Force India start legal action

Legal action: Mallya and Gascoyne

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Force India have instigated legal proceedings against Lotus, claiming the Formula One newcomers have used their intellectual property.

The civil action launched by Vijay Mallya's team comes in the wake of their long-held belief that Force India designs have been used in the creation of Lotus's T127 chassis.

Each used a wind tunnel owned by aerodynamic engineering company Aerolab, with Lotus's chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne fulfilling the same role at Force India before departing in late 2008.

Both were both named as Force India announced their intention to pursue the case on Wednesday, together with Lotus's parent companies and Fondtech, an Italian company which owns Aerolab and which is also involved in the Lotus design.

Competent

"The Force India F1 Team confirms it has instigated UK civil proceedings against 1Malaysia Racing Team SDN BHD (a Malaysian company), 1Malaysia Racing Team (UK) Limited (Lotus Racing's parent companies), Michael Gascoyne and Aerolab SRL," the statement read.

"Force India also confirms that a complaint for disclosure of confidential information was filed in December 2009 with the competent authorities in Italy and that investigations are being conducted.

"Force India believes that Lotus Racing, via its use of Aerolab and Fondtech facilities and data, has utilised and benefited from the use of Force India F1 Team's intellectual property, including components and tyres exclusively licensed by Bridgestone to the Force India F1 Team, on its wind tunnel model design for the current Lotus T127 chassis without permission from the Force India F1 Team.

"Force India states these are very serious claims and therefore it would not be taking such action if it could not provide supportive evidence."

Gascoyne has said any similarities between the two cars came as a result of Lotus designers having a thorough knowledge of current F1 regulations after working on previous projects.

Aerolab also denied that it had passed on information to Lotus and said it was taking legal action against Force India for "serious and persistent breaches of contract".

Wrong doing

Of that separate case, Force India's statement added that "any action between Aerolab and Force India for undue termination of contract is now being addressed by the courts.

"Force India confirms it paid approximately one million euros in autumn 2009 to secure the payment claimed by Aerolab and it is now for the competent courts to decide whether, indeed, this outstanding amount should be paid to Aerolab given the seriousness of these current allegations."

On Tuesday, Lotus released a statement saying: "Lotus Racing has been joined as a co-defendant in civil proceedings which are principally between Force India and Aerolab/Fondtech.

"These proceedings do not allege any wrong doing on the part of Lotus Racing.

"Aerolab/Fondtech vigorously denies any wrong doing and has provided Lotus Racing with a full indemnity in relation to the claim."