Formula One news

Mallya: "I had to do what I did"

Vijay Mallya has asked the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) to consider the removal of his team's temporary ban from the organisation in order to continue being involved in discussions ahead of the FIA's revealing of the 2010 grid on Friday. The Force India team, like Williams, was suspended from the group after submitting an unconditional entry to the sport's governing body for next year's championship.

With FOTA against the €45m budget cap for next season, both Williams and Force India were suspended from the assemblage by essentially breaking agreements of the group, claiming that legal obligations forced them to do so. "I have only been told by John (Howett, FOTA vice chairman) today (Sunday) for the very first time that the executive committee, when they had a teleconference call last week, decided to suspend us when we changed our entry to an unconditional entry," Force India owner Mallya said.

Adrian Sutil made Q2 for the second consecutive race in Turkey

"All I said to John was that the circumstances of Force India are quite different to the circumstances of Williams; first and foremost I was completely transparent with FOTA and gave them copies of correspondence with my bankers and lawyers." With the nine remaining FOTA teams' 2010 entries due to be declared invalid unless the FIA removes the spending limit before Friday, Mallya stressed the importance of being involved in any more communications which take place before the crucial day.

"If they appreciate it, well and good," Dr. Mallya continued. "If they don't appreciate it, then why should I lose sleep over it? I am doing what is good for Force India, first because I have a duty to comply with my legal obligations, I have a duty to the team and the company and, at the end of the day, if it stops racing there is no business - under the circumstances I had to do what I did; if FOTA membership cannot accept it then there is little I can do about it - life goes on."

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