Force India unhappy with driver names on cars

Force India has bemoaned the cost of a new rule designed to help fans identify their favourite drivers.

At the recent Strategy Group meeting, it was decided that from Barcelona next month, the drivers’ names and race numbers must be much bigger on the cars.

The FIA has now explained that the driver’s name - or three-letter abbreviation - must be at least 15cm high, with the number measuring 23cm.

But Force India is not happy that the governing body has demanded the drivers’ names be put on the car on prominent places that could otherwise be sold to sponsors.

"Where we have to put the names, we could have sold those spaces to sponsors," team manager Andy Stevenson confirmed to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Regarding one potential location - the sidepod - he explained: "The name there with the prescribed size would be worth $6 million."

So Force India is proposing that teams be allowed to put the name closer to the floor of the car, because "This space is never sold".