Force India needs ‘£200m more’ to take on top teams

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In the round-up: Force India’s deputy team principal reckons the team would require an extra £200 million to rival the teams in front of them.

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Keith Collantine
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18 comments on “Force India needs ‘£200m more’ to take on top teams”

  1. If Force India needs that amount, what about the other teams beneath them?

    1. wow that’s a big chunk of change. The top teams must feel great knowing they outspend the bottom teams by 3miles. F1 is a beautiful sport. I love it but it is the most unbalanced sport in the world by far. If it were more balanced we d see 30 cars on the grid every Sunday.

      1. Clearly you dont watch much sport. 90% of the top sports teams are the topspenders.

      2. Josh, as Gabriel points out, it is certainly not uncommon for sports where there is no spending limits to see major disparities in wealth between the top teams and the smaller ones.

        If you looked just within the world of motorsport, the disparity between the budgets of the manufacturer LMP1 teams in the WEC and the privateer LMP1 teams is just as wide. Gene Haas, meanwhile, wasn’t joking when he said that a NASCAR team could cost as much to run as an F1 team – even though you would have thought that there would be less of an advantage in a series where the cars are ostensibly identical, the largest NASCAR teams have budgets of around $200 million, whereas most smaller teams will be operating with a tiny fraction of that sort of budget.

    2. Well I’m sure Ferrari would say they need 200 million to beat the top team.
      I’m sure Red Bull would say they need 200 million to beat the top team.
      I’m sure Mercedes would say they need 200 million to stay as the top team.

      Everyone, everywhere needs more. I wouldn’t say this is news.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        22nd August 2016, 10:41

        Ferrari need 200 million (and 1 more year…)

  2. Can you trust Mallya with that much money when he has defrauded a consortium of banks in India?

    He is busy playing victim nowadays.

    While the team at FI is very good the management lacks credibility.

    1. Luckily the real management is quite credible Sridar. But Mallya is not part of it, he is more of a figurehead

  3. I think thats part of why Perez and sponsors want out. Plus Renault is a better deal for them. The one that would be glad to pay Mallya that money would be Maldonado.

    1. Gerulf Dösinger (@)
      22nd August 2016, 11:51

      I don’t know why people bring him still up. Maldonado won’t be near a F1 cockpit anytime soon (or ever again).

      Remember, part of being fired from Lotus/Renault at the end of 2015 was that there were problems with the payment from his sponsor. And since his sponsor was not any private company but a nationalized one owned by Venezuelas government there will not be any money anytime soon. Venezuelas economy is in a dire state, in a very very dire state. People are fleeing to Colombia since in parts of the country even the most basic needs (including water!) cannot be fulfilled.

      If he does not get a private company funding his ‘ambitions’ Maldonado is out of F1. I guess forever.

  4. Bold claims… 200M more to compete up front? Mercedes spends around 300 on chassis and 300 on engine. 300M budget might get them to Ferrari level.

    Or slightly lowet, where they are…

    Pirellis look good, but people like tires for grip not looks. No word on their performance.

    1. @jureo
      Brackley don’t have a particularly strong reputation for getting bang for their buck, unlike FI/Jordan. Plus they already have the Merc engine…

    2. @jureo, where are you getting the figures that claim that Mercedes are spending £300 million on their engines and another £300 million on their chassis? Even some of the more generous estimates for Mercedes’s total spending put the figure at closer to about £320-340 million a year for their combined operations, or about half the figure that you are quoting.

      Equally, with regards to your comment about the aesthetics of tyres – I’ve heard more than a few engineers from different companies complain that they are being forced to work around the dictates of marketing departments which want larger tyres because they look better and they can charge more of a premium for them (even though, in quite a few instances, they have a negative impact on ride comfort and handling performance).

  5. “We just don’t want contact.” – Wolff

    Which s exactly why they keep making contact. Tell them to abide by the regular racing rules. The driver behind needs to yield the racing line and not just stick his car in an impossible place and feel safe he won’t get hit because Mercedes “just don’t want contact”.

    Look at how Rosberg deals with Hamilton in Canada at turn one and at the end of the race in exactly the same situation with Verstappen.

    Rosberg just goes for a needless confrontation with Hamilton in turn 1 because he feels in thee right since Hamilton is not allowed to make contact. When fighting Verstappen he knows he has to yield the racing line to the car ahead and does.

    Although Rosberg does seem to have some weird notions on when one is entitled to the racing line (ie Austria and Hockenheim).

    1. These two completely forget how to drive when they are close together.

      1. Which is sort of the point @patrickl is making, isn’t it @ultimateuzair?

        And it sure looks like being teammates makes racing each other more frustrating for both of them because they have less options for defence or attack.

        1. I know. My comment was an indication that I agree with him.

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