ESTABLISHED: Oh lord, here we go again: 1991 as Jordan, sold to Midland in 2005, Spyker for 2007 and finally becoming Force India and settling on a non-vomitous colour scheme in 2008.
HISTORY: Rather a lot to go into. You see that twonk with the silly shirts that's part of the BBC's Triangle of Terror? He used to own a team, distinguished early on by the heroics of Andrea DeCesaris and Rubens Barrichello and later challenging for the championship with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Then it all went a bit quack-quack and several ownership changes later they're flying the flag for India... Whilst sensibly staying away from certain Indian drivers.
DRIVERS:
14. Adrian SUTIL (GER)
15. Paul di RESTA (GB)
Watch out, he'll glass you up good - yes! It's Adrian Sutil, one we thought we'd seen the back of when he was convicted of GBH. A year is a long time in Formula One and Sutil didn't leave much an impression in his previous career, aside from being linked to a Ferrari seat in 2011. Even we were linked with that seat, though.
(Having just looked it up, it appears he finished ninth in the championship in 2011, which isn't bad come to think of it.)
Perhaps the team have employed an ex-con to balance out the boringness of Paul di Resta, recently crowned the new Mr Interesting after defeating Steve Davis for the rights to the name in an incredibly boring wrestling match. It was pretty much a forty-minute chinlock. Every time the apparently 12-year-old Scot/Brit appeared on television last year, you could be sure that 20 interminable minutes of chat about gear ratios were on the way. He was apparently annoyed he didn't get the call up to McLaren for this year; try being better at your job, mate.
2012 PERFORMANCE: 7th place, 109 points.
Nico HULKENBERG (GER): 11th, 63 points. Best finish: 4th, Belgium
Paul di RESTA (GB): 14th, 46 points. Best finish: 4th, Singapore
Very, very consistant scorers. Taking seventh place comfortably above a team that won a Grand Prix is not bad at all, and neither is taking the battle for sixth place with a Sauber team that managed podium finishes right to the wire.
Di Resta's more-British-than-Scottish indignation at getting passed over is somewhat misplaced; he was outmatched by his counterpart last year, who was rewarded with a pretty much lateral move to Sauber for his troubles. Hulkenberg had an extremely eye-catching race at Brazil and would almost certainly have won it, had he not given Hamilton a love tap. Still, well worth it to see the Whining One off the circuit once again.
2013 PROSPECTS: Sutil to threaten his way to midtable obscurity; di Resta to seal the deal by putting everyone behind him to sleep.
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