Force India confirm McLaren deal

In what could be a landmark event in Formula 1, CEO of Force India F1, Dr. Vijay Mallya has confirmed a 5-year deal with McLaren and its associated technical companies which will see the fledging outfit receive unprecedented amount of technical support from the Woking based squad.

The deal is within the framework of the current "Concorde Agreement" - which defines what a constructor is in Formula 1. This is a very vital point since it is widely expected that the definition of a constructor will be heavily debated in the coming weeks as Formula 1 broods over the idea of customer chassis. Indeed there might be a change in the rules to allow "non-constructor" players in the sport but all that is irrelevant to Force India because their deal complies with all the current regulations and rules of this agreement. That is quite a feat !

The silverstone based team will receive the entire engine-transmission along with KERS and a host of other parts - all directly from official McLaren suppliers. Basically, the Force India F1 car of 2009 will be running a replica of the 2009 McLaren's rear end ! This is a stunning boost for Force india. It will definitely be a big step forward in terms of performance.

Apart from this, there are various other business related deals also conlcuded which will see McLaren putting in their own resources into the upliftment of this team since they are considering it as a project of theirs too. Which is great ! So McLaren are likely to devote a core group of engineers and technical boffins for Force India who will work exclusively for this team and not be in conflict with McLaren's own racing programme.

McLaren will be giving wide ranging inputs to the team including driver suggestions but at the end of the day, Force India will decide for themselves as to what is the final decision on these issues - hence this is by no means a "Take-over" of Force India or a McLaren "Team-B" in the making. Its the start of an interesting new partnership and maybe other teams must take a cue from this and form partnerships with less well off teams. Its a good way to help the sport survive the financial crisis and help its long term future.