It's official. When the Spyker Formula One team arrives for the Chinese Grand Prix -- the penultimate round of the 2007 season next weekend -- Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya would be the team owner for the first time.

Late Saturday night, Dutch automaker Spyker Cars NV confirmed its shareholders' approval of the sale of the F1 team to Mallya and Micheil Mol's companies, Watson Ltd and Strongwind.

Exclusive negotiations between Spyker and the companies began on August 31 for an initial price of $123,000 (80 million euros), but the cost eventually rose by a further eight million euros.

Although the deal has been approved, only minor legal issues remain to be completed in the next 24 hours before the contracts are finally signed. A spokesperson at Spyker, speaking to The Indian Express, confirmed: "All I can say is only minor legal details need to be ironed out before the deal is officially closed. That, in no way, would be a hinderence since the deal is as good as done."

The Dutch company, which purchased the F1 team from Canadian-Russian businessman Alex Schnaider last year, announced earlier this year that it had lost $39 million — $17-million alone towards operating the F1 team. Last year the loss was put at $1.1 million.

Having already joined the F1 fold as a sponsor — Mallya’s Kingfisher is already involved with Toyota Racing as a sponsor -- Shanghai will see Mallaya step into the F1 pit as owner-sponsor — another first.

... contd.