The Force India legal saga dominated the headlines over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but while some initially interpreted it as a negative development - with the word 'administration' inevitably triggering memories of the painful demise of both Caterham and Manor - it is in fact the opposite.
If all goes to plan, the next few days should see steps made towards a change of team ownership that will secure its future and potentially allow it to grow. The benefits could be visible as early as September, as planned updates that have been on hold pending a cash injection can finally be produced and brought to the track.
So how did we get to the unusual situation where a legal action launched by an unpaid driver, in the middle of a season, is the trigger that saves his team from financial implosion?
The first thing to understand is that there are two entities to consider. There's the team itself, led at its Silverstone base by chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, and there are the shareholders, namely Dr Vijay Mallya, the Sahara Group and Dutchman Michiel Mol, who retained a small involvement. Together they own Force India through a Luxembourg-based holding company called Orange India Holdings Sarl.
The man who links the two parties is deputy team principal Bob Fernley, a longtime close friend and associate of Mallya, who represents his views and positions, especially in dealings with the FIA and Liberty and so on, but who at the same time has an obvious responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of the team.
It's easy to forget what a state the team was in when Mallya took it over at the end of 2007. In the last two years of Eddie Jordan's ownership in '03 and '04 it finished ninth in the world championship, and having been sold to Midland it was ninth again in '05, and then 10th - on zero points - in '06. A single season under the Spyker name saw it 10th again, with a single point scored.
Mallya took over before the end of that season, invested a lot of money and began the rebuilding process. It was his ambition and the strategic decisions he took, such as joining forces with Mercedes for 2009, sourcing gearboxes - initially from McLaren and then Mercedes itself - and consistently looking for top driver talent, that meant Force India climbed the pecking order.
It was the seventh best team on the grid by '10, then the sixth, fifth and over the past two seasons, it's been the fourth.
It's been an extraordinary progression, helped by canny day-to-day management from Szafnauer, and strong technical leadership, latterly from Andy Green. However, as with any privately-funded team, it's been done on a financial knife-edge as the costs of going racing have inexorably risen.
The key word in this business is cashflow. Money is scheduled to come in down the line, be it from sponsors or prize-fund income from F1, but bills must be paid now. It's possible to juggle that equation for a few years, but eventually the gap becomes too great. In Force India's case, the added complication was the legal issues faced not just by Mallya personally in his home country, but also by the Sahara Group, his partner and investor.
It's been clear for some time that to ensure the future of the team Mallya and his co-shareholders either had to find substantial new investment, or sell outright. The challenge was to find the right buyer, and at the right price.
There was no shortage of interest, and earlier this year there were suggestions that Mercedes was a potential candidate, which would have turned Force India from a customer outfit into an official B-team, but that idea faded away.
Mallya was keen to get the best possible price, and a deal that suited him
Naturally, Mallya was keen to get the best possible price, and a deal that suited him.
"Whether it's a sporting business, a service business or any other business, there's a value," he said at the British Grand Prix.
"If somebody comes up and offers you a damn good price, you must learn to get rid of the emotion, put on a commercial hat and look at it seriously. Because such an opportunity may not come again. I had no such proposition in front of me. I want to see cash on the table.
"Until I see cash on the table, I don't believe anything. In 10 years in F1 there have been too many people coming and wanting to buy the team. Everyone who walks through this paddock suddenly wants to own an F1 team.
"They don't realise the hard work involved. If it was like the old Spyker, quite content to run around in 21st and 22nd with no ambition to get out of Q1, then fine. But for a team like us it's bloody hard work for everybody."
Over the past few months the need to find that cash injection was getting ever more urgent. That became very evident when the team admitted that it wasn't putting updates on the car because the funds were not available to progress parts from the design stage.
There was some frustration in the Silverstone camp that credible potential buyers were around, and making serious offers, but were being rebuffed.
The concern was that if Mallya held out too long for what he perceived as the right deal, it might be too late to save the team - the mounting debts would lead to a collapse from which it could not recover.
In addition to his pursuit of a good price, it's understood that Mallya's legal situation in India made the process of selling his assets more complicated.
In the past couple of weeks it became clear that a crisis was looming. And that became a reality when a creditor, a technical supplier who could not afford to wait any longer to be paid, launched a winding-up petition, which could have triggered insolvency.
In legal terms this could have been the point of no return - a successful winding-up order would have compromised the team's ability to compete on track and fulfil its obligations to Liberty, thus turning off the tap of F1 prize income. It would have been game-over.
There was one strategy to sidestep disaster: putting the team into administration would trump the winding-up order and avoid insolvency. It starts a process of trying to keep the team alive, one that judges would give precedence to over any attempt to close a company. Shareholders can voluntarily put their own business into administration, if it suits them to do so, but that route was not taken by Mallya.
That's where Sergio Perez, his main business advisor Julian Jakobi and the Mexican's company Brockstone come in. Perez was owed a substantial figure in salary payments, and as such was a major creditor. He'd been waiting patiently for his money and naturally had no desire to take an aggressive legal action that might harm the team, especially in the middle of the season.
But it was made clear to him by his advisors that such an action would actually be beneficial. It would allow the team to continue to operate and compete on track, and buy time to allow the administrator to entertain bids and find a suitable buyer. And crucially it would take the sale process out of the hands of Mallya and the other shareholders.
It would protect the team's future and, most importantly, the jobs of the people Perez had worked with since 2014. It was a course of action that was also approved by the biggest single creditor, Mercedes, which was fully in the loop, as well as key sponsor BWT - the latter apparently classed as a creditor in respect of funds that had been advanced as a loan.
So, Perez and Brockstone brought their administration order last week, and at a High Court hearing in London that ran into Friday evening, it was granted by a judge.
Action would protect the team's future and most importantly, the jobs of the people Perez had worked with since 2014
Geoff Rowley and James Baker of FRP Advisory were duly appointed joint administrators. Rowley was involved in the Marussia/Manor cases, so is well versed in the complex world of F1.
A statement issued by Rowley on Saturday morning summed up his role: "We shall be engaging with key stakeholders on an urgent basis to secure the best outcome for creditors. In the meantime, the team will continue to operate as normal, including racing in Hungary this weekend. Our aim is for business as usual while we assess options to secure the future of the team."
The administrator is now in charge of the financial purse strings, bringing independent funds that are sufficient to keep the team ticking over, and pay a wage bill that is due this week.
Fortuitously, the action has coincided exactly with the summer break. The team won't be spending money going to races and the factory and windtunnel will be closed for two weeks, so running costs will be minimal - and there's some breathing space for all concerned to get a deal done.
Rowley will now conduct what in effect will be an auction for the team, in which all parties have some clarity. In theory, it doesn't have to be sold to the highest bidder - if somebody else has what appears to be a better long-term strategy, greater credibility and crucially is favoured by major creditors such as Mercedes and Perez, they could win the day. Although not a creditor, F1 is also keeping a watching brief, and clearly any buyer will have to be seen as suitable.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed on Sunday that there are as many as five potential bidders. At least three are believed to be credible, and are understood to be fronted by Lawrence Stroll, Michael Andretti and the Mazepin family respectively. Others could yet emerge, although they will have to be quick as the process is already well underway and a decision could be made within days.
Concerned employees have been told to hang tight and await positive developments - Szafnauer made a speech in the Budapest pit garage on Saturday, with Chase Carey offering moral support - and everyone has been assured that the team is set to emerge fighting fit and potentially stronger than ever.
"The first thing to say is that the current shareholders have done everything in their power to try to stabilise the company and to find investment," said Fernley, "and to move forward to take the team where they wanted to take it. Unfortunately that didn't work out.
"The company is now in administration, and the administrator will be looking at potential buyers. And hopefully one of those buyers will be able to fulfil the ambitions of the team, which is to take it from where it is today, which I think is a podium-opportunity team, into a podium-on-merit team.
"The decision now is FRP's in terms of who is selected, but I think that there are now a number of quality investor groups that are willing to come in and take this team to the next level, and the team deserves it."
It looks like a win-win situation for everyone - except Mallya and his fellow shareholders. In a statement that emerged on Saturday morning they made it crystal clear that they were not happy with developments, and it's perhaps not surprising that they feel the rug has been pulled from under them.
Mallya wrote that the largest creditor was in fact the holding company, Orange India Holdings Sarl, with over £159million outstanding. That equates to the amount that the shareholders have pumped into the team over the past decade, not counting any extra sponsorship deals with Mallya-owned brands such as Kingfisher or Whyte and Mackay.
He also suggested that as the largest creditor, Orange India Holdings would have a corresponding say in the sale process in terms of approving any deal. However, it's not yet clear whether the holding company is in fact legally classed as a creditor in the same way as Perez and Mercedes.
Mercedes is keeping a close eye on the situation, and as a major creditor the administrator is legally obliged to take its views on buyers into account
In theory, Mallya can align himself with one of the bidders or find new investment himself, but the signs are that he will be out of the picture by the time the process has unfolded.
Whoever buys the team will change the name for 2019, something that nearly happened before the start of this year.
"We've got to recognise what Vijay's done," said Fernley. "In 10 years he's taken the team from a really bad state of health into something that was competitive. It's just unfortunate that circumstances have not allowed him to continue.
"There has to be investment in the team. The team is now basically hitting the buffers in terms of the assets it has today. In order to go forward to become a team of podium merit, it has to have investment, and it's what will be required as part of the process of looking at new owners."
Meanwhile, Mercedes is keeping a close eye on the situation, and as a major creditor the administrator is legally obliged to take the company's views on buyers into account. Wolff wants his longtime customer to emerge fit and healthy and continue to be a potential home for one of his junior drivers, be that Esteban Ocon or George Russell.
"First of all, credit must be given to Vijay for 10 years or so of funding the team," he said in Hungary, "and having been not only a shareholder, the key shareholder of the team, but also having had the enthusiasm to support the team and fund it. Obviously things have turned more difficult for him, and that has had an effect on the team.
"Now that process has been kicked off by the administrator. There are many potential buyers with great interest, with deep pockets, with an understanding of what kind of spending levels are needed in order to perform in F1. It's something that is positive for the team and for all its employees, I would say."
However, a potential spanner in the works surfaced this week. If a team emerges from administration, under the Concorde Agreement it is regarded as a new entity - and all the other teams have to agree that it can continue to receive the payments that were earned by its predecessor. It's a similar process to that used when team asks to receive F1 payments in advance.
Not all teams readily agreed, despite some urgent canvassing from Chase Carey in Budapest as he sought signatures. McLaren, Renault and Williams are holding out, and trying to make a valid point about the increasing power of Mercedes and Ferrari within the sport.
They see the Force India sale as potentially creating a Mercedes B-team, so clearly a debate will have to take place before they agree.
If they don't, then the whole process of the sale will be turned on its head - because without those guaranteed payments, Force India becomes a completely different proposition to buyers.
The Force India legal saga dominated the headlines over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but while some initially interpreted it as a negative development - with the word 'administration' inevitably triggering memories of the painful demise of both Caterham and Manor - it is in fact the opposite.
If all goes to plan, the next few days should see steps made towards a change of team ownership that will secure its future and potentially allow it to grow. The benefits could be visible as early as September, as planned updates that have been on hold pending a cash injection can finally be produced and brought to the track.
So how did we get to the unusual situation where a legal action launched by an unpaid driver, in the middle of a season, is the trigger that saves his team from financial implosion?
The first thing to understand is that there are two entities to consider. There's the team itself, led at its Silverstone base by chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer, and there are the shareholders, namely Dr Vijay Mallya, the Sahara Group and Dutchman Michiel Mol, who retained a small involvement. Together they own Force India through a Luxembourg-based holding company called Orange India Holdings Sarl.
The man who links the two parties is deputy team principal Bob Fernley, a longtime close friend and associate of Mallya, who represents his views and positions, especially in dealings with the FIA and Liberty and so on, but who at the same time has an obvious responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of the team.
It's easy to forget what a state the team was in when Mallya took it over at the end of 2007. In the last two years of Eddie Jordan's ownership in '03 and '04 it finished ninth in the world championship, and having been sold to Midland it was ninth again in '05, and then 10th - on zero points - in '06. A single season under the Spyker name saw it 10th again, with a single point scored.
Mallya took over before the end of that season, invested a lot of money and began the rebuilding process. It was his ambition and the strategic decisions he took, such as joining forces with Mercedes for 2009, sourcing gearboxes - initially from McLaren and then Mercedes itself - and consistently looking for top driver talent, that meant Force India climbed the pecking order.
It was the seventh best team on the grid by '10, then the sixth, fifth and over the past two seasons, it's been the fourth.
It's been an extraordinary progression, helped by canny day-to-day management from Szafnauer, and strong technical leadership, latterly from Andy Green. However, as with any privately-funded team, it's been done on a financial knife-edge as the costs of going racing have inexorably risen.
The key word in this business is cashflow. Money is scheduled to come in down the line, be it from sponsors or prize-fund income from F1, but bills must be paid now. It's possible to juggle that equation for a few years, but eventually the gap becomes too great. In Force India's case, the added complication was the legal issues faced not just by Mallya personally in his home country, but also by the Sahara Group, his partner and investor.
It's been clear for some time that to ensure the future of the team Mallya and his co-shareholders either had to find substantial new investment, or sell outright. The challenge was to find the right buyer, and at the right price.
There was no shortage of interest, and earlier this year there were suggestions that Mercedes was a potential candidate, which would have turned Force India from a customer outfit into an official B-team, but that idea faded away.
Mallya was keen to get the best possible price, and a deal that suited him
Naturally, Mallya was keen to get the best possible price, and a deal that suited him.
"Whether it's a sporting business, a service business or any other business, there's a value," he said at the British Grand Prix.
"If somebody comes up and offers you a damn good price, you must learn to get rid of the emotion, put on a commercial hat and look at it seriously. Because such an opportunity may not come again. I had no such proposition in front of me. I want to see cash on the table.
"Until I see cash on the table, I don't believe anything. In 10 years in F1 there have been too many people coming and wanting to buy the team. Everyone who walks through this paddock suddenly wants to own an F1 team.
"They don't realise the hard work involved. If it was like the old Spyker, quite content to run around in 21st and 22nd with no ambition to get out of Q1, then fine. But for a team like us it's bloody hard work for everybody."
Over the past few months the need to find that cash injection was getting ever more urgent. That became very evident when the team admitted that it wasn't putting updates on the car because the funds were not available to progress parts from the design stage.
There was some frustration in the Silverstone camp that credible potential buyers were around, and making serious offers, but were being rebuffed.
The concern was that if Mallya held out too long for what he perceived as the right deal, it might be too late to save the team - the mounting debts would lead to a collapse from which it could not recover.
In addition to his pursuit of a good price, it's understood that Mallya's legal situation in India made the process of selling his assets more complicated.
In the past couple of weeks it became clear that a crisis was looming. And that became a reality when a creditor, a technical supplier who could not afford to wait any longer to be paid, launched a winding-up petition, which could have triggered insolvency.
In legal terms this could have been the point of no return - a successful winding-up order would have compromised the team's ability to compete on track and fulfil its obligations to Liberty, thus turning off the tap of F1 prize income. It would have been game-over.
There was one strategy to sidestep disaster: putting the team into administration would trump the winding-up order and avoid insolvency. It starts a process of trying to keep the team alive, one that judges would give precedence to over any attempt to close a company. Shareholders can voluntarily put their own business into administration, if it suits them to do so, but that route was not taken by Mallya.
That's where Sergio Perez, his main business advisor Julian Jakobi and the Mexican's company Brockstone come in. Perez was owed a substantial figure in salary payments, and as such was a major creditor. He'd been waiting patiently for his money and naturally had no desire to take an aggressive legal action that might harm the team, especially in the middle of the season.
But it was made clear to him by his advisors that such an action would actually be beneficial. It would allow the team to continue to operate and compete on track, and buy time to allow the administrator to entertain bids and find a suitable buyer. And crucially it would take the sale process out of the hands of Mallya and the other shareholders.
It would protect the team's future and, most importantly, the jobs of the people Perez had worked with since 2014. It was a course of action that was also approved by the biggest single creditor, Mercedes, which was fully in the loop, as well as key sponsor BWT - the latter apparently classed as a creditor in respect of funds that had been advanced as a loan.
So, Perez and Brockstone brought their administration order last week, and at a High Court hearing in London that ran into Friday evening, it was granted by a judge.
Action would protect the team's future and most importantly, the jobs of the people Perez had worked with since 2014
Geoff Rowley and James Baker of FRP Advisory were duly appointed joint administrators. Rowley was involved in the Marussia/Manor cases, so is well versed in the complex world of F1.
A statement issued by Rowley on Saturday morning summed up his role: "We shall be engaging with key stakeholders on an urgent basis to secure the best outcome for creditors. In the meantime, the team will continue to operate as normal, including racing in Hungary this weekend. Our aim is for business as usual while we assess options to secure the future of the team."
The administrator is now in charge of the financial purse strings, bringing independent funds that are sufficient to keep the team ticking over, and pay a wage bill that is due this week.
Fortuitously, the action has coincided exactly with the summer break. The team won't be spending money going to races and the factory and windtunnel will be closed for two weeks, so running costs will be minimal - and there's some breathing space for all concerned to get a deal done.
Rowley will now conduct what in effect will be an auction for the team, in which all parties have some clarity. In theory, it doesn't have to be sold to the highest bidder - if somebody else has what appears to be a better long-term strategy, greater credibility and crucially is favoured by major creditors such as Mercedes and Perez, they could win the day. Although not a creditor, F1 is also keeping a watching brief, and clearly any buyer will have to be seen as suitable.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed on Sunday that there are as many as five potential bidders. At least three are believed to be credible, and are understood to be fronted by Lawrence Stroll, Michael Andretti and the Mazepin family respectively. Others could yet emerge, although they will have to be quick as the process is already well underway and a decision could be made within days.
Concerned employees have been told to hang tight and await positive developments - Szafnauer made a speech in the Budapest pit garage on Saturday, with Chase Carey offering moral support - and everyone has been assured that the team is set to emerge fighting fit and potentially stronger than ever.
"The first thing to say is that the current shareholders have done everything in their power to try to stabilise the company and to find investment," said Fernley, "and to move forward to take the team where they wanted to take it. Unfortunately that didn't work out.
"The company is now in administration, and the administrator will be looking at potential buyers. And hopefully one of those buyers will be able to fulfil the ambitions of the team, which is to take it from where it is today, which I think is a podium-opportunity team, into a podium-on-merit team.
"The decision now is FRP's in terms of who is selected, but I think that there are now a number of quality investor groups that are willing to come in and take this team to the next level, and the team deserves it."
It looks like a win-win situation for everyone - except Mallya and his fellow shareholders. In a statement that emerged on Saturday morning they made it crystal clear that they were not happy with developments, and it's perhaps not surprising that they feel the rug has been pulled from under them.
Mallya wrote that the largest creditor was in fact the holding company, Orange India Holdings Sarl, with over £159million outstanding. That equates to the amount that the shareholders have pumped into the team over the past decade, not counting any extra sponsorship deals with Mallya-owned brands such as Kingfisher or Whyte and Mackay.
He also suggested that as the largest creditor, Orange India Holdings would have a corresponding say in the sale process in terms of approving any deal. However, it's not yet clear whether the holding company is in fact legally classed as a creditor in the same way as Perez and Mercedes.
Mercedes is keeping a close eye on the situation, and as a major creditor the administrator is legally obliged to take its views on buyers into account
In theory, Mallya can align himself with one of the bidders or find new investment himself, but the signs are that he will be out of the picture by the time the process has unfolded.
Whoever buys the team will change the name for 2019, something that nearly happened before the start of this year.
"We've got to recognise what Vijay's done," said Fernley. "In 10 years he's taken the team from a really bad state of health into something that was competitive. It's just unfortunate that circumstances have not allowed him to continue.
"There has to be investment in the team. The team is now basically hitting the buffers in terms of the assets it has today. In order to go forward to become a team of podium merit, it has to have investment, and it's what will be required as part of the process of looking at new owners."
Meanwhile, Mercedes is keeping a close eye on the situation, and as a major creditor the administrator is legally obliged to take the company's views on buyers into account. Wolff wants his longtime customer to emerge fit and healthy and continue to be a potential home for one of his junior drivers, be that Esteban Ocon or George Russell.
"First of all, credit must be given to Vijay for 10 years or so of funding the team," he said in Hungary, "and having been not only a shareholder, the key shareholder of the team, but also having had the enthusiasm to support the team and fund it. Obviously things have turned more difficult for him, and that has had an effect on the team.
"Now that process has been kicked off by the administrator. There are many potential buyers with great interest, with deep pockets, with an understanding of what kind of spending levels are needed in order to perform in F1. It's something that is positive for the team and for all its employees, I would say."
However, a potential spanner in the works surfaced this week. If a team emerges from administration, under the Concorde Agreement it is regarded as a new entity - and all the other teams have to agree that it can continue to receive the payments that were earned by its predecessor. It's a similar process to that used when team asks to receive F1 payments in advance.
Not all teams readily agreed, despite some urgent canvassing from Chase Carey in Budapest as he sought signatures. McLaren, Renault and Williams are holding out, and trying to make a valid point about the increasing power of Mercedes and Ferrari within the sport.
They see the Force India sale as potentially creating a Mercedes B-team, so clearly a debate will have to take place before they agree.
If they don't, then the whole process of the sale will be turned on its head - because without those guaranteed payments, Force India becomes a completely different proposition to buyers.
