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He owns a Rolls-Royce garbage truck and a Formula One racing team
Some people would call it madness. The Formula One team currently known as Force India has been through four different owners in three years, with only a single podium place to show for it. But new owner Vijay Mallya – billionaire, entrepreneur and motor racing enthusiast – believes he can bring India success in the world championship and carve a place for F1 in the hearts of more than a billion of his fellow countrymen.
It’s a big task. Formula One is a notoriously difficult sport to crack, particularly if you are not a renowned car manufacturer.
The top teams run on budgets of almost half a billion dollars, but even a big budget cannot guarantee success. Over the past 20 years, there have been 333 races in F1, 326 of which have been won by just four teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Renault, formerly known as Benetton).
But Force India has reason to take heart. Of the seven remaining races, four were won by Jordan, a popular Irish team.
Jordan closed in late 2004, but the team was sold on and, after a series of transformations, is now
Force India, which has started with an extravagance and exuberance rarely seen in F1 since Jordan went to the wall.
The team unveiled its first racing car, the VJM01, in Mumbai, in January, alongside one of the city’s most famous landmarks, the Gateway of India. In attendance were Bollywood actresses Lara Dutta, and Shilpa and Shamitha Shetty, while Shah Rukh Khan, has appeared in television adverts for the team.
The team’s drivers, Adrian Sutil and Grand Prix-winner Giancarlo Fisichella, made their dramatic entrance from a giant crash helmet.
“Five years ago, if anybody had asked whether there would be an India-inspired F1 team on the world championship grid, the answer would probably have been no way,” Mallya said. “No way because F1 is very expensive. The budget for Force India F1 for 2008 is in excess of US$120million. India was not ready for this sort of commitment to sport.”
Mallya admits F1 may not interest all 1.2 billion Indians, but if a quarter of that total are curious, that will equal Europe’s population of 300 million. Force India could transform the profile of Formula One. Traditionally, most of F1’s races and its biggest TV audiences have hailed from Europe, but that has been changing over the past decade. There are now races in Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, while the biggest TV audiences are drawn from China.
Despite this Asian onslaught, India has yet to play a major role in F1. In 2005, the country got its first driver, Narain Karthikeyan, and plans are under way for the first Indian Grand Prix to take place in New Delhi in 2010. Since Mallya announced he would be buying a team, TV audiences in the country have leapt by 60 per cent.
“It’s only in the past 15 years that India has completely liberalised and unleashed the power of the people, the workforce and the economy – it is now well on its way to becoming an economic superpower,” said Mallya. “F1 has been thought of as far too expensive, too competitive and out of reach, but today it’s reflective of India’s prospective prosperity.”
For this reason, Mallya is heavily involved in the Indian Grand Prix project. Top F1-circuit architect Hermann Tilke has designed a street track winding around the Indian capital that will broadcast New Delhi’s major landmarks to a global audience of almost 590million people.
Mallya certainly has the power and connections to pull it off. He is an MP as well as a businessman and was recently estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth US$1.5billion. His commercial interests have brought him into contact with the world’s rich and famous, including F1 boss and billionaire Bernie Ecclestone.
His rich man’s toys give an idea of the flamboyance Mallya will bring to Formula One. He owns more than 40 houses, a tropical island, a stud farm and a collection of classic cars, including a Rolls Royce garbage truck that used to belong to a maharajah. His private yacht, the Indian Empress, is one of the largest in the world and Mallya held a lavish party onboard it at the 2007 Monaco GP to introduce himself to the world of Formula One in style.
Force India is his latest status symbol. He bought the team with Dutch internet entrepreneur Michiel Mol last autumn for US$130million and is aiming high. “When India hosts a Grand Prix in 2010, we will be on the podium,” he promised the Indian people. “It is going to take hard work and, more importantly, your prayers, blessings, good wishes and all we can dream to help us along.”
Caroline Reid and Christian Sylt
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