Formula One racing fans may have gotten used to the name Force India, but for some, it never made much sense to have a team representing a country on the grid. Those fans, then, may welcome this latest development.
According to Autosport, the team is in the process of changing its name to Force One. The initiative was discovered in corporate registration documents for the names Force One Grand Prix, Force One Racing, Force One Team, Force One Technologies, Force One Hospitality, and Force One Brand.
The names were reportedly registered by Thiruvannamalai Laskshimi Kanthan, a longtime associate of team owner Vijay Mallya and board director of several associated corporate entities. The speculation they fueled was all but confirmed by the team's chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, who's taken a larger leadership role while Mallya fights extradition from the UK.
"You don't change your name every other year, so we've got to think about it deeply and philosophically, and make sure if we do it, it's going to be there for a long time," Szafnauer told Autosport. "If we choose a name that's closely linked to Force India but not Force India that might even be an easier step forward."
The reason for the name change may come down to sponsorship, as the team has had difficulty finding interested partners within its home country. But it may also open the door for the sale of part or even all of the team in the future.
Mallya bought the team founded as Jordan Grand Prix ten years ago, after it switched names and ownership several times between Midland and Spyker. It took on subcontinental conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar as a part owner in 2011, and abandoned its traditional Indian flag livery earlier this season in favor of its current pink scheme – each step taking it a little further away from its Indian roots.
Changing the name would require approval from the F1 Commission, something which was notoriously difficult to do under Bernie Ecclestone's administration, but which may prove easier under the sport's new commercial directors. If Force India does change its name, however, we may not be without an Asian "national" team for very long, as efforts to put a Chinese team on the grid pick up steam.
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