It’s public now! Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya along with Dutch Entrepreneur Michiel and Jan Mol Consortium in a joint $110m bid has taken over the Dutch formula one team Spyker. This means that the F1 team will be re-branded for the third time.
Michel De Mol was the President of the Spyker F1 team but stepped down this August; he had announced his willingness towards buying out the team. Along with him, Dr. Vijay Mallya a business person from India, head of UB Drinks Group and Kingfisher Airlines, has his interests in raising India’s profile in Formula 1. He is already sponsoring team Toyota through his Kingfisher Airlines and was seeking such opportunity for a long while now.
New name for the Silverstone based team is yet to be revealed but the joint consortium is likely to be called orange India and the group will sign within a month to become the owner of Spyker F1 team. 50% owner of the Silverstone based F1 team, Mr. Mallya admitted his intent of including India in the new identity for the 2008 team.
Speculations point towards Narain Karthikeyan, an occasional race car driver for Williams, may make it to the driver’s seat. Mallya said that he will love to have an Indian as the driver but for that the whole team will have to reach an accord.
For now, Michiel Mol will return to his position as President while rest of the team bears no changes. The deal will be announced with its full details at the New York stock exchange later.
As reported Mallya’s involvement in this deal is entirely in his personal capacity and his Airlines will continue to sponsor Toyota.
