Vijay Mallya acquires Spyker Formula-1 team!

This is great! Vijay Mallya has now acquired the formula-1 team Spyker. This means that an Indian now controls one of the 12 teams currently having a car on the formula-1 circuit.

He had made a 90 million Euro joint-bid alongside Michael Mol and this deal is expected to result in Indian drivers having a real chance to feature again on the formula-1 circuit.

His offer was accepted by the Board of Spyker Cars NV. Mallya said in a statement on this feat: “We’ll finally have an Indian-owned Formula One team.”

He added that India would be part of the updated name they are planning for this team.

He further said: “It would give me immense pleasure to see an Indian drive an Indian car. But I’ll have to talk to the team principal on that.”

The team currently has Sakon Yamamoto and Adrian Sutil driving for them. This could turn out to be a golden opportunity for Narain Karthikeyan to get a drive again on the track.

This also enhances the chance that India would eventually get to host one of the races in the future. The nearest possibility is 2009.

Mallya had this to say on bringing a F-1 race to India: “I’m on the same side as anyone who brings F1 to India, and German designer Herman Tilke who has done Bahrain, Istanbul and is now working on Singapore will be flying into Delhi on Monday to check the suitability of two-three sites.”

Interestingly, Mallya is already advertising his Kingfisher brand on the Toyota Formula-1 team. He plans to continue on that deal.