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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