MALLYA WANTS INDIA RACING ON F1 TRACKS
London, 13 September 2007 (IANS)

Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya wants to put India in the Spyker Formula One team name next season after completing the formalities for buying a 50 percent stake in the Anglo-Dutch racing team. "I don't know if we can keep the name Spyker, as Spyker is a car company. One thing is for sure, I want to put the word India into the name of the team, but I have not really spent time on the name so far," Mallya said in an interview with the official F1 website.

Mallya confirmed that the Indian flag will be part of Spyker's livery and revealed that Indian companies are keen to sponsor the Silverstone-based racing outfit. "The excitement was so huge that there are people waiting in line now with their cheque books in their hand trying to partner with us," he explained.

"I have not heard of anything like that in any other part of the world.

"And when we announced that the Indian flag would be part of the team colours and logo, there was an explosion of excitement romping through the country."

The deal is expected to be cleared later this month and the Bangalore-based industrialist has promised a massive boost to the team saying that he has no problems with increasing next season's budget. "The deal will be completed by the end of September," he said.

"In between, I will sit down with the team management to come up with a sound budget.

"Just off the top of my head, in a very casual way, maybe yes, the budget has to be increased. And if it is justified and the money is spent in the right way, I have no problems in approving a bigger budget for the team."