F1

          1. Yes, they are both good but they are not F1. The reason that F1 is so expensive and what the initial post was about is that someone needs to finish last yet the teams go out of their way to not ensure that the small teams do not survive. Therefore, eventually they will all wipe each other out and we will be left with a spec chassis and engine, i.e: 24 Ferrari’s. Competition is one thing but could you imagine the Premiere League with ten clubs all supplied by Man U? The League and the teams need to be autonomous of one another yet reliant of each other. Currently, way too many back-room deals and conflicts of interest in F1 for a healthy playing field. For this reason it will never float and teams are having such difficulty attracting sponsorship these days.

          2. Sorry Fast, but from your comment about more fans being able to visit F1 I gather you would be supportive of the Mosley style, standard engine, “simplyfied” F1 @hohum mentioned.

            But that “F1” also wouldn’t be F1, just like GP2, WEC, DTM etc.

          3. I am constantly amazed at the cognitive difficulties F1 fans suffer from. Let me explain again like I am talking to a five year old. An F1 led by Mosley and/or say someone more hands on then the current fellow would not let the small teams disappear. That doesn’t mean standard engines and doesn’t mean I support Mosley to return. What it means is by letting the small teams disappear you will eventually will have middle size teams that will become the back markers and then they will disappear too. And so on. Eventually you will be left with exactly the type of GP1 scenario you all have accused me of promoting yet that in reality you have all supported and caused. While I only was warning that this would be the outcome if this system of the current self-absorption in F1 continued you will all have let it happen while blaming someone else. How convenient. Talk about shooting the messenger while you enjoy your worst nightmare come true.

          4. “Marussia’s path back to Formula One could be blocked by the other teams who want a share of their £40m prize money for finishing ninth last season.”
            I’m sure Force India, despite their own troubles, will be one of the blockers.
            Instant karma.

      2. p.s. What F1 has now is a standardized engine, with development controlled by a token system, built be several manufacturers.

        1. On Marussia
          February 5, 2015 by Joe Saward
          It is very late in the day for a rescue of the old Marussia team. There are any number of hurdles and little hope that the team could do anything this beyond just being there, but the team has earned the money that it can claim and if there is cash to go ahead then F1 should supportive of the effort. Will it be? In real terms, F1 teams tend to be ultimately selfish and if they stand to gain from sharing Marussia’s money between them there is a chance that some will vote against the idea of letting the team fight on. This would be stupid. F1 needs cars and needs to move forward rather than squabbling all the time. The sport must be deemed more important that the individual parts. I see no reason why the FIA or the Formula One group should vote against a revival, and if they do they should expect condemnation. They all have agendas but it is very clear that the sport is pretty broken and needs fixing and not helping the weak is a bad idea.

          1. @fast,cc @bascb, Fast you overlook 1 salient fact, it was Max Mosely that sold Bernie the “commercial rights” to F1, thereby disenfranchising all the teams and making it impossible for them to organise themselves in a cooperative manner, under FOM/CVC the teams have to compete like countries at war, ie survival at all costs is all that matters, the alternative is oblivion now. Given the choice would you prefer to die now or maybe a year or two in the future.

          2. Mosley sold the rights because the FIA was forced to divest of them by EU anti-trust laws. As a result the owner of F1’s sporting and regulations the FIA needs to be hand’s on or the commercial side of the sport will destroy them all. Mosley understood this, the new fellow does not. The next fellow better be ready to step in and get their hands dirty or as you have pointed out (@hohum) after the two teams that will die now, two more follow and so on. How many more Vijay Mallya’s will be prepared to squander everything to replace them.

  8. both Mallya & Sahara group are running in lot’s of regulatory problems… the current delay is clearly due to lack of funds. most likely the last FI season…. unless things change for both promoter groups.

  9. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    4th February 2015, 3:59

    Those red mirrors might be a nostalgic sight for Fernando, or maybe with regret.

  10. On a more serious note, I truly respect Force India and Mallya. Here’s a true motorsport man, a true racer. The man closest in spirit, in the current grid, to a Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Peter Sauber. An “old school” team owner- a billionaire one, but contrary to the showman Fernandes or Branson, who were in it to promote solely their brands, Mallya always felt to me as someone passionate about the sport. (Yes, he promoted his business in his cars, but how proud he is on the project can be seen on the name of the car “Force India” and the chassis VJM. clearly a very personal project, and something he shouldn’t be making much money with. Hope he stays, as much as I don’t like the name of the team. Would like it much, much more if it was called Mallya F1, or something connected to the man- because I can much relate to his passion than his country, who did nothing for the sport.

    1. I agree with the comment that he is obviously absolutely committed to F1. He was very patient and the team really progressed under his ownership. You only need to remember that it was one of the back markers when he bought it some 6-7 years ago. Today (at least until this unfortunate situation) it is one of the strongest midfield teams, both in points and in quality.
      It would be a great shame if one more team falls by the wayside. This is the team that kept finishing consistently just behind the manufacturers for years now, and it turns out even that isn’t good enough to guarantee you survival. There’s something very wrong with F1, and we all know what it is. You can’t expect more from a team that was a backmarker just 7 years ago.

    2. agree to this, and ever since the team formed there have always been stories each year about team financial problems… but the performance on track shows consistency… let’s hope they get their act right again this year.

    3. Very well said. Over the years, I have come to like the team, simply for their performance, year in year out, on track. They have kept the sport we all love much entertaining by their dogged approach to racing and determination to succeed, with meagre resources. Were they not running second to MercedesAmgF1 at a certain time during the 2014 campaign?

      If FI cannot survive, irrespective of their level of performance and achievement in Formula 1, then something is wrong with the current F1.

      I don’t care what many might think about this, but a mid-field team should be able to run a healthy team on their F1 earnings. Currently, that is not happening and it doesn’t bode well for the future of the sports.

    4. Hm, not sure I agree there @sergio-perez.

      Yes, Mallya has done a very good job to give the team stability, has not fallen for the paydriver trick too much, and has installed a very nice team of people and let them do what they do well without messing it up.

      But as far as his motivation, I am sure that the project is about feeling and showing he is (was) a billionaire and can afford to live like this. In other words its a bit of an ego project, much like the airlines were.
      The sad part is, that currently an F1 team is not an asset for most, so if he himself can’t keep it up, and the guy who he did lure in is in even bigger trouble (is he still in jail?) I can see huge issues for the team this year with cashflow and am very worried about their future.

      1. @bascb who does not have an ego project? everyone in F1 is there because this is pinnacle, and this means you are on the very top of the motor sports working / owning for an F1 team. If not for his ego, we wont have seen this team ever.

        I am hoping there wont be any issues but if there are, it is not a good news and would make fans of this team sad.

    5. Mallya may be true racer but he couldn’t afford F1 from the very beginning. He has squandered his family inheritance in an environment that is fundamentally flawed in their application of sporting competition.

  11. You know since 2007 I think only one of Alonso’s teammates hasn’t ended up in a faster car than him.

    Hamilton, Grosjean, Massa and now Kimi.

    Button has got to be feeling confident about his future.

  12. Ok . So if VJM can’t even put a car together than how is he going to race a whole season ,
    If BE is so sharp how did he not see this( marussia-caterham -FI) coming, or he did and didn’t give a crap !

  13. I just had a look at this article about the corruption scandal at Petrobras – Funny how Williams has a knack for petro-sponsors that might be trouble, just hope it doesn’t affect them!

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