WHERE CAN F1’S BEST ‘POUND FOR POUND’ TEAM
“It was evident from day one,” recalls Sergio Perez. “I came from Mclaren and I remember the first time visiting the factory at Farce India. It was a shack straight away because I could see the deficit they had an money.”
A transition from mighty McLaren at the end of 2013, when it was then only at the beginning of its slide from the front of the grid, to the squad then known as Force India is a dramatic lesson in the disparity of Formula 1 team budgets. But not so when it comes to results.
In Sergio Perez’s first season at Force India, the team finished sixth – one place and 26 points behind McLaren. The following season it was fifth, with McLaren falling to ninth in the first of its disastrous years with Honda. Then came the golden years. In 2016, Force India usurped Williams as best of the rest behind F1’s Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull ‘Class A’ (although Williams had impressively finished third in 2014 and 2015). And in 2017 it did so again, finishing fourth again despite the major regulations overhaul.
Then came the end of Force India. In 2018, the team’s long-standing financial difficulties became too much. For so many years, Vijay Mallya’s team had been operating on a cost cliff-edge, while team finances across the grid rose ever higher. Cashflow was the issue as, like many teams, Force India relied on money from F1’s prize pot as well as sponsorship, but it did not enjoy the constructors’ (CCB) and historical bonuses paid to some of its rivals. Bills had to be paid earlier than money arrived, which led to an increasing problem. This was reflected in the cars the team was producing – each season the carryover was considerable and in-season upgrades were few.
At the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix, news broke that Perez had launched legal action, triggering a process that placed the team into administration. “At the time, I was really disappointed how it came out on the news,” he says now. “They put it out that I was basically trying to get my salary. And at the time that was the least important thing.”
But Perez’s salary was actually a crucial part of saving the team. It made him a major creditor – as was engine supplier Mercedes – and the move placed Force India into administration. But this meant
