Vijay Mallya may remove 'India' from F1 team Force India's name

London, June 28: Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya who is currently residing in London may take a bold step of removing 'India' from his F1 team Force India's name.

'Keep dreaming about billion pounds'; Mallya booed during India-South Africa match

Mallya is currently being probed for unpaid dues relating to Kingfisher Airlines. He has also numerous bank debts which he is yet to clear.

The Indian Express reported, that idea behind bringing a change to the name of the team is to attract international exposures.

Speaking to motorsport.com, the Indian business said:"There are some people who believe the current name Force India is restrictive psychologically.

"I'm considering along with the other shareholders what steps to take but it's a major decision and one that is not going to be taken in a hurry without due consideration."

The COO of the Force India team, Otmar Szafnauer also spoke about the reason behind changing the name.

He said: "Force India was born out of Vijay owning the team," said COO Otmar Szafnauer.

"His hopes that some India companies would sponsor us. As it turned out, there were a couple, but not very many. He also hoped that India would have a Grand Prix, which happened. With the Grand Prix and a couple of our sponsors, it made sense to have Force India's name.

Since then we've lost the Grand Prix there, the Indian sponsors no longer were interested in sponsoring us. Now we have no Indian sponsors whatsoever, apart from Vijay's Kingfisher.

"So it kind of makes sense to change it from India in order to attract sponsors more globally, and not restrict ourselves to being Force India."

Vijay Mallya recently grabbed all limelights during the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 where he was a regular visitor at the grounds on India's match day.

He recently told the Indian media in an arrogant manner to 'keep dreaming about billion pounds'. His subtle dig was at the Indian government who were trying to recover his debts.

OneIndia News