Stroll to invest millions
According to reports Lawrence Stroll is going to invest 80 million Euros in a new factory and depending on the FIA's new rules he may also spend another 60 million on a wind tunnel. The target for the team is to catch up with the top 3 Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull by 2021 (I have a feeling that Red Bull may fall back with the Honda power unit next season and could be caught by Force India). Historically Force India have spent the least of the F1 teams never spending more than 100 million Euros in a season, but this new investment could make them one of the biggest spenders. They also intend to employ another 100 members of staff, cirrenty the team is split over two sites, one at Silverstone and the other at Brackley.
Whether or not a wind tunnel will be built is not certain yet. That depends on whether the FIA further reduces wind tunnel times. In this case, the aerodynamics will continue to perform their test runs at Toyota facility in Cologne. However, Force India will buy enough land to make room for a wind tunnel. At the moment, Force India produces 80 percent of its carbon parts and 40 percent of the metal parts itself. Astonishingly, last winter the chassis had been built by only 4 people due to a cash flow crisis resulting in a supplier delaying deliveries.
News from Brazil
Globo news is reporting that Formula 2 driver Sergio Sette Camara looks set to enter F1 for 2019. The 20-year-old Brazilian is expected to become McLaren's third driver, replacing Lando Norris. The deal should be announced at the Interlagos race next month, with Sette Camara tipped to drive in some Friday morning sessions. The deal is linked with McLaren's new-in-2018 sponsorship with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras.
It is also reporting that Formula 1 will not receive a hosting fee for the next three Brazilian Grands Prix at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, the race’s last contract extension, which runs until 2020, was announced in 2014. The agreement included separate contracts with the race promoter and a financial arrangement with the city of Sao Paulo to cover F1’s hosting fee. it appears that while the promoter agreement was extended before Liberty Media took over as the sport’s commercial rights holder, the financial agreement was not. Despite this the deal to hold the race is not thought to be at risk. This year’s Brazilian Grand Prix is set to take place on November 11th and next season’s race was included on the 2019 F1 calendar confirmed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council last week.
As a result F1 stands to miss out on a hosting fee for the race, which can run to tens of millions of pounds for other rounds of the championship, for three seasons in a row. F1 teams will therefore lose their share of the income from racing at one of the most distant venues from their European bases on the calendar.
