MUMBAI – The Force India Formula One Team’s long-standing Director of Business Affairs, Ian Phillips, is now leaving the Silverstone-based team after 19 years with the outfit.

In his tenure for the team, starting with Jordan Grand Prix, Ian has been responsible for sponsorship acquisition and activation, commercial direction and ongoing negotiations with the FIA and commercial rights’ holder, FOM, and the signing of over 50 drivers.

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Force India unveiled their new car on February 10, 2010,  saying greater stability than other Formula One teams would boost their chances this season.

Vijay Mallya’s team finished ninth out of 10 last season but improved significantly in the closing stages and are bullish for 2010 despite missing a deadline to file their annual accounts.

It has been a smooth transition for the VJM03 from last year’s car which again uses a Mercedes engine and McLaren gearbox, whereas the start of last season was hit by a late switch of suppliers.

MUMBAI – The Force India Formula One Team today announced a restructure to its technical department ahead of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship season, due to James Key, technical director, leaving the team to pursue new opportunities. Mark Smith, formerly design director, will now become technical director and will assume responsibility for the entire mechanical and aerodynamic design of the team’s challengers.

James has been a long-standing member of the team, first joining Jordan Grand Prix in 1998 as a data engineer before progressing to test engineer and later senior race engineer for Takuma Sato. In 2003, James joined the aerodynamic group and was then promoted to head of vehicle science towards the end of that year before becoming technical director in 2005.

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MILAN (Reuters) – Force India unveiled their new car on Tuesday, saying greater stability than other Formula One teams would boost their chances this season.

Vijay Mallya’s team finished ninth out of 10 last season but improved significantly in the closing stages and are bullish for 2010 despite missing a deadline to file their annual accounts.

It has been a smooth transition for the VJM03 from last year’s car which again uses a Mercedes engine and McLaren gearbox, whereas the start of last season was hit by a late switch of suppliers.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Force India rejected a report on Friday that they were in danger of being forced out of business and said their new Formula One car would start testing as planned in Spain next week.

A spokeswoman said the new VJM03 car had passed all its mandatory crash tests, with German driver Adrian Sutil giving it a successful shakedown at Silverstone’s Stowe circuit on Wednesday.

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The Force India Formula Team confimed on Friday that Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will remain with the team for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, thus giving complete consistency in its driver line-up.

2010 will be Adrian’s fourth season in Formula 1. The 26-year-old German started his F1 career with Force India’s predecessors, Midland, as a test and reserve driver in 2006 before graduating to a race seat with Spyker in 2007. In 2009 he recorded his best-ever F1 finish of fourth at the Italian Grand Prix, also securing his first front row start.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Italian wind tunnel operator Aerolab said on Friday they were taking legal action against the Force India Formula One team for “serious and persistent” breaches of contract.

The company issued a statement after media reports suggested Force India were concerned that Lotus, who are now working closely with Aerolab’s parent company Fondtech, had copied details of their 2009 car.

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