Mike Gascoyne has handed over day-to-day control of the Caterham team’s technical operations.
The former Lotus outfit announced that Briton Gascoyne – a founding member of the Tony Fernandes-led team and a long-term prominent figure in the paddock – has become chief technical officer of the whole Caterham Group.

That group now involves a GP2 team as well as the niche Caterham road car company, which was acquired by Malaysian millionaire Fernandes last year to solve the Lotus naming dispute.

The news means Mark Smith will “lead the F1 team’s technical division day to day and will increase his presence at races”, a media statement read.

Caterham said Gascoyne, formerly with Renault and Toyota, “will continue to attend races”, “adding his wealth of experience and knowledge to the team when it is required.”

Gascoyne clarified on Twitter that he will be at “most” grands prix.

“Mark Smith is exactly the right person to step up to the broader role he will now be taking on in the F1 team,” the statement quoted him as saying.

Mark Smith has finally made his switch to Team Lotus.

The move was announced a full year ago, but Force India enforced the “notice period” in his contract that is only now expiring.

Team Lotus announced on Monday that Smith has finally started work as technical director at Hingham and will develop the T128 under Mike Gascoyne “and begin work on the 2012 car”.

“The foundations are there for long-term success and I am looking forward to helping the team achieve its goals for many seasons to come,” said Smith.

McLaren or Force India have been earmarked as possible new employers for Bob Bell.

The 52-year-old Ulsterman has left Renault after a long post as technical boss, and having acted as team principal amid the crashgate scandal.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, some insiders think he might soon reappear in Force India colours.

The Silverstone based team has been struggling recently, with some experts pointing as an explanation to the departures of James Key to Sauber and Mark Smith to Lotus.

The report also said a return to McLaren is possible, where Bell worked for 15 years as an aerodynamicist before moving to Enstone based Benetton/Renault.

“He’s certainly a very capable guy,” said Williams chairman Adam Parr at Suzuka.  “I hope he will get a job very soon.”

Force India is already missing the input of its departed technical director James Key.

The team is locked in a close battle with Williams for sixth and seventh places in the constructors’ championships, which some analysts believe is worth $5 million.

Force India has had some difficult races recently, including in Singapore, where Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi qualified on the 8th and 9th rows of the grid.

The Silverstone based team and Williams then had a bitter post-race argument in the stewards’ office, with Sutil initially penalised for cutting a corner and then Force India lodging a protest about Nico Hulkenberg doing the same.

Sutil confided to Auto Motor und Sport that the loss of Briton Key to Sauber has not been without consequence.

“I actually thought there would be no problem,” said the German, who is thought to be close to deciding whether or not to stay at Force India beyond 2010.

“I have confidence in the people who have taken over,” Sutil continued.  “His successor Mark Smith is doing a good job, but I’m sorry to say that we have lost ground.

“It’s no longer easy for us to get into the top ten in qualifying.

“You only see how good a person really is when he is no longer there,” said the 27-year-old driver.

Jun.16 (GMM)  The promise of more money motivated a swathe of key people to defect to Lotus.

That is the claim of Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer of the Force India team.

Shortly after Force India promoted Mark Smith to replace the Sauber-bound technical director James Key, Lotus announced that Smith will move to the new Malaysian-backed team next year.

Force India’s Lewis Butler (chief designer) and Marianne Hinson (head of aerodynamics) are also defecting to Lotus.

“Lotus has double the salary,” Szafnauer is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“So you either have to pay more or look for an alternative.”

Third in line after Key and Smith for Force India’s top technical job is reportedly Andy Green.

Jun.8 (GMM)  Force India will not lose its newly-appointed technical director to bitter rivals Lotus until after the start of next season.

It was announced last week that Mark Smith, who only replaced the Sauber-bound James Key in February, will join Lotus along with two of his colleagues “at the end of his Force India notice period”.

But Silverstone based Force India’s boss and co-owner Vijay Mallya on Tuesday said the technical team “is still very much intact”.

“Mark will stay with us until April 2011 and we will, in due course, announce a structure that will take us to the next level of performance,” said the Indian billionaire.

“I’m very comfortable with where we are as a team and where we are going.”

Mallya also played down the impact of Force India’s legal action against Lotus, Mike Gascoyne and the Italian wind tunnel Aerolab.

“The structure and any off track events are for me to worry about, so the team can get on with doing what they do best at the track,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, Mallya announced that Vitantonio Liuzzi will switch to a different VJM03 chassis at this weekend’s Canadian grand prix.

“Tonio will also revert back to the chassis used for the first four races as we continue to look into why he’s got the lack of grip,” he said.

Force India’s newly-appointed technical director is switching teams to Lotus, it was announced on Wednesday.

Lotus, F1′s new Malaysian-backed team, said in a statement that Mark Smith will become technical director “at the end of his Force India notice period”.

The news is an embarrassment to Silverstone based Force India, who promoted Smith to the role of technical director in late February as the Sauber-bound James Key’s replacement.

The teams are set to battle one another in the courts, with Force India accusing Mike Gascoyne and Lotus of basing the T127 on a model left behind in an Italian wind tunnel.

Smith has previously worked with Renault and Red Bull.

He joins Force India colleagues Lewis Butler (chief designer) and Marianne Hinson (head of aerodynamics) in also defecting to Lotus.

Lotus’ technical boss Gascoyne has previously worked with Smith at Jordan, Renault and Force India.

“Lewis and I were together at Force India, and Lewis also worked with Mark Smith at Red Bull, and Marianne and I have known each other since 1999 when I gave her her first job in F1 at Jordan, so we all know each other very well,” said Gascoyne.

(GMM)

Held at the state of the art Shanghai International Circuit on the outskirts of China’s largest city, the Force India Formula One Team will be heading to this event with high hopes of keeping its recent run of form going after scoring points in the first three races of the year. Adrian Sutil picked up his first points-finish of the year in Malaysia with a fighting fifth place, taking the team’s season total so far to 18 points.The Chinese Grand Prix will be the fourth round of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and the final event in the quartet of flyaway races that opened the season.

Team Q&A
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal
Dr Mallya, the team is currently sixth in the constructors’ championship and has 18 points from three races. You must be pleased with this progress so far?
At the start of the season I said we wanted to be regular points finishers and here we are, three races in, with three points’ finishes. It’s very pleasing when you see just how far we’ve come in one year: after three races in 2009 we had nul points and were tenth. The difference, I believe, has been keeping the focus on what we want to do. We’ve kept our heads down, got on with the job and to a certain extent kept out of what the other teams are doing – we’ve focussed on our own game. It’s a real credit to Mark Smith and his team that we’ve got the points we have. The team at Brackley and Silverstone are tight-knit, efficient and the results are now coming through.

You’ve made a lot about wanting fifth in the championship. Three races in, do you still think this is possible?
The grid is very tight as we saw in Malaysia and Australia and there’s no clear delineation between the front and the midfield. The most important at this stage is that we are still up there fighting. Renault look very strong right now but there’s still a lot more races to go this year and we have a clear direction about where we are going that will keep us with them, or hopefully leapfrog them. The drivers are confident and the team is working well so I think fifth is still realistic.

Driver Q&A
Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03)
Adrian, you scored your first points of the season in Malaysia. What were your feelings after this race?
It felt really good to finally get them. It was an exciting race as well in the end, racing against Lewis. Fighting against each other is always a pleasure, as we did it a lot in F3 and sometimes in F1. We have a lot of respect for each other; I am happy for him when he wins and he is happy for me when I do well. I was happy, relieved, proud – all of the above really – when we got to the finish. I knew we had the car to do it so it was only a matter of time before we scored some points. I’m now full of motivation for the rest of the season.

What do you think about the next race in China?
The next race in China will be a bit different but there are some similarities to Malaysia as well. The circuit layout is different, of course, but you need a good top speed, which we have, and you need a little bit of downforce for the mid sector, for the slow corners so I think it should suit our car really well. I don’t think we should be concerned about our performance at the moment, we are strong and we can fight in the top 10, and that’s very encouraging at this point of the year.

What is possible in Shanghai?
I’m confident, definitely. It was encouraging in Malaysia, and also the last races in Bahrain and Australia. I think we can show a very similar performance in China. Temperatures will be a bit cooler, but there is a long straight and you need to be very fast on that, and that’s what our car can do. It has also the downforce required for the slow speed corners. My feeling is that we can perform well again in Shanghai.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01)
What are your thoughts on the next race in China?
We are pushing to try to bring some more steps forward for the car. I have been in the simulator and we are pushing to bring updates to China as we want to be ready to score points again and not let our momentum slip. For sure it’s one of the circuits that I like, and I’ve always had good results there. In fact my best result in F1 was at that circuit – in 2007 Sebastian Vettel and myself finished fourth and sixth for Toro Rosso. We go to China pretty positive about our potential. It was good to finally get into Q3 in Malaysia and from there we have to hope for a good race. In Malaysia we were quite comfortable in the car and I have to hope that the luck stays with me this time and we can get some more points.

Do you enjoy driving at the track?
It’s pretty similar to Malaysia. There are a lot of high speed corners, and it’s quite technical, especially Turns One and Six and Seven. It’s got a flow as a circuit and there are some technical corners, and it’s always a crazy race because there can be some different weather conditions. So overall I’m looking forward to it! More points are the aim and we can do it, for sure.

Paul di Resta, test and reserve driver
Paul, you’ve driven two practice sessions now. What are your key learnings from this?
It went relatively well in Malaysia. It was always going to be a difficult task as I hadn’t had any running in the simulator beforehand so it completely new to me and very different conditions. With the high temperatures and the different behaviour of the tyres it was an uphill curve but I felt I moved forward, I improved and I got some good experience. I didn’t find it physically tough but the heat and humidity was something else. In DTM you get very hot inside the car but this wasn’t something I’d ever experienced. It’s all part of that learning curve and I felt I acclimatised to it well.

You’ve also had the chance to sit in different cars, with you driving Adrian’s in Australia and Tonio’s in Malaysia. Is this a particular challenge for you?
Each crew has their ways of doing things as there are different engineers and mechanics but the cars are very similar. I am now getting a feel for how Tonio or Adrian want their base set-ups, but in terms of the programme it is entirely the same as the race drivers. At the moment I’m still conscious it isn’t my car so I have to be careful to build up gradually, be controlled and constructive and get the data for weekend

Have you driven on the Shanghai International Circuit before?
No it will be new again to me and I won’t have any simulator running beforehand so it will be starting from the bottom, learning the new track. At least I have now got some experience on this type of wide, Tilke track so it should just be a case of making steady progress again.

The formerly high-profile Williams, McLaren and Honda technical boss, who left Red Bull in the middle of last year, said in Malaysia that he was “disappointed” with the Dallara car and unsure whether significant progress could be made. It was reported from Sepang last weekend that the 50-year-old Briton, who began working with the new Spanish team as a consultant during its pre-season struggle for survival, was considering whether to now leave the outfit.

It was said he will make a decision about his future around the time of next weekend’s Chinese grand prix.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat, as well as Italy’s Autosprint, report that Willis’ departure is likely.

It is said that Briton Willis could switch to Force India, in the wake of technical director James Key’s move to Sauber.

Key was replaced in February by Mark Smith.
(YF1)

The Malayan ‘scuderia’, Force India has announced that the presentation of its new single-seater for the 2010 Formula One World Championship will take place next Tuesday through the Internet.  A day before the second period of collective testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.

The new single-seater called ‘VJM03′ will be launched at 10.00 AM.  It seems that this year’s trend is to make presentations online; Virgin Racing will also launch its single-seater through Internet.

The car for the 2010 season has been created by a team led by the technical director, James Key and the design director, Mark Smith, and it will be the first one that is presented with Otmar Szafnauer as new operations chief.

Yesterday, Force India introduced its new test pilot, the DTM star, Paul di Resta, also assuming the position of reserve pilot for the 2010 season.