Mallya buys Spyker F1 team

Mallya’s offer was accepted by the Board of Spyker Cars NV and exclusivity granted to the consortium Orange India Holdings Sarl to take forward the deal and achieve completion within 30 days.

“We’ll finally have an Indian-owned Formula One team,” the liquor baron announced later today, adding that after an Indian F1 driver in Narain Karthikeyan and growing talks of an Indian circuit, an Indian team was consistent with the increasing interest in the sport of a young India.

The decision to alter, or stick to the same name would be taken at a later date and be subject to approval from F1 bosses, though Mallya insisted that ‘India’ would be a part of the eventual name. “It would give me immense pleasure to see an Indian drive an Indian car. But I’ll have to talk to the team principal on that,” Mallya added. Sakon Yamamoto and Adrian Sutil are currently behind the wheel.

“Now since I own a team, I’m even more keen to bring the race to India,” added the man with a penchant for acquisitions and now a personal investment in the sport.

“I’m on the same side as anyone who brings F1 to India, and German designer Herman Tilke who has done Bahrain, Istanbul and is now working on Singapore will be flying into Delhi on Monday to check the suitability of two-three sites,” Mallya said.

Mallya’s Kingfisher brand adorns Toyota cars and he insisted that the contract will be respected. On Spyker, Mallya maintained that the current budget of 80-90 million euros could be hiked by another 30-40 million euros in 2008 though no one should expect miracles. Just five races remain in the 2007 season, and by the time the deal is inked it’d be only a couple.

“We’ll be looking ahead to 2008 but realistically can only work towards points. We want it to all come together by 2009 or 2010 when India might host the F1,” Mallya stated of the car running on a Ferrari engine. Mallya added that he would venture headlong into exploiting India’s hugely untapped R&D capabilities for Spyker.

“It’s a very competitive sport and the fact that you are on the grid is a big statement in itself,” Mallya concluded, hoping to capture the imagination of India’s huge young demography.