The salvation of Force India is an extraordinary tale, with a few twists and turns along the way.
The outcome is that a solidly performing upper midfield team has not only been saved but, under Lawrence Stroll's ownership, could well expand and thrive in a way that was not previously possible. All jobs are safe, as are the suppliers that service the team. The risk of Formula 1 losing two seats in an already exclusive field has passed.
In the end, it's been a rare triumph of common sense - with the FIA, Liberty and, for the most part, the other teams all working towards the sensible goal of keeping the two pink cars on the grid.
But there have been some hiccups in the process, and there remain a few loose ends. Some rivals still have doubts about financial arrangements and the political implications of potentially closer ties between Force India and Mercedes. And then there's Dmitry Mazepin - he lost out to Stroll in the chase for the team and isn't taking it lying down.
Changes of ownership are hardly rare in F1. It's easy to forget that Mercedes was once British American Racing, or that Red Bull Racing was born as Stewart. Nor is it unusual for a team to be mired in debt and up against the ropes, only to be saved and emerge stronger - in the past three years alone that has happened to both Lotus/Renault and Sauber.
The difference in the present case is just how close Force India came to imploding, and the fact that the team has emerged owned by a new company and hence is a new entry in the eyes of the FIA. And yet contrary to all precedent, it has seemingly retained most of the commercial benefits accrued by its predecessor.
The original team's problems were directly related to the legal issues surrounding owners Vijay Mallya and the Sahara Group. They owned 42.5% each, with the remainder belonging to Dutchman Michiel Mol. Not only was Mallya's ability to continue to fund the team compromised, his hands were legally tied when it came to selling it.
In essence, 13 Indian banks had a claim on assets owned by Mallya, while there was also the matter of a loan from drinks company Diageo to the company through which Mallya owned his shareholding. Getting all these entities to agree on the way forward was never going to be the work of a moment.
It's understood that Stroll's original strategy was not to buy the team but to make a significant loan to Mallya, with the shares to be collateral over a three-year term. But it became apparent that the legal situation with regard to the banks was too complex for the plan to be implemented.
Meanwhile, the financial net was closing in on the team. A claim from HMRC, the UK tax authority, could have ended it all. That was successfully dealt with, but then there was a winding up petition from a composite supplier that could have sent the team into insolvency, with no chance of reviving it as a going concern. The assets would then be sold piecemeal - in other words via an auction where one buyer might get the cars, another the pit equipment, and so. The team could not be sold as a complete entity.
The alternative was administration - a process instigated as is now well known by a company connected to Sergio Perez, who was owed his salary. The process was perfectly timed to run into the summer break, allowing three weeks between races to get everything sorted out.
What has led to Mazepin's frustration is that he believes that he should have been given a second chance to outbid Stroll in a straight fight
Administration is a specific form of insolvency that creates an opportunity for the team to emerge intact and as a going concern. That's what administrator Geoff Rowley was trying to achieve, and he quickly identified Stroll and his consortium as his preferred option.
The most serious alternative bid was from Mazepin's Uralkali fertiliser concern, which had former McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh acting as a consultant. Like Stroll, Mazepin has a son who races - and indeed is a test driver for Force India. But the bigger picture was that the Russian had identified F1 as the perfect marketing tool for a company that sells worldwide, in much the same way as Gene Haas uses the championship to sell his machine tools. In other words, it was a pukka business opportunity.
In the meantime, Rowley and the various parties involved - including the team management, the FIA, Liberty, and main creditors such as Mercedes - were working to get it all done.
But in the end, the complications with the Indian banks proved impossible to overcome in terms of releasing the shares to Stroll. The two-week deadline set by Rowley ran out, Spa was fast approaching, and all concerned knew that missing a race completely - or turning up and being unable to run on-track due to a legal technicality - would be a disaster.
That's why there was a last-minute switch to an asset sale. Crucially, under administration it's possible for one buyer to acquire everything in one go, instead of it going to auction.
Stroll had set up a company called Racing Point UK and Racing Point UK Holdings on August 2 - a few days after the administration process started - and through them he now bought the cars and equipment and everything except the entry, which remained with the original company.
This change of plan from exiting administration to an asset sale direct to Stroll was seemingly made without the administrator inviting previously rejected bidders to try again under the changed circumstances.
Simply put, that's what has led to Mazepin's frustration. He believes that he should have been given a second chance to outbid Stroll in a straight fight. He is understood to have no issue with Stroll, the team management or any other parties, but only with the administrator.
Uralkali duly chose the Spa weekend to repeat its earlier suggestion that the administrator did not act properly in choosing a preferred buyer. It has given a deadline of September 10 for answers, while threatening that legal action against the administrator might follow.
The Indian banks may also have questions over whether the best possible price was generated by the asset sale - they only have a claim on what's left after the first £50million of what Stroll paid has been allocated to the creditors.
The flipside to the administrator's decision to stick with Stroll and not open an auction was that Spa was fast approaching, and any delay might have led to the team missing the race, which would have created further problems.
At the same time, the FIA found a way to negotiate the complex legal hurdles that opened the door for a late entry and allow the team to start afresh, with Racing Point added to the name in place of Sahara simply to enable the world to differentiate between the two entities.
It was not the work of the moment, as the situation was without precedent, and there was lots of legal housekeeping to do. Indeed, it was only on Saturday morning at Spa that the FIA was able to formally confirm, via a note from the stewards, the logical decision for the original team's engine and gearbox allocations to carry over to the new.
The FIA made it clear that the new team would only be accepted if all the debts of the old were cleared, if the jobs were safe, and if there was a sound business plan. Stroll, a familiar figure in the paddock for years, and well known to Jean Todt through past Ferrari connections, was able to tick all the boxes. The price was a hefty late entry fee, nominated by the FIA.
In theory, Stroll is not legally obliged to pay the debts of the old company - believed to be £50m - but he bought them from the administrator, and immediately began paying them off.
Gene Haas spent a huge amount of his own money, without which there would only be 18 cars on the grid, yet didn't receive any favours
Creditors typically wait months or years for a complicated legal process to unfold in a situation such as this, and then, for example, receive 10p in the pound or even less for what they are owed. At Force India, everyone either has been paid, or will soon be paid, in full. It was necessary to fast-track the process in order to reassure suppliers, and release parts that they had been hanging on to.
Stroll, in turn, will now wait to eventually be repaid by the administrator once the legal process has played out.
Unsurprisingly, some rival teams are questioning the fact that the new team has seemingly held onto the commercial rights of the original organisation - instead of starting with zero prize money - as would normally be the case with a new entry.
History shows that the entity that owns the entry was always regarded as sacrosanct. In legal terms, Mercedes is still the company that began life as the Tyrrell Racing Organisation back in 1964 - because for its debut in 1999 BAR had bought Tyrrell to give it a head start with those crucial commercial rights.
One complication is that the Concorde Agreement says an insolvent team - one that has been in administration - loses its rights unless all the other teams agree that it can keep them.
That's the deal that Liberty was trying to get signed in Hungary, as the administration process kicked off, and it was assumed that the original company would be rescued. But Renault, McLaren and Williams all chose not to sign immediately, with the first two in particular wanting clarity about a potentially closer relationship between Force India and Mercedes.
After it turned into an asset sale, it was a very different story - it was now a matter of a new company, and new entry attempting to retain the rights of the old one. The only concession was losing the 2018 points scored by the original team, which in reality will cost the new Force India perhaps two or three places in the constructors' table and impact its '19 earnings.
It's this development that other teams have questioned, even those - such as Haas - that had agreed to the initial arrangement. As with other new teams, Haas earned no money in its first year and earned some in its second based in the first season's results. Only this year, now it has twice finished on the top 10 in the championship, is it receiving its 'column 1' prize money payments.
The question these teams are asking is just 'How much leeway should the new Force India be allowed?'
Everyone understands the need to keep 20 cars on the grid, and save those 400-plus jobs. But consider that had Gene Haas not spent a huge amount of his own money over the past three years, there would only br 18 cars on the grid, with many fewer people employed in the championship. Yet he didn't receive any favours, so it's understandable that the American is not happy.
It's worth recalling too that before it bought Lotus in 2015, Renault had a close look at Force India. Even then the legal situation surrounding the main shareholders was so complicated that the French marque suggested an asset sale, and a fresh start - but it was told by the powers that be not to go there, because there would be no way that the commercial rights would be transferable. Instead it chose to buy Lotus, paid off all the debts, and Enstone became the works team once more.
History also provides examples of teams that might still exist in some form had they been given as much room to manoeuvre in the Bernie Ecclestone-led F1 era as Force India has under Liberty. In many ways, that's a positive development, if frustrating for those who went out of business back in the day.
There were contrasting views at Spa last weekend regarding the situation, and some teams have questions about what exactly has been agreed with Liberty. It's also worth noting that Stroll had to convince the FIA that he had a long-term business plan that didn't rely on those funds being guaranteed.
But new Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer was understandably bullish, and adamant that all the teams had agreed that the squad should retain its right to full prize money.
"In my mind it's settled," he said. "It was nice that all the teams agreed in Hungary that whatever the new incarnation was going to be would get to keep Force India's money that it earned. That's what the teams all agreed.
"It's all fair and just, the fact that we have different owners now is just the matter of a technicality - that the old owners couldn't continue, and we've got new shareholders now. But the team - the employees, drivers, trucks, sponsors and partners - are all the same. People are entitled to change their minds, but that's why we sign things..."
The salvation of Force India is an extraordinary tale, with a few twists and turns along the way.
The outcome is that a solidly performing upper midfield team has not only been saved but, under Lawrence Stroll's ownership, could well expand and thrive in a way that was not previously possible. All jobs are safe, as are the suppliers that service the team. The risk of Formula 1 losing two seats in an already exclusive field has passed.
In the end, it's been a rare triumph of common sense - with the FIA, Liberty and, for the most part, the other teams all working towards the sensible goal of keeping the two pink cars on the grid.
But there have been some hiccups in the process, and there remain a few loose ends. Some rivals still have doubts about financial arrangements and the political implications of potentially closer ties between Force India and Mercedes. And then there's Dmitry Mazepin - he lost out to Stroll in the chase for the team and isn't taking it lying down.
Changes of ownership are hardly rare in F1. It's easy to forget that Mercedes was once British American Racing, or that Red Bull Racing was born as Stewart. Nor is it unusual for a team to be mired in debt and up against the ropes, only to be saved and emerge stronger - in the past three years alone that has happened to both Lotus/Renault and Sauber.
The difference in the present case is just how close Force India came to imploding, and the fact that the team has emerged owned by a new company and hence is a new entry in the eyes of the FIA. And yet contrary to all precedent, it has seemingly retained most of the commercial benefits accrued by its predecessor.
The original team's problems were directly related to the legal issues surrounding owners Vijay Mallya and the Sahara Group. They owned 42.5% each, with the remainder belonging to Dutchman Michiel Mol. Not only was Mallya's ability to continue to fund the team compromised, his hands were legally tied when it came to selling it.
In essence, 13 Indian banks had a claim on assets owned by Mallya, while there was also the matter of a loan from drinks company Diageo to the company through which Mallya owned his shareholding. Getting all these entities to agree on the way forward was never going to be the work of a moment.
It's understood that Stroll's original strategy was not to buy the team but to make a significant loan to Mallya, with the shares to be collateral over a three-year term. But it became apparent that the legal situation with regard to the banks was too complex for the plan to be implemented.
Meanwhile, the financial net was closing in on the team. A claim from HMRC, the UK tax authority, could have ended it all. That was successfully dealt with, but then there was a winding up petition from a composite supplier that could have sent the team into insolvency, with no chance of reviving it as a going concern. The assets would then be sold piecemeal - in other words via an auction where one buyer might get the cars, another the pit equipment, and so. The team could not be sold as a complete entity.
The alternative was administration - a process instigated as is now well known by a company connected to Sergio Perez, who was owed his salary. The process was perfectly timed to run into the summer break, allowing three weeks between races to get everything sorted out.
What has led to Mazepin's frustration is that he believes that he should have been given a second chance to outbid Stroll in a straight fight
Administration is a specific form of insolvency that creates an opportunity for the team to emerge intact and as a going concern. That's what administrator Geoff Rowley was trying to achieve, and he quickly identified Stroll and his consortium as his preferred option.
The most serious alternative bid was from Mazepin's Uralkali fertiliser concern, which had former McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh acting as a consultant. Like Stroll, Mazepin has a son who races - and indeed is a test driver for Force India. But the bigger picture was that the Russian had identified F1 as the perfect marketing tool for a company that sells worldwide, in much the same way as Gene Haas uses the championship to sell his machine tools. In other words, it was a pukka business opportunity.
In the meantime, Rowley and the various parties involved - including the team management, the FIA, Liberty, and main creditors such as Mercedes - were working to get it all done.
But in the end, the complications with the Indian banks proved impossible to overcome in terms of releasing the shares to Stroll. The two-week deadline set by Rowley ran out, Spa was fast approaching, and all concerned knew that missing a race completely - or turning up and being unable to run on-track due to a legal technicality - would be a disaster.
That's why there was a last-minute switch to an asset sale. Crucially, under administration it's possible for one buyer to acquire everything in one go, instead of it going to auction.
Stroll had set up a company called Racing Point UK and Racing Point UK Holdings on August 2 - a few days after the administration process started - and through them he now bought the cars and equipment and everything except the entry, which remained with the original company.
This change of plan from exiting administration to an asset sale direct to Stroll was seemingly made without the administrator inviting previously rejected bidders to try again under the changed circumstances.
Simply put, that's what has led to Mazepin's frustration. He believes that he should have been given a second chance to outbid Stroll in a straight fight. He is understood to have no issue with Stroll, the team management or any other parties, but only with the administrator.
Uralkali duly chose the Spa weekend to repeat its earlier suggestion that the administrator did not act properly in choosing a preferred buyer. It has given a deadline of September 10 for answers, while threatening that legal action against the administrator might follow.
The Indian banks may also have questions over whether the best possible price was generated by the asset sale - they only have a claim on what's left after the first £50million of what Stroll paid has been allocated to the creditors.
The flipside to the administrator's decision to stick with Stroll and not open an auction was that Spa was fast approaching, and any delay might have led to the team missing the race, which would have created further problems.
At the same time, the FIA found a way to negotiate the complex legal hurdles that opened the door for a late entry and allow the team to start afresh, with Racing Point added to the name in place of Sahara simply to enable the world to differentiate between the two entities.
It was not the work of the moment, as the situation was without precedent, and there was lots of legal housekeeping to do. Indeed, it was only on Saturday morning at Spa that the FIA was able to formally confirm, via a note from the stewards, the logical decision for the original team's engine and gearbox allocations to carry over to the new.
The FIA made it clear that the new team would only be accepted if all the debts of the old were cleared, if the jobs were safe, and if there was a sound business plan. Stroll, a familiar figure in the paddock for years, and well known to Jean Todt through past Ferrari connections, was able to tick all the boxes. The price was a hefty late entry fee, nominated by the FIA.
In theory, Stroll is not legally obliged to pay the debts of the old company - believed to be £50m - but he bought them from the administrator, and immediately began paying them off.
Gene Haas spent a huge amount of his own money, without which there would only be 18 cars on the grid, yet didn't receive any favours
Creditors typically wait months or years for a complicated legal process to unfold in a situation such as this, and then, for example, receive 10p in the pound or even less for what they are owed. At Force India, everyone either has been paid, or will soon be paid, in full. It was necessary to fast-track the process in order to reassure suppliers, and release parts that they had been hanging on to.
Stroll, in turn, will now wait to eventually be repaid by the administrator once the legal process has played out.
Unsurprisingly, some rival teams are questioning the fact that the new team has seemingly held onto the commercial rights of the original organisation - instead of starting with zero prize money - as would normally be the case with a new entry.
History shows that the entity that owns the entry was always regarded as sacrosanct. In legal terms, Mercedes is still the company that began life as the Tyrrell Racing Organisation back in 1964 - because for its debut in 1999 BAR had bought Tyrrell to give it a head start with those crucial commercial rights.
One complication is that the Concorde Agreement says an insolvent team - one that has been in administration - loses its rights unless all the other teams agree that it can keep them.
That's the deal that Liberty was trying to get signed in Hungary, as the administration process kicked off, and it was assumed that the original company would be rescued. But Renault, McLaren and Williams all chose not to sign immediately, with the first two in particular wanting clarity about a potentially closer relationship between Force India and Mercedes.
After it turned into an asset sale, it was a very different story - it was now a matter of a new company, and new entry attempting to retain the rights of the old one. The only concession was losing the 2018 points scored by the original team, which in reality will cost the new Force India perhaps two or three places in the constructors' table and impact its '19 earnings.
It's this development that other teams have questioned, even those - such as Haas - that had agreed to the initial arrangement. As with other new teams, Haas earned no money in its first year and earned some in its second based in the first season's results. Only this year, now it has twice finished on the top 10 in the championship, is it receiving its 'column 1' prize money payments.
The question these teams are asking is just 'How much leeway should the new Force India be allowed?'
Everyone understands the need to keep 20 cars on the grid, and save those 400-plus jobs. But consider that had Gene Haas not spent a huge amount of his own money over the past three years, there would only br 18 cars on the grid, with many fewer people employed in the championship. Yet he didn't receive any favours, so it's understandable that the American is not happy.
It's worth recalling too that before it bought Lotus in 2015, Renault had a close look at Force India. Even then the legal situation surrounding the main shareholders was so complicated that the French marque suggested an asset sale, and a fresh start - but it was told by the powers that be not to go there, because there would be no way that the commercial rights would be transferable. Instead it chose to buy Lotus, paid off all the debts, and Enstone became the works team once more.
History also provides examples of teams that might still exist in some form had they been given as much room to manoeuvre in the Bernie Ecclestone-led F1 era as Force India has under Liberty. In many ways, that's a positive development, if frustrating for those who went out of business back in the day.
There were contrasting views at Spa last weekend regarding the situation, and some teams have questions about what exactly has been agreed with Liberty. It's also worth noting that Stroll had to convince the FIA that he had a long-term business plan that didn't rely on those funds being guaranteed.
But new Force India team principal Otmar Szafnauer was understandably bullish, and adamant that all the teams had agreed that the squad should retain its right to full prize money.
"In my mind it's settled," he said. "It was nice that all the teams agreed in Hungary that whatever the new incarnation was going to be would get to keep Force India's money that it earned. That's what the teams all agreed.
"It's all fair and just, the fact that we have different owners now is just the matter of a technicality - that the old owners couldn't continue, and we've got new shareholders now. But the team - the employees, drivers, trucks, sponsors and partners - are all the same. People are entitled to change their minds, but that's why we sign things..."
