Pay dues, British court tells Vijay Mallya

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Sahara Force India, the country’s sole representatives in the ritzy world of Formula One, seem to be in financial turmoil again.

While team principal Vijay Mallya is in desperate search for funds to save his troubled airline Kingfisher, there is further turbulence for the tycoon with a British court ordering his Force India F1 team on Wednesday to pay dues of over a million dollars to Italian race car design company Aerolab.

The team will also face a legal bill of several million dollars for the two-year case.

The judgment was a result of an intellectual-property dispute between Force India and Aerolab, which was “accused of using the technical details of Force India in Team Lotus car”.

The grapevine has it that it could force Mallya hand over the team completely to Sahara’s Subrata Roy — who currently holds 42.5 per cent stake.

Force India sent out a press release mentioning only the silver lining of the court verdict saying “it had won its claim for copyright infringement against Aerolab”. It made no mention about the order against them — $1.2 million unpaid dues to Aerolab.

The team may be heading for trouble, but drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta, however, are not perturbed. “As a driver, my focus is only on improving my performance and not to worry about anything else,” Hulkenberg told this paper from Malaysia, where the second round of the 2012 championship will be held this weekend.

On track, the team did well at the season-opener in Australia with di Resta claiming a point by finishing 10th.

Di Resta said Force India’s performance would continue to improve with several updates on the car scheduled for upcoming races.