Etihad and Aldar had claimed a change of livery to the Force India car, and the addition of a kingfisher logo, when it was bought by Indian billionaire Dr Vijay Mallya in October 2007 constituted a breach of their sponsorship agreement, and pulled out. Etihad and Aldar had entered into a three-year $20 million title sponsorship deal with the team in April 2007.
The Force India team, represented by Mark Buckley, litigation partner at Fladgate LLP, had been known as ‘Spyker’ before the Indian consortium headed by Mallya bought it in October 2007.
