Mallya wants F1 team body to reinstate Force India


Force India have been suspended by the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) for breaking ranks and unconditionally entering next year's championship, owner Vijay Mallya said on Sunday.

The Indian drinks and aviation tycoon told Reuters he had asked FOTA to reinstate his team but would not lose any sleep if they did not.

Mallya said he had been obliged to submit an unconditional entry, unlike the FOTA teams' conditional ones, because otherwise he would have been in breach of banking covenants.

"Basically Formula One, like the case of any other business, relies on its bankers to provide ongoing working capital support," he said.

"As you would in any business, you go to a bank and demonstrate sources of income. The sources of income are from sponsorship and the disbursement of moneys...arising out of the television income.

"Both these sources of income, which are sources of comfort for banks to lend money, would have been under threat if our entry was not accepted," said Mallya.

"So therefore we were legally advised that Force India might breach its banking covenants if we did go the route of a conditional entry and did not have an unconditional entry as always. All this was completely shared with FOTA."

CONCORDE AGREEMENT

The eight FOTA teams have submitted entries conditional on the 2010 rules being rewritten and a new commercial Concorde Agreement being signed by June 12.

Champions Ferrari, along with Renault, Toyota and the two Red Bull teams, have threatened to walk away otherwise.

Former champions Williams have also been suspended by FOTA for submitting an unconditional entry for pre-existing contractual reasons.

The governing FIA, which wants an optional 40 million pound ($64.18 million) budget cap, has said it will publish the official entry list on Friday with more than 10 new teams seeking to come in.

Mallya said he had asked FOTA to reverse their decision.

"If they appreciate it (the reasons), well and good. If they don't appreciate it, why should I lose sleep over it?" he said.

"I am doing what is good for Force India, first because I have a duty to comply with my legal obligations, I have a duty to my employees, to the team and the company, and at the end of the day if it stops racing there is no business."