Vijay Mallya, who has been pursued by Indian authorities over his unpaid loans has taken steps to remove India from his Formula One team, according to the reports.
Vijay Mallya was quoted saying on June 14th, he has planned to change the name of his Silverstone-based team to make it attractive for the potential sponsor in the international market by giving its team “An international flavour”, in an interview.
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The first step has possibly been taken by Mallya after a revelation of a document which shows sixes companies were registered to a London address on May 31 and June 6 under the Force One name.
The only director listed with the company was Mallya’s long time associate and Financial Advisor Thiruvannamalai Laskshimi Kanthan, who is also Force India director.
Force India Team’s COO, Szafnauer agrees with the decision and he said “Force India was born out of Vijay owning the team. 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”.
” After the loss in the recent Grand Prix, there are fewer sponsors for the team, 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,” he added.
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The team is collectively owned by Vijay Mallya and Shara Chief Subrata Roy with 42.5 percent of stakes each, The remaining 15 percent is owned by Dutch businessman Michiel Mol.