Force India appear to have begun the process ahead of a potential name change from 2018 following the registration of a number of companies under the banner ‘Force One’.
According to reports, the names Force One Grand Prix, Force One Racing, Force One Team, Force One Technologies, Force One Hospitality and Force One Brand were all registered starting from May 31st with the sole named director, Dr Thiruvannamalai Laskshimi Kanthan, a known financial associate of Force India owner Vijay Mallya.
The revelation comes after Mallya had earlier indicated a wish to change the name to represent the international nature of the team and, perhaps, improve its appeal ahead of a future sale.
“Force India was born out of Vijay owning the team,” COO Otmar Szafnauer explained.
“His hopes that some India companies would sponsor us. As it turned out, there were a couple, but not very many. He also hoped that India would have a Grand Prix, which happened. With the Grand Prix and a couple of our sponsors, it made sense to have Force India’s name.
“Since then we’ve lost the Grand Prix there, the Indian sponsors no longer were interested in sponsoring us. Now we have no Indian sponsors whatsoever, apart from Vijay’s Kingfisher.
“So it kind of makes sense to change it from India in order to attract sponsors more globally, and not restrict ourselves to being Force India.”
Name changes under former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone were typically hard to achieve but not impossible as Lotus became Renault last year and former teams Caterham and Manor started life as Team Lotus and Virgin Racing in 2010.
“For a name of chassis change, we need approval from some of the rest. I don’t think it’s all, but it’s got to go through the F1 Commission,” Szafnauer continued. “If the FIA and commercial rights holder and some of the teams say ‘yes,’ then we can have a name change.
“I think there’s a spirit of co-operation in that regard. We voted for Brawn to go to Mercedes, and I would hope they would reciprocate.”
Further adding to the likelihood, though not certainty, of ‘Force One’ being the preferred choice for 2018, Szafnauer did admit any future change would not be drastic as to retain the association with the current name.
“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,” he said. “The one reason Bernie didn’t like name changes all the time is that a team over time gets an identity and everyone knows who it is.
“We’ve been Force India for 10 years now, if we do change, it should last another 10 years or 20 years so people get to know what it is.
“If we choose a name that’s closely linked to Force India but not Force India that might even be an easier step forward.”
