Sergio Perez, Force India, Baku City Circuit, 2018

Force India plans to add 125 staff in two years

2018 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by and

Force India is planning a rapid expansion of its workforce over the next two years.

The team, which was bought by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll after it went into administration in August, says the growth is needed to allow it to compete with the front-running teams.

Force India finished fourth in the championship in 2016 and 2017. It is on course to end this season in seventh place, but the 59 points it lost when it went into administration would have put it in a close fight with Renault for fourth again this year.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer described the scale of the team’s plans. “When I started at Force India there was 280 of us about we’re above 400,” he said. “And I can see us moving in the next two years to about 500 for example. So we’ll be hiring another 100, 125 people.”

“We’re always looking to strengthen the team and we know the areas where we need to strengthen and actually expand,” he added. “We will be talking to a lot of people that are available but we will be doing it strategically.

“And we also need to do it in areas where we bring rapid development to the car. We will be doing that over the next couple of years.”

The team also intends to increase the rate at which it develops and brings new parts to its cars.

“There are some things that we could do straight away which we’re looking at doing. That’s to improve communication as well as improve the time from concept to [putting the] part on the car. We’re looking at shortening that.

“But the other thing that we absolutely need to do is get more ideas that will make the car quicker. That is through expanding that ideas-generating group, whatever that is, and also improving some of the tools that we use so we get better correlation to reality.

“Once you do that then you’re more confident in the results of your tools that and you can push the development.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2018 F1 season

Browse all 2018 F1 season articles

22 comments on “Force India plans to add 125 staff in two years”

  1. Say what you will about Stroll (and I have), that’s seriously impressive. You almost feel like Williams missed a trick, not allowing for further control. Bold, but dangerous.

    1. Stroll bought FI but at Williams he bought a seat. I guess that’s the difference and the fact this year’s car is a beauty but it does not perform.

  2. I’m delighted with this also.
    More and serious investment in the teams bodes well for the sport and therefore the fans as well (I hope)

    It sometimes looks like Stroll Sr has more interest in (and more to offer?) F1 than his son.

    Either way – good news.

  3. More staff doesn’t necessarily translate to better performance. One only has to look at Mclaren.

    Great that they’re going to invest more, but they may find it initially difficult to marry extra people with perhaps competing ideas into what has been a pretty slick unit.

    Couple that with taking a risk with one of their drivers, and they could find themselves dropping down the order in the WCC which in turn will cost $$

    1. Stop being a Party Pooper ;)

    2. the negativity……

      Not doing anything isn’t going to bring them forward is it?

      This is good for F1. Force India did terrific things with hardly any budget, will be very interesting to see what they do with a simular budget to McLaren.

    3. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
      19th November 2018, 14:01

      Logic would dictate that a team that has offered the most bang for buck in F1 will create an even bigger bang with more bucks.

      They already know how to spend their money, Renault should be afraid.

  4. It’s actually sad (not surprising though) that a team needs 500+ staff to compete for a mere podium in F1. And that excludes all the staff at suppliers.

    There must be a way that teams sized 250-300 can create sufficient diversity ingenuity and competitiveness to make the sport exciting. (standardise more parts I guess if a budget cap doesn’t work).

  5. Normally I would be interested in this but today I am just hoping and praying that Floresch and the cameraman and photographers are alright after Macau.

    1. Amen to that.

    2. I found some videos on Youtube. Here is one. I’m sure Keith will mention this very soon. I do find it extraordinary that this F3 car was able to fly such a long distance.

      1. @drycrust – whoa, that’s scary, seriously hope she’s OK. Were media personnel also in the firing line of the car?

        Any idea how it started, did Sophia rear-end someone and get launched?

        1. Possibly two reporters hurt bad :(

      2. @drycrust – I find it very hard to believe that anyone could survive such a crash. Utterly horrific. Amazing to hear that the driver is tweeting from hospital to thank the marshalls and medics…

    3. WHOA that looks bad :(
      I wasn’t aware of it till I read your post here.

  6. “Daaadd! I’m not seeing my name on this list? I think there’s been a mistake..”

    1. “Lance, this team exists to win races. I have a special project for you, it requires strength and determination: I want you to drive for Williams in 2019! There’s a good lad, what’s the bottom lip sticking out for, this is an important job!”

      1. LOL – I like it ;)

    2. Super thread… ;-)

  7. Can’t wait to find out the new name.

  8. If RPFI (or whatever the name turns out to be) plans to add 125 additional staff, there is a cost and the $$$ will need to come from somewhere.
    At $100 K each, without overhead costs for space and equipment, that is around $12.5 M. Not an insignificant amount when the margins in this business are as tight as we think they are.
    The additional $$$ will need to come from either the prize fund, in which case they need to finish higher than 5th or 4th to advance from previous years returns, or they will need additional sponsorship. This latter stream is where the Stroll expertise should and needs to play out. Let’s hope that it does. With the additional resources, in whatever form, the team will need to out develop the likes of Sauber, Haas and Renault.
    Looking forward to it.
    Maybe we need a Racing Fans Contest to guess the name of the New Team. Points for originality, humor, satire (different from humor) and historical innuendo. Bonus points if you get it right.

Comments are closed.