Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India warns Aston Martin deal ‘a little way off’

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Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley has warned any deal with Aston Martin is “still a little way off”.

Team co-owner Vijay Mallya told Reuters in Mexico City that “there is excitement on both sides” with regards to a potential deal with Aston Martin which would see the Force India team renamed and include sponsorship from Johnnie Walker. Having confirmed the talks, Fernley told F1i there are still no guarantees a deal will be completed.

“Two things: one is I think it’s a shareholder issue and is a discussion [that is ongoing] with Vijay,” Fernley said. “And secondly it is still a little way off.

“It’s got to be credit to the team that they are attracting such a great brand as Aston, even if it is just for discussions.”

And Fernley is pleased with the strong position Force India now finds itself in in terms of the set-up of the team having overhauled its aerodynamic department ahead of the 2015 season.

“The beauty of it now is we’ve made those changes. The changes obviously with hindsight were right because that was the only opportunity we were going to have to be able to make that change and be able to move quickly in to the 2017 car. If we were having to do that this winter it would have been a nightmare.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.