Force India will not be 'Force One' in 2018

Nov.22 - Force India chiefs has abandoned plans to rename the team 'Force One' for 2018.

Earlier, the Silverstone based team said it wanted to drop the 'India' from its name in order to attract a more international profile.

But Force One has been ruled out, ostensibly by F1 commercial rights holder Liberty Media.

"The new name must be able to last and it cannot be Force One," sporting boss Otmar Szafnauer is quoted by France's Auto Hebdo.

"The F1 guys think it could be too easily shortened to F1," he added.

On the face of it, Force India might seem to have bigger problems than its name, as owner Vijay Mallya was this week in a UK court as a date was set for his extradition hearing in December.

But the former Indian billionaire nonetheless told the Gulf News that Force India's plan is to once again finish a laudable fourth in the championship next year.

"We can't compete with the huge budgets of manufacturer teams," he said, "but we make the most of what we do have.

"Maintaining fourth place will be a challenge, but we have stability in all areas of the technical team and a very strong driver lineup so we are up for it," added Mallya.

✅ Check out more posts with related topics: