Force India is having quite a handful to deal with these days. Force India has alleged that Lotus has stolen the Aerodynamic design of its 2010 F1 car. According to Force India, Aerolab which is Force India’s former wind tunnel operator has sold vital Aerodynamic data of the Team 2010 F1 car to lotus. Force India claims that Lotus’s front wing assembly of its wind tunnel model is similar to Force India’s on top of that Lotus’s wind tunnel car’s tire has handwriting of Force India’s staff.

These allegations come in the midst of Aerolab’s legal battle against Force India for breaching contract obligations. Mean while Force India won a legal battle against Etihad Airways and Aldar Properties which paid of Force India $ 4.7 million.

As Mallaya’s saying goes “you win or lose, you have to booze”!

Looks like it won’t be long before we stop reporting a Force India point score. Force India reaps points at Monza, with Sutil finishing at 4th. It would have been a podium finish if the second pit-stop delay was avoided or the safety car hadn’t been called out at the last lap.

Kimi Raikkonen will find it hard to remember the last time he looked at his rear view mirror and a Force India car wasn’t there. Last time it was Fisichella who was charging in on the Scarlet car through the entire race at Spa. This time in Monza, Adrian surely would have given Kimi a neck ache!

Force India was the fastest team during the race, Adrian nailed Monza with a 1.24.739 minute lap. Fisichella had a disappointing first race for Ferrari; he finished in 9th position with no points.

Force India made a cool 5 points with Adrian’s 4th place finish, it could been 10 points, if the new comer Vitantonio Liuzzi’s gearbox didn’t decide to let go but Liuzzi has proved that he s quite fast and furious

With that said Force India is no more a back-Marker!

Click here for the full result

Vijay Mallya is an astute businessman, i.e. he would love to be one but he will forever remain the ultimate risk taker with rather limited success. With his breweries ringing in the cash (as usual!), Mallya has a diverse portfolio ranging from Airlines to Sports Teams. Until recently, the airlines was a loss making machine, the royal challengers were the butt of all jokes in the IPL and Force India was the icing on the loss cake with disaster after disaster. Though the airlines is still deep in the red, the sports teams are giving him reasons to smile. The RCB made a run to the finals of the IPL and looking forward to the lucrative Champions League. Force India is enjoying unprecedented success with a podium finish at Spa and front row qualification at Monza.

According to The Economic Times, Mallya is keen to cash on this new found success by floating an umbrella corporation, under which he will run all his sport commitments with plans of going public in the offing. This strategic move could help him compensate for the losses of one team with profits from the other and make it easier to look for investor backing. In his own words, “I am working on this plan and could go for a possible listing or bring in financial investors”. Meanwhile, another man who has tasted success recently, the new man-in-scarlet Giancardo Fisichella made a royal mess of his Ferrari debut by crashing his car in practice. Is he already regretting his decision to shift from Force India to Ferrari? (boy, there is one question that I never thought I would ask…) and how will he cope with the immense pressure ahead of his and his new teams home grand prix? Interesting times ahead…

Mr. Mallya has agreed to Put Karun on Force India’s driving simulator, but he denied that he is under pressure to fast-track an Indian national to Formula one.

“At the end of the day he must win some GP2 races and come out good in the F1 simulator. And if he is competitive in the simulator, I would be the first one to offer him a position in Force India,” Mallya said.

This might have to something to do with the fact that, F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone told a news agency earlier this week that he was disappointed with Mallya’s decision to replace Fisichella with another Italian”

Bernie’s comments obviously had a motive. Since India has vast potential for F1 merchandise and an Indian driver will make the sport more popular in India. He also said that force India doesn’t need to have an Indian driver at any cost.

We met Karun during the racing week of SAE BAJA 2009, he was gracious enough for answer few of our questions. He was test driving for Red-Bull then and he told us that his people are in talks with Mr. Mallya and he is hoping for the best.

Well, looks like the best has come now!

Things keep getting better and better for Force India and Mallya. First Fisichella clinches pole in Spa which was widely believed to be a fluke but it was proved wrong with a podium finish. Again if you had thought it was a one race charm, you would be wrong. Force India has proved itself worthy yet again with the fastest lap during Friday’s practice session in Monza.

Adrian Sutil clocked Monza at 1:23:924 in the second session of the Friday practice, which is 0.01th of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton’s first session timing. Even in the first session Sutil wasn’t far behind, he came third. Force India’s Fisichella replacement, Vitantonio Liuzzi came in 16th in the first session and 13th in the second. Fisichella came in dead last in the second session.

Sutil after the practice session said “The progress we have made in the last two races is amazing we now have a very good car and here it is a very nice setup.” He also added “Actually I think that at the moment we have the better car (compared to Ferrari),”

Did Fisichella make the wrong decision? Will force India make it two in a row? We will have to wait and watch.

Click here for Friday’s first practice session timings.

Click here for Friday’s second practice session timings.

Right from the moment BMW announced that it is pulling out from Formula 1 , a Malaysian consortium was making an offer to the Bavarian company to buy team Sauber.

Yesterday the Times of India paper said “Indian investors have made an application” to buy the Swiss outfit. The teams founder Peter Sauber offered BMW 45 million Euros but BMW turned it down. BMW will accept an offer of 65m for the team along with a guarantee from the buyer to have a spending range of 100 m on the team over the next 3 years.

It is rumored that the Indian consortium is making an offer around 50m, which might just be considered since the deal involves Neel Jani who is a former test driver of Sauber and Toro Rosso. Neel is a Swiss with Indian origin.

Jani said in his statement “committed to reaching the pinnacle of motor sport and when I do so, it would make me even more proud to know I have the support of India”. He further added “My father is Indian and my mother Swiss, so although I’ve been brought up in Switzerland, my father has always insisted we stay connected to our Indian roots”.
Jani also signed an agreement with a sports management company in India this week.

It’s officially official now that Fisichella will be racing for Ferrari for the rest of the season starting with the Italian GP. Team Force India released Fisichella from it’s contract and now he is on his way to Maranello. It is will be quite interesting to watch what Fisichella will do with a Ferrari in his hand.

The saga was ended a few hours back, when Mallya announced “Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari, for any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this”

Mr. Mallya added that “Furthermore the agreement will secure Giancarlo’s long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardize this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India.”

When Fisichella spoke about the transfer he said “I am very grateful to Vijay Mallya for allowing me this opportunity to drive for the Scuderia Ferrari,” he also added “It is true that it has always been an ambition to do this, and for Vijay [Mallya] to have allowed it to become a reality is very generous. I hope in my turn I have helped Force India grow up and be on the right path to achieve their own ambitions. They are now a very competitive team and I wish them all the very best.”

Ferrari will confirm Fisichella’s signing in an hour.

We did it! We did it! We did it!

Even after a fantastic qualifying session, most of us didn’t believe that Fisichella will end up on the podium. But beating all odds, he clinched 2nd, just behind kimi to bring home Force India’s first F1 trophy.

The car was excellent throughout the race, just by seeing on TV we knew it is going to be phenomenal. Today in Belgium the force India’s car was no back-marker. It was in fact a bit faster than kimi’s Ferrari. A little more of power from the force India’s car and we would hit the Jana gana mana note in Belgium!

Again a big congrats to Force India and Fisichella.

Here are the race results.