The Silverstone based team is currently involved in a legal dispute with Italian wind tunnel company Aerolab, their former development partners in the series. The two parties have gone their separate ways last year. However, shortly after the split, Aerolab issued a legal case against Force India over unpaid services while still under contract.
The High Court recently issued a verdict in that case, ordering Vijay Mallya's team to pay more than EUR1 million to Aerolab in compensation. That money is yet to make it into the accounts of the Italian company, which made it issue a quite threatening statement earlier this week. It hinted that Force India's presence at Monza “could trigger further exchanges of action between the two parties,” unless the money will be paid.
On the other hand, Force India has launched a legal case of their own against Aerolab, accusing the Italian company of using one of the team's older models as a base for Lotus F1's 2010 challenger (Aerolab is currently partnering Lotus in the series). As revealed by Aerolab, Force India are on the verge of issuing a criminal complaint for Aerolab's Director, Mr Jean Claude Migeot, in Bologna.
According to a spokeswoman for Force India, the team is not worried about its assets being seized by the Italian police, as the Silverstone company is “in the process of complying with the court's instructions and actively progressing the IP litigation.”
“The court determined the two cases should be considered separately and ordered Force India to release the EUR 1,074,000 lodged with the court and also pay associated costs,” confirmed the spokeswoman to Reuters.
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