Time has come to change Force India name - Mallya

Force India's name is set to change in the near future after team principal Vijay Mallya confirmed "the time has come now" to drop the India title.

Entering Formula 1 to help promote a number of business interests in India back in 2008, Mallya renamed Spyker as Force India with an Indian Grand Prix also on the horizon. With that race having since dropped off the calendar and Mallya facing criminal charges back in his home country, the team principal says he needs to make the team more globally appealing off the back of recent on-track success.

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"It was a discussion with certain sponsors, who expressed some reservations on Force India being too geographically or territorially specific," Mallya explained. "There are international sponsors who are onboard and wish to come onboard, who have no business in India.

"I think the time has come that we need to also present them with a global opportunity on a global platform, so after living with Force India, the time has come now to change. We can't keep changing the name of the team, so the decision we take has to last for at least another 10 years. So we are thinking about it."

Mallya explained that the name Force One is only one of the options on the table at present, as the team looks at all the possibilities that are available.

"Over management discussions Force One was suggested. I really liked it. Obviously when you come up with a name the first thing is to find out if the name is available, because if it isn't available there's no point thinking about it or pursuing it further. We checked, it was available and the next thing we did was we immediately registered the name and that of course started all the speculation that the change of the name would be from Force India to Force One, but we haven't decided that yet.

"Some people have come up with even new suggestions. One member of my staff said why don't we just call ourselves Force Racing? Why Force anything else? Good. Another solution. These suggestions will keep coming up in our talks with our sponsors and partners, we will keep all this in mind.

"There is no specific timeline. Is it going to be done this year for next year? I can't answer that question because we are under no pressure to take an early decision. When the right name comes with our partnership engagements, then of course we will go ahead."