In an exchange on the grid at Malaysia, Force India owner Vijay Mallya made some interesting remarks about his disdain for "customer cars," but neglected to mention that his team didn't build the ex-Spyker car they run.
ITV commentator Martin Brundle said this to Mallya:
"You build your own car. Obviously Aguri don't to an extent. You're violently against customer cars and such, but you need to keep the grid fully populated. Its a tricky problem for Formula One."
Mallya responded with this pretentious remark:
"It is a problem for Formula One and you know, we have to run a full factory, we have to have research and development programs and wind tunnels and everything that goes with it and obviously its a lot more expensive, a lot more difficult than those who can just go and get chassis from others..."
Lets pause right there and examine that statement. It's obviously a jab at Aguri, but Mallya and Brundle seem to imply that Force India built their car, and didn't just "get it from others," which simply isn't true. While they may have every intention of building their own car in the future, the VJM01 is simply a reworked version of the 2007 Spyker F8-VII—not unlike the way the Aguri SA08 is a reworked 2007 Honda RA107. Force India also uses Ferrari customer engines, not unlike the way Aguri used Honda customer engines.
While the designer of the Spyker, Technical Director James Key, continues to hold that position for Force India, the fact of the matter remains: Mallya simply purchased him along with the car, and where Aguri was a brand new F1 team, Force India is simply the re-branded Spyker-Midland-Jordan team, purchased by Mallya.
Whats the real definition of a customer team? That, apparently remains open to interpretation, but Vijay, don't pretend for a second you built the car or team that you bought.
I'd love to hear opinions on this, please let me know where you stand on this issue.
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5 months ago
Well, I guess almost every car is a development of previous years' cars. And most of the employees at Force India were also employed by Spyker last year - so it IS fair to say that that team built the car, in a way that it's not fair to say that the Super Aguri team build the SA08. All that's changed at Spyker is the name, the management, the livery and the sponsors - not the engineers (so much).
5 months ago
What an ignorant author!
from 5 months ago
It would be helpful if you could point out where I supplied misinformation.
5 months ago
The current cars running now are developed from previous cars, but they are built from cars that were built by those teams in the previous years. In the case of Super Aguri this is not the case. They were a new team. They were using the previous years car from Honda.
Is this the case with Spyker/Force India? I think not! In 1991 Jordan Grand Prix started the team. It was then sold to Midland group in 2005 and renamed Midland F1 in 2006. Would you agree that at this point it is still a "manufacturer"? Then towards the end of the 2006 season it was sold to Spyker Cars. Then in August of 2007 a consortium named "Orange India" led by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur (and existing board member) Michiel Mol purchased the team. Renaming it to Force India for the 2008 season.
Ignorant author, no. Wrong, yes.
5 months ago
While I do recognize Spyker to be the constructor, I don't agree with Mallya's statement.
Is buying a team somehow better than buying a car?
Purchasing a team, renaming it, tweaking and repainting their car from last season is not the same thing as developing your own.
5 months ago
If you can't afford to buy a formula one team, then develop a proper car, then don't bother. The thing is, Vijay Mallya can, easily. Lazy git.
5 months ago
The thing is that Force India I'm sure inherited the chassis construction facilities that Spyker/Midland/Minardi all used. Aguri probably had no construction facilities of their own, I'd assume. That, to me, is the inherent difference. That is also why Prodrive wasn't on the grid this year: they didn't have the money to buy or build their own chassis production facilities, or have the aerodynamicists who would arguably have to be kept separate from those of McLaren.
from 2 months ago
Aguri used the inherited Arrows facility in Leafield, but was headquartered in Tokyo.
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