Force India was ‘very close’ to folding – Szafnauer

The reborn Force India Formula 1 squad was days away from collapsing before going into administration and being rescued by new owners, team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed.

Force India fell into administration on the eve of the Hungarian Grand Prix before a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the father of Williams driver Lance Stroll, bought the assets of the team and saved all 405 jobs at the Silverstone squad.

Force India was ‘very close’ to folding – Szafnauer

The reborn Force India Formula 1 squad was days away from collapsing before going into administration and being rescued by new owners, team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed.

Force India fell into administration on the eve of the Hungarian Grand Prix before a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll, the father of Williams driver Lance Stroll, bought the assets of the team and saved all 405 jobs at the Silverstone squad.

It submitted a mid-season entry in order to race at the Belgian Grand Prix as new entity Racing Point Force India, enjoying a brilliant weekend as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon secured a double points finish after starring in qualifying.

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But Szafnauer, who was appointed as the team’s new team principal at Spa, explained how close the outfit came to being forced to close its doors.

“It was pretty close,” Szafnauer said. “I think there were some of the creditors and legal actions to go down the insolvency route instead of the administration route.

“The significant difference is insolvency you close the doors and you sell the assets and you’re done, whereas administration, the administrator tries to find a solution for the company to keep it going, and we were very close to insolvency, not administration.

“It was only a matter of days or weeks. So the solution was a good one in the end for the team, the employees, the fans and I think Formula 1 in general.”

Szafnauer said the consortium headed by Stroll is set to pay off the debts it owes, while enabling Force India the resources to continue to build for the medium term.

“All the debts will be paid 100 percent by the new consortium that bought the team. We will bring the debts down to zero. That's just a timing issue and one that happens,” he added.

“We now have to look at a medium-term plan of what we have to do. It's going to be some more people strategically hired, and it'll also be some more technical infrastructure.

“For example, I think we have ordered the next phase of our CFD upgrade. That's a small example of what we're doing, and there'll be some other things.”

“We just have to now continue to do what we do best, and that's with the resources that we have, the human resources and the infrastructure that we have is to do the best with the car on-track.

“And now, being on a little bit better financial footing, we have to look to how we can expand that to increase our performance even further. Those are the two things that we've got to do. One's immediate, and one's a little bit more mid-term.”

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