Force India Formula One Team Announces Technical Partnerships With Mclaren Applied Technologies, Mercedes-Benz Highperformanceengines And Eads

Force India Formula One Team is pleased to announce a major new partnership that will propel the team forward for the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship and beyond; a ground-breaking technical partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies (which is a company wholly owned by the McLaren Group) and with Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines.

In a unique long term deal, the Force India Formula One Team VJM02 cars will be powered by engines designed and built by Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines, the first time that the legendary manufacturer has supplied another chassis constructor other than McLaren. Additionally, Force India will have access to the McLaren Group's network of bespoke suppliers that has supported this year's World Championship victory.

McLaren Applied Technologies will additionally supply the Force India Formula One Team cars with McLaren Racing gearboxes and hydraulic systems and will provide operational support to ensure Force India functions at its highest possible level.

The Force India Formula One Team also plans to fit its cars with a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) that is currently being developed by Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines and McLaren Racing (which is also a company wholly owned by the McLaren Group).

In conjunction with aerospace company EADS - which, like McLaren and Mercedes, is also a global leader in its field – Force India Formula One Team announced that it will soon be expanding the computational fluid dynamics capability of its Brackley Aero Centre facility.

Dr. Vijay Mallya, chairman and managing director of Force India, commented: 'We are absolutely delighted to be able to announce a technical partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies and Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines, and also our plan to expand the composite manufacturing capability and drawing office within our Silverstone facility.

'McLaren and Mercedes-Benz are two of the most famous names in motorsport history, having achieved great success in Grand Prix racing over many years, and most recently, a superb victory in probably the most dramatic World Championship Formula 1 has seen.

'These new resources and developments will provide an enormous boost to our technical armoury and, as a result, we have high hopes of making good progress in 2009 and beyond.

'Force India Formula One Team has been in existence for only one year, and inevitably our first season has constituted a learning period. But we said at the outset that we meant business and were not interested in merely making up the numbers. The announcement of our new technical partnership, combined with the new developments and resources outlined above, clearly underlines that we meant what we said. I would like personally to thank Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Max Mosley, both of whom offered their assistance and support throughout the gestation of this deal.'

'Interest in Formula One in India, especially among the 300-million-plus professional-class demographic as well as in neighbouring countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi with a large Indian population, is growing at astonishing levels. Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone has declared plans to stage an Indian Grand Prix in 2011, in Delhi, our capital city, by which time Force India Formula One Team will be exactly that: a Formula One force in, and for, India.'

Honda Motor Co has announced that it is pulling out of Formula One motor racing, although next year's Japan Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit will still go ahead as planned.
Amid slumping car sales triggered by the global economic crisis Honda were no longer willing to bankroll the Formula One team and its estimated annual budget of $500 million.
Honda Motor Co chief executive Takeo Fukui told a news conference a return to the sport could take time and added that there were no plans to continue as an engine supplier.
"This difficult decision has been made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry," Fukui said.
"Honda must protect its core business activities and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economics around the globe continue to mount.
"We will enter into consultation with associates of Honda Racing F1 and its engine supplier Honda Racing Development regarding the future of the two companies. This will include offering the team for sale."
Fukui, who told Reuters earlier this year that he would "spend a trillion yen" if he could to make Honda a Formula One winner, added: "But at this stage we have no plans to return to F1. We have no plans to supply engines to other teams. We do not want to be half in and half out of the sport."
Honda would have little time to find a buyer with the 2009 season starting in Australia on March 29.
With Formula One's power-brokers desperately seeking cost-cutting measures to ensure its survival, Honda's departure will have serious implications for the glamour sport.
It also leaves Britain's Jenson Button without an immediate drive for 2009, although some teams have yet to confirm their lineups.
Brazilian Bruno Senna, the 25-year-old nephew of the late triple world champion Ayrton, had also been tipped to take the place of compatriot Rubens Barrichello at Honda next season.
Honda's exit will leave the multi-billion sport, dominated by carmakers, facing a depleted grid of just 18 cars if no buyer can be found in the extremely tight time-frame available.
It will also prompt fears that other major manufacturers, with their factory production suspended and thousands of staff laid off, could follow Honda's example.
Honda and Toyota Motor Corp have been the big spenders in Formula One in recent years.
Ross Brawn, the former Ferrari technical director who won multiple championships with Michael Schumacher, was hired to run the Honda team at the end of last year.
Despite its huge resources, Honda had a dismal 2008 season and was pinning its hopes on next year's new rules levelling the playing field.
Button, a winner for Honda in Hungary in 2006, scored just three points while Barrichello took 11. The team finished ninth overall.
The last team to leave Formula One was Honda-backed Super Aguri, the tail-enders who folded for financial reasons in April.
Reuters

Despite the global financial crisis, Ferrari has inked a new sponsorship deal with a car manufacturer.

The famous Italian formula one team will add Tata, an Indian multinational, to its roster of backers in 2009, president Luca di Montezemolo told Italian media on Wednesday.

"For the first time an Indian brand will appear on the Ferrari," he said. "It's historic."

A Ferrari spokesman confirmed the deal, with the details set to be announced in due course.

Tata was associated with the Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan's formula one career, first with Jordan in 2005 and subsequently at Williams.

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