Force India Can Move to the Next Level in Formula 1 with Aston Martin Makeover

With Nico Hulkenberg's sixth-place finish, Force India secured fifth spot, their best-ever result in the Formula One constructors' standings, at November's Brazilian Grand Prix.

But any celebrations, at least those of the public variety, were kept to a minimum at Interlagos.

Rather than gathering the entire team, from the drivers to the cleaners, at the front of the garage for one of those victory photocalls complete with a "P5" pit board and countless bottles of champagne—as a lesser team may have done—Force India seemed to be content with backslaps and 140-character Twitter tributes.

For them, this was not the culmination of seven years of blood, sweat and tears, but the first step toward bigger and better things. 

And while Bob Fernley was, of course, overjoyed with his side's achievement, it didn't take long for the deputy team principal—like all great leaders in sport—to absorb that success and turn his attention toward the near future, the latest challenge, the next step.

In true industrial, Force India-esque fashion, Fernley explained that after breaking into the top five, his team must target the Big Four in 2016, telling Motorsport.com's Adam Cooper:

"

It does show that there has been a genuine step-up. Our powertrain is probably the best in the business, so I don't think there are any issues there.

And I think chassis-wise we are a genuinely top four or five car. To take the next move into the top four requires another step, but we've got the assets to do it today.

What we have to look at is setting our sights on competing with Williams, because they are a similarly-funded team with similar assets, albeit a bit more in-depth because of the amount of investment they've put in over the years.

Clearly we want to close down on them. I think we've been chipping away at them over the second half of the season.

"

Just 12 months ago, as they were put in their place by McLaren, who stole fifth place in the closing weeks of the season, the chances of Force India emerging as one of the leading teams on the grid appeared to be non-existent.

Yet now, due to one of the "assets" Fernley discussed with such enthusiasm at Interlagos, the midfield team with an apparent inferiority complex are ready to be taken much more seriously.

As reported by Autosport's Dieter Rencken and Lawrence Barretto, Force India are set to undergo a change of identity over the winter, which will see the team become Aston Martin Racing, and that orange, green, black and silver colour scheme will be replaced by blue and gold as a result of a sponsorship deal with Johnnie Walker.

Aston Martin's "small" budget, per F1 journalist Joe Saward, means the impending agreement with the British sportscar manufacturer—which is part-owned by Mercedes, Force India's engine supplier since 2009—is likely to be nothing more than a "relatively small technical partnership."

But even so, a little cosmetic surgery could have a transformational effect on Force India.

Rather than reaching out specifically to a single (if highly populated) pocket of the globe with a regional-based title, an F1 team with as fashionable and iconic a name as Aston Martin would carry a worldwide appeal, attracting interest from a range of markets.

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The reported deal with Johnnie Walker, which per the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson provided £15 million per season over its decade as a McLaren sponsor and offered as much as £43 million a year to replace Vodafone as title sponsor at the end of 2013, is a template for the profile of partner Force India should soon be able to entice.

Should the team attract a host of new sponsors and retain the Telmex backing provided by the increasingly impressive Sergio Perez—who, according to James Allen on F1's Alex Kalinauckas brings "approximately €10-12 million"—Force India's budget could grow larger than ever before.

And that would consign those eerie pre-season horror stories relating to the team's future—in January, chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, per Motorsport.com, was forced to deny Force India were "on the verge of insolvency"—to history.

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That, in turn, would offer new possibilities to a team whose on-track performances have too often been dictated by their financial constraints.

In recent years, Force India have made a habit of starting a given season with a strong all-round car, scoring consistent points in the early races before falling behind in the development race, losing momentum and finishing in their rightful place in the pecking and championship order.

While that trend reversed in 2015, as the Silverstone-based outfit began the year with an "interim" car before introducing a B-specification chassis at the midseason stage, which proved to be instrumental to their lofty championship finish, there is a lingering sense that Force India only turn up for half a season.

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But with extra funds, and the continued use of Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany, the team could start a season with the "top four or five car" Fernley craves—featuring innovations akin to the VJM08's nostril nose—and evolve it as the year progresses, maintaining a stable level of performance.

As Force India continued to knock on the door of the top five during this decade, finishing sixth in 2011, 2012 and 2014, it was worth wondering just what this team—arguably the best pound-for-pound outfit in the business—could achieve with a little financial boost and more resources.

Although it may take time for the relationship with Aston Martin to blossom, it seems this punchy little team—having smashed the glass ceiling to a thousand pieces in 2015—will finally have the platform to realise their potential and show what they're really capable of.

And, perhaps, to prove what's in a name.

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