The team’s lineage runs through the Jordan Grand Prix team, which entered Formula One in 1991 based at the Silverstone circuit. Jordan won four races and achieved third place in the 1999 Constructors’ Championship. Facing financial difficulties, team owner Eddie Jordan sold to the Midland Group in early 2005. The Midland-owned team raced as Midland F1 Racing in 2006 before owner Alex Shnaider sold it to Spyker Cars midway through that season. Spyker F1 scored one point in 2007 and briefly led the European Grand Prix before again hitting financial difficulties, leading to the sale to Mallya and Mol.
The renamed Force India retained team principal Colin Kolles, Chief Technology Officer Mike Gascoyne, and drivers Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella. In October 2011 Indian company Sahara India Pariwar purchased 42.5% of the team’s shares for US$100 million; Mallya retained 42.5% and the Mol family held 15%. The team was renamed Sahara Force India as a result; shares sold were newly issued.
Force India’s first car, the VJM01, was an updated version of the Spyker F8-VIIB chassis powered by Ferrari engines. It was launched at the Gateway of India in Mumbai with a gold, tungsten and white livery. Vitantonio Liuzzi secured a reserve role. The team set a target of beating Super Aguri. Both drivers retired in the opening race in Australia; the following race in Malaysia yielded the team’s first finish when Fisichella took twelfth. At Monaco, Sutil had a chance to score the team’s first points in the wet race but Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari collided with his car, causing retirement. A seamless-shift transmission introduced at Valencia marked the end of development for the VJM01. Fisichella qualified a season-best 12th at the wet Italian Grand Prix but crashed in the race; he reached second in Singapore before a safety car before his pit stop prevented a points finish. Force India finished tenth in the Constructors’ Championship.
For 2009, Force India retained the same drivers. The VJM02 was powered by Mercedes-Benz engines under a five-year deal signed on 10 November 2008, which also included McLaren-Mercedes gearboxes, hydraulic systems, and KERS. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Sutil held sixth with six laps remaining before aquaplaning ended his race. At the German Grand Prix, Sutil qualified seventh and reached second before a collision with Räikkönen on pit exit forced another stop; he finished fifteenth.
Force India gained their first Formula One pole position when Fisichella qualified fastest at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. He finished the race second, less than a second behind Räikkönen — the team’s first points and first podium. The car’s lack of KERS was partly blamed for missing the win. Fisichella was released from his contract on 3 September 2009 to race for Ferrari; Liuzzi replaced him from the Italian Grand Prix onward. At Monza, Sutil qualified second, finished fourth, and set the race’s fastest lap. Liuzzi qualified seventh on debut but retired with a transmission failure while running fourth. Force India finished ninth in the championship with 13 points, ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Force India kept Sutil and Liuzzi for 2010, with Paul di Resta confirmed as test driver after setting a much faster time than J. R. Hildebrand at Jerez. The VJM03 was unveiled on 9 February 2010. Points came in Bahrain with Liuzzi ninth; Sutil collected points in Malaysia (fifth) and Spain, and both cars finished in the points at Monaco — the team’s first double points finish. Technical director James Key left during the season to join Sauber; chief designer Lewis Butler, senior aerodynamicist Marianne Hinson, and commercial director Ian Phillips also departed. Force India finished seventh with 68 points, ahead of Sauber but one point behind Williams.
Reserve driver Paul di Resta was promoted to a race seat for 2011 alongside Sutil. The VJM04, the first car developed under new technical director Andrew Green, was launched on 8 February 2011. Resources came from partners McLaren Applied Technologies and Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines. Both Sauber cars were disqualified in Australia for a rear-wing infringement, promoting Sutil and di Resta to ninth and tenth. Sutil finished seventh at Monaco, sixth in Germany, and seventh in Belgium; di Resta’s season highlights included seventh in Hungary, eighth in Italy, and sixth in Singapore. Force India finished sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
The team replaced Sutil with Nico Hülkenberg for 2012, retaining di Resta. Jules Bianchi was named reserve driver. The VJM05 was launched on 3 February. The team’s crew attempted to withdraw from the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix due to civil unrest; a confrontation followed between F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone and the team. In the final race at Brazil, Hülkenberg qualified seventh (promoted to sixth), climbed to the lead by lap 19 having passed Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, and built a 45-second gap before the safety car. He led until Lewis Hamilton passed him; on lap 55 Hülkenberg collided with Hamilton at Turn 1, received a drive-through penalty, and finished fifth. Force India finished seventh with 109 points.
Di Resta returned for a third year; Sutil replaced Hülkenberg as second driver. At the Australian Grand Prix opener, Sutil finished seventh and di Resta eighth — the team’s best season start. Di Resta finished fourth in Bahrain. Force India finished sixth with 77 points.
Hülkenberg returned, while di Resta was replaced by Sergio Pérez. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Pérez put Force India on the podium with a third-place finish — the first podium since Belgium 2009. Force India finished sixth with 155 points, 125 ahead of seventh-placed Toro Rosso.
Hülkenberg and Pérez were confirmed for 2015. Force India missed the first pre-season test at Jerez amid reports of financial difficulties and unpaid suppliers. The VJM08 broke cover only on the second day of the third test at Barcelona. The team introduced a significantly revised B-spec car at the British Grand Prix, featuring two vents in the nose, which was a step forward especially in high-speed corners. Pérez took Force India to the podium with third at the Russian Grand Prix, the team’s first podium since Bahrain 2014. Sahara Force India also lodged a formal complaint to the European Union against Formula One for breaching competition laws. The team finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with 136 points.
Force India retained Hülkenberg and Pérez for a third successive year. Pérez finished third at both the Monaco Grand Prix — the first podium for the team at Monaco in any of its guises (Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Force India) — and the European Grand Prix in Baku. At the Belgian Grand Prix the team achieved its first double top-five finish since Bahrain 2014, with Hülkenberg fourth and Pérez fifth. Force India finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship with 173 points — the highest finishing position in the team’s history to that point.
Hülkenberg left to join Renault; Esteban Ocon, who had driven for Manor in the second half of 2016, replaced him. Pérez stayed for a fourth season. The VJM10 adopted a pink livery following a new sponsorship deal with BWT AG, announced on 14 March 2017. A new multi-year deal with Johnnie Walker was also signed. Ocon and Pérez scored points in the first five races, notably fourth and fifth at the Spanish Grand Prix. Both drivers collided with each other at Azerbaijan and again at Belgium. Force India secured fourth in the Constructors’ Championship at the Mexican Grand Prix, with a season-best 187 points — the team’s highest tally.
Pérez and Ocon were retained for 2018. At the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the team was put into administration following legal action by creditors including Pérez, who justified it as a response to a winding-up petition filed by HMRC and supported by supplier Formtech. A consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, father of then-Williams driver Lance Stroll, acquired the team’s assets. Agreement with the parent company’s bank creditors could not be reached in time for the Belgian Grand Prix, so the consortium purchased only the assets and the team competed under the new name Racing Point Force India. The FIA excluded the original Force India entry from the championship and welcomed the new legal entity, which was allowed to race but not to keep any points scored by the prior entry. The constructor founded for the 2008 season ceased to exist; ahead of the 2019 Australian Grand Prix the entry was renamed simply to Racing Point.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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