Force India to not announce 2nd driver before car launch

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg drives during practice for the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November 23, 2012 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Force India have said that they are not going to announce who will be Paul di Resta‘s teammate for the 2013 season before or at the launch of the VJM06 scheduled on February 1. Having lost the promising Nico Hulkenburg to Sauber, the team have been in search for a good driver who can consistently be in the points, given the proper machinery.

According to deputy principal Bob Fernley, the identity of the team’s second driver will be revealed just before the first test which begins on February 5.

Such a situation hasn’t arisen in the last few years and the team have always confirmed their line-up for the new season beforehand. But this year the situation is different because of the problems faced by team owner Vijay Mallya. Mr. Mallya has been in the news quite a few times in the past year mainly because of his Kingfisher airlines being in serious trouble regarding financial matters and then ultimately being grounded. A few days ago, media reported that Indian tax authorities have confiscated his personal A-319 luxury jet, so we can understand how bad the situation is.

Force India’s major sponsors have been Kingfisher airlines and the UB Group (another of Mr. Mallya’s companies) since it became Spyker after Mallya bought into the team. Now with these major companies in serious turmoil, the team is struggling on the financial front and thus has been looking for pay drivers.

The correct combination of funding and performance is what a team searches for in a new driver, thus it is taking time to finalize any single name. The rumour is that Adrian Sutil and Ferrari protege Jules Bianchi are mainly in the running but as nothing has been confirmed, we might be surprised come February.

Recent reports from the Italian media suggested that the crisis is so big that the team is on the verge of collapse. The team, though, have been quick to dismiss this suggestion and have confirmed that they will certainly launch their new car as scheduled.

It is already one team less on the grid this season with HRT already having packed up after not finding a new buyer, so it would be very disappointing to lose another two cars, and that too of a team which has been showing promising results year after year and steadily making their progress towards the sharp end of the grid.