Sahara Force India F1 Team 2015

[multisync]

It was EPM who I was referring to in my early post regarding the Lotus and the major component was the chassis. I imagine they are probably getting a bit annoyed about not being paid between Lotus and FI.

I heard in December the tub was manufactured and delivered but on inspection was wrong and had to be remade. I alluded to that with my major issue with the car comment (Dec 5th iirc) At that point there wasn't any mention of them withholding the tub for non payment. Of course I/we could have been fed a yarn to cover up the truth but it does seem strange that we're 3 months later and only now money is being talked about.

I also heard they are now hoping for the Mexicans to invest more as they are had a big input on the new colour scheme, although the black was at Smirnoff's insistence, the rest of the car was pretty much them. (allegedly etc~) but nothing as yet?

It is pretty apparent money is very difficult and non critical suppliers are not being paid since last year but FI have been promised big money from the owners 'soon'. Lets hope soon is soon enough.

It would be a shame to lose them after all this time .

[Thunder]

http://www.speedweek.com/formel1/news/6 ... elona.html

So Speedweek reports that Bob Fernley confirmed Force India will NOT bring the VJM08 to the first Barcelona Tests and instead drive with the VJM07.
This is troubling, they said the same thing about the Jerez test before canceling it altogether.

[Godius]

https://twitter.com/tgruener/status/563705195335811072

[cossie]

back stabbers. they hurting for -$$$ and they just want Manors $$$. Bernie and Tolt need to get a sit down with them

[NAPI10]

Even if they able to attend last practice session; will they be able produce a competitive car this year?
I have little hope

[Manoah2u]

back stabbers. they hurting for -$$$ and they just want Manors $$$. Bernie and Tolt need to get a sit down with them

yes, let's judge without seeing the actual picture.

Force india might be fighting their lilly bums off to keep their personell paid and somehow manage to bring a car for the 2015 season hopefully as competitive for them as it was last year.

Meanwhile, some leftovers of a failed outfit (as hard as that sounds) are scavenged by some uncheckable dubious investors trying to lap up the dead corpses of 2014 cars and block the entire f1 field with outdated cars of a financially unstable team, that was a backmarker in 2014, with a field in 2015 that has progressed significantly.

Let's call their wise descision to block such a dangerous and unfair and bad possibility for F1 as backstabbing and interested in Manors bucks.

first of all, nobody has any right on Manors money anymore because Marussia 'earned' that last year and there is NOTHING left of that team, and the driver responsible is in a coma in a hospital. The last people to deserve that money are bloodsucking scammers that try to make a quick dime in F1. I'll remind you that the money the teams pay just to get their permission to plant their cars in the field year after year are gigantic. It's not like only Merc or RedBull has to pay.
So frankly, it's more fair to split Marussia's money among the existing teams instead if just slapping it in the hand of some dubious figures.

[Manoah2u]

Even if they able to attend last practice session; will they be able produce a competitive car this year?
I have little hope

Well, they've definately been hurt by missing tests and missing precious time, but having a competitive car does not really depend on whether the car delivery has been 'held in hostage' for a couple of weeks. That's more due to whether they actually have designed and build a competitive car. Offcourse, that depends a lot on how much money has been put into the vehicle. If there's not much money around, then there's offcourse the grim sight of not being able to produce a competitive car due to finances.

However, in turn, you can also read it as they have trouble paying because they invested a smackload sum of money to build a competitive car hoping to benefit from it during the season, so you could go all sorts of directions here.

The biggest problem imho would be the miss of setting up the car. They'll test with the 2014 car i suppose, i wonder what benefit that would hold - unless the 2014 car would be carrying certain updates meant for 2015; like the engine, for example. Wings.

[Raleigh]

first of all, nobody has any right on Manors money anymore because Marussia 'earned' that last year and there is NOTHING left of that team, and the driver responsible is in a coma in a hospital. The last people to deserve that money are bloodsucking scammers that try to make a quick dime in F1.

Not true.

John Booth and Graeme Lowdon are still running the team, they have simply found new backers. We aren't talking about a Colin Kolles setup here.

Would have thought FI might have liked a buffer between themselves and being stuck on the last row of the grid (looking increasingly likely), but apparently the team is in such dire straights they can only think in terms of survival.

[godlameroso]

As lotus have shown this year, the Mercedes power unit is quite reliable. Thus I'm not too worried about FI integrating it to the new chassis. Giving themselves more time to develop said chassis might be a calculated risk based on the confidence they have on the power unit.

[Jonnycraig]

As lotus have shown this year, the Mercedes power unit is quite reliable. Thus I'm not too worried about FI integrating it to the new chassis. Giving themselves more time to develop said chassis might be a calculated risk based on the confidence they have on the power unit.

It's been more a case of lack of cashflow to fund the production of the new cars, rather than confidence in the engines.

[Godius]

It's basically the same thing as last year where they introduced an evaluation of the VJM06, it wasn't any good but they were saved by the Mercedes PU + gear box. Ted Kravitz talked to Andrew Green in Mexico and from what I understood of the conversation, the VJM08 would be a further evaluation of the VJM07 with very little changes.

It seems that the other teams had already overtook Force India in the latter part of last year with their understanding of the PU and aero development. I really don't have much hope left for FI, they will most likely fight with the STR to not end last.

[Manoah2u]

first of all, nobody has any right on Manors money anymore because Marussia 'earned' that last year and there is NOTHING left of that team, and the driver responsible is in a coma in a hospital. The last people to deserve that money are bloodsucking scammers that try to make a quick dime in F1.

Not true.

John Booth and Graeme Lowdon are still running the team, they have simply found new backers. We aren't talking about a Colin Kolles setup here.

Who's to say we're not talking colin kolles here? There was no proof of ownership and just a single-page dubious clarification.

Even if Booth and Lowdon really are behind this - who's to say they aren't, but who's to say they actually are?,
they have nothing left. Just some '14 parts left behind, and nothing more.

That means still the following; they have nothing left. It's not like the 2 of them can magically present a car by the 2 of them?

If that was so, they would neve have gotten in dire trouble, the team would never have 'sunk' and hit rock bottom.
No matter how friendly and nice they are, it did not work out and that's just that.

Don't get me wrong though, i would like to see a team at the grid, but Marussia is gone. Manor simply is NOT Marussia.
Manor may have some left-overs from Marussia, but it's not the same.

something about Force india though;

http://www.worldcarfans.com/11502078850 ... lier-bills

Szafnauer insists: "We have no debt to our supplier."

He explained that the delay is simply due to EPM moving factory over the winter, during which crucial machinery was damaged.

As for rumoured problems with the fuel tank supplier ATL, Schmidt said the explanation is that the company changed the payment terms of its bills, but Force India has now "paid the bill and received the tank".

As for the powertrain, Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda confirmed that "We have received our money from Force India", while Szafnauer says there are also no issues with its new arrangement in Toyota's wind tunnel.

"If we had not fulfilled our obligations," he said, "we would not be in the wind tunnel right now."

Force india's situation now reminds me of that of Lotus' last year. Even though it was worse for lotus because they had the bad luck of - aside the late introduction of the vehicle - also having the worst engine with the biggest issues at the start of the 2014 season/tests.

Indeed, it meant the entire 2014 season was one at the tail end of the grid for Lotus, which is particularly sad given they were fighting at the front just years before.

All is not lost for lotus though, despite numerous accounts stating they'd fumble or were expected to not survive,
and they have managed to get a Mercedes engine. We'll still have to see how they'll manage this year, but it seems hopefull.

This could end up the same for Force India. Perhaps they will have a lousy 2015. Doesn't mean they'll vanish. Even more, the Merc engine is reliable and good, so that's in their benefit. Lotus did a insane aero machine last year whilst losing a huge chunk of important staff. This did not happen to Force India, and if the messages are correct, then they'll have an evolution car, and not a totally new daring concept. Given they had a good year in 2014, i'd say they're not in such a bad situation as it seems.

In the end though, even if Vijay really hits rock bottom, still not everyhing is lost. The team can be sold and continue under another name if needed. It happened before. Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Force India.

At the same time, there are rumours of Renault interested in buying the outfit. So even if we'd 'lose' Force India, we could 'win' Renault F1 back.

[godlameroso]

It's basically the same thing as last year where they introduced an evaluation of the VJM06, it wasn't any good but they were saved by the Mercedes PU + gear box. Ted Kravitz talked to Andrew Green in Mexico and from what I understood of the conversation, the VJM08 would be a further evaluation of the VJM07 with very little changes.

It seems that the other teams had already overtook Force India in the latter part of last year with their understanding of the PU and aero development. I really don't have much hope left for FI, they will most likely fight with the STR to not end last.

How was the VJM07 a slight evolution of the VJM06? They were completely different designs, I get that the VJM08 can be a small evolution of the VJM07 as there's some continuity in the rules. Also sometimes small tweaks can give big gains, sometimes millimeters can mean the difference between nice stable aero, and peaky inconsistent aero.

[Jonnycraig]

first of all, nobody has any right on Manors money anymore because Marussia 'earned' that last year and there is NOTHING left of that team, and the driver responsible is in a coma in a hospital. The last people to deserve that money are bloodsucking scammers that try to make a quick dime in F1.

Not true.

John Booth and Graeme Lowdon are still running the team, they have simply found new backers. We aren't talking about a Colin Kolles setup here.

Who's to say we're not talking colin kolles here? There was no proof of ownership and just a single-page dubious clarification

He's a bit too busy with his WEC time right now..

[multisync]

. At the moment it's 90% sure they will be at Barcelona.

It's now 100% certain they will be there.