Formula 1:McLaren’s De la Rosa tests for Force India

McLaren’s Spanish reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa switched over to testing duties with the Force India Formula One team at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday.

Force India this month agreed a five-year partnership deal with McLaren and Mercedes that will see them replace their Ferrari engines with a complete drivetrain (engine and gearbox) package next season.

The team will also use a KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) designed by McLaren and Mercedes.

The deal has triggered speculation the experienced De la Rosa could also be drafted in as a race driver for the Silverstone-based team but a Force India spokesman played that down.

“Pedro is an old friend of the team,” he said, pointing out that the Spaniard had been a test driver for Force India’s predecessors Jordan in 1998 before making his F1 race debut with Arrows in 1999.

FRESH FACE

“It’s an opportunity for a fresh face to put a new perspective on an old car,” he added.

While some other Formula One teams have two more tests planned before the New Year, this week’s outing at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit will be Force India’s last track appearance of the year.

The team will not be able to use their Mercedes engines until January and have almost used up their supply of Ferrari power units.

De la Rosa, who tested for McLaren on Monday, was joined by Force India’s German race driver Adrian Sutil on Tuesday with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella scheduled to test with the Spaniard on Wednesday.

Force India’s billionaire owner Vijay Mallya has said the team intends to keep Fisichella and Sutil but hinted recently that the McLaren deal could change his thinking.

“They (McLaren) will recommend what they believe to be in the best interests of my team and I have to decide,” he told Reuters last week. “And I would be hard pressed to ignore their advice.”

Formula 1: McLaren to recommend drivers for Force India

Vijay Mallya has shown who is the Boss. McLaren has said they will only recommend drivers but will not force, Force India to hire drivers recommended by McLaren. Mclaren has signed a 5 year deal with Force India for 5 years where in Mercedes will provide the Engine and McLaren will provide the gearbox and hydrualic systems.

Adding a curious twist to the news is Vijay Mallya’s statement. I quote here “They [McLaren] will recommend what they believe to be in the best interests of my team and I have to decide. And I would be hard pressed to ignore their advice,” He further added “The first thing is building the car. If we don’t have a car then there’s no point having a driver…It’s already pushing the envelope a little bit, so we need to focus on the car. The driver comes next and we will have these conversations “.

“I haven’t gone into any details on drivers yet,” said Mallya, who in the past week has ousted former team principal Colin Kolles and technical head Mike Gascoyne while also terminating Force India’s supply of Ferrari [Images] engines.

“I have taken some very hard decisions in the last week for this team. My interest is this team and it has to go where I want it to go.

“I am going to do whatever it takes. There are no emotions involved.”

The new partners are providing Force India with a complete drivetrain [engine and gearbox] as well as KERS [kinetic energy recovery system].

In addition, Simon Roberts is moving from McLaren Applied Technologies to become Force India’s chief operating officer.

“There’s nothing off-bounds in this partnership,” said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh when asked about drivers.

“We will make proposals and recommendations that we think are enhancing the prospect of good performance from this team.

“I suspect he [Mallya] has some staggering business commitments outside of Formula One and he would expect us, as specialists and professionals in this field, to be making all of the recommendations that are necessary to ensure that we go forward.”

Formula One: Force India still looks for a point

Force India’s search for the elusive maiden point in the current Formula One season continues after Adrian Sutil failed to finish while Giancarlo Fisichella finished 17th at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on Sunday.

Fisichella began from the last position of the grid and gained three places when he took the chequered flag in the 56-lap penultimate race of the 2008 Formula One season.

Sutil encountered a gearbox problem on lap 14 and was forced to pull off the track before even completing one third of the race distance.

The German driver, beginning at 19th position, had graduated to 17th but had to face his second consecutive failure.

The team will now return to its base in England evaluate the data before launching its final hunt for points in the Brazilian Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

“Very early on in the race my car developed a problem. I couldn’t select gears anymore and had to pull off just before the main straight and park the car.

“Until that point I was quite happy in the car, even though the traction and grip was very low so it’s disappointing not to finish yet again. I really hope for more in Brazil now,” Sutil said after the race.

Fisichella admitted that he struggled to adjust to the traction of the track.

“We knew our pace was not really good enough today so we just tried to find a different solution to gain places. We went for a one stop strategy but I was really struggling with the grip to start with,” he said.

“In the last 10 laps before the end of the race I was able to do reasonable lap times, but it was a fairly lonely race for me at that point. Anyway, we now go onto Brazil and the last race,” Fisichella added.

Mike Gascoyne, the chief technical officer of the team, was naturally disappointed with the result.

“It was disappointing not to get two cars to the finish today, but Giancarlo did a good job to get the car home in what’s been a difficult event for us. Adrian was on a two stop strategy but unfortunately had a failure, which we believe was an electronic matter related to the gearbox.

“Giancarlo was on a one stop strategy and while the first stint on the harder tyre was OK, with the lapping in the second stint he couldn’t really improve his position. We will now move onto the final race and hope to be more competitive there,” he said.

Vijay Mallya , chairman and managing director, took solace from the fact that at least \one car finished the race but did not hesitate in terming the result as ‘shameful’.

“It has been a challenging weekend for the team and to get one finish is at least some small consolation. Giancarlo did everything expected of him, keeping out of trouble and bringing the car home.

“While 17th position is not something we can get excited about, it is a finish and in an extremely reliable field we need everything we can. Adrian was again unfortunate to be struck by a problem early on.

“It is a shame but we have to learn from this and move on. I am sure he and the team will be expecting more in Brazil,” he said.

Football- Mallya linked to QPR

Vijay Mallya is expanding his horizons. He is not buying a football club, but is close to inking a deal with Queens Park Rangers, the English Championship football club.

Mallya, who sponsors Calcutta giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, is close to agreeing a five-year $35 million deal to advertise his Kingfisher beer on the players’ shirts, and a naming rights deal for the Loftus Road stadium, to be named after Mallya’s Kingfisher brand, the Daily Mail reported. The deal is said to be close to completion and could be announced as early as next week. But the five-year agreement could also include the naming rights of a stadium where QPR first played in 1917. The report added that it was only recently that Briatore is even said to have considered renaming the club — to Queens Park City — in order to emphasise its position in the capital.

Force India’s trial by fire!!!

The first Indian-owned team to start a Formula One race were given a tough lesson in the realities of the sport when both their cars failed to finish Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

Force India, which is co-owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya , never expected to challenge the likes of McLaren and Ferrari for victory but were hoping to at least make it to the finish.

Former Australian Grand Prix winner, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, crashed out on the first corner, while Germany’s Adrian Sutil retired after eight laps because of a hydraulic pressure problem.

“It was a very disappointing first race for Force India,” the team’s chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne told reporters.

“We missed a great opportunity to score points… and we have to look to get a better result in Malaysia (next weekend).”

The team’s frustration at failing to finish the race was compounded by an unusually high casualty rate which saw just seven cars complete the event.

Fisichella, who had started from 16th place in the grid, made a clean getaway when the race began but came to an abrupt halt when he was caught in a pile-up.

“I was very disappointed as I lost the race at the first corner because another driver came in like a kamikaze into my car,” Fisichella said.

“It was very frustrating because this was such a good opportunity to score points.”

AVOIDED CARNAGE

Sutil started the race from the pit lane after cracking a chassis in qualifying. He managed to avoid the carnage at the first corner and got as high as 13th place before his day also ended prematurely.

“It was good while it lasted,” Sutil said. “In the opening laps, I could stay with the guys in front of me.”

Force India raced as Spyker last season, scoring just one point and finished 10th overall in the 11-team championship after McLaren were stripped of all their points for a spying controversy.

Mallya bought the team in the hope that Force India would be on the podium when New Delhi hosts a Formula One race in 2010 but knows the obstacles they face.

Despite his disappointment at failing to finish the race, Mallya said there were still plenty of encouraging signs.

“I was very pleased with the weekend despite the frustration of going out early in this astonishing race,” he said.

“I was, however, very encouraged with the pace we showed in the practice sessions.

“Although qualifying was ultimately disappointing, last year in Australia this team was well off the pace, this year we were up with the midfield.”

Photograph: Getty Images | Text: Reuters