Force India, the racing sports venture of Vijay Mallya, has launched ‘Force India F1 Team Academy’ to identify racing talent in the country along with providing vocational and academic training to young Indians for pursuing a professional career in motor sports.
This academy, which is a not-for-profit entity, will identify and nurture talent in the country and will also provide vocational and academic programmes in the field of motor sports.
“The idea behind setting up a training academy is to create a talent pool and groom those showing talent by providing them the necessary corporate funding,” Vijay Mallya, chairman and Team Principal of Force India Formula One Team said.
In the first year of its operations, the academy will discover talent who can participate in the Formula One race and all other courses will be rolled out in a phased manner over the next 12 months.
The academy will launch its first comprehensive initiative to identify and groom a future racing sportsperson from the country.
“This academy was conceived with a vision to inspire young Indians who have the talent but had no proper opportunity or serious platform to showcase these abilities. This initiative is a step forward to nurture those hidden talents,” Mallya added.
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The programme will start with identifying racing talent on a regional level of which 14 finalists will be selected. Subsequently, 100 finalists will compete with each other at the national level and three will be selected from them to pursue a career in motor sports.
“The academy will fully support the winner over the next three years and a career path will be drawn out, depending on the progress made in 2012,” he added. In this effort of Force India, ExxonMobil Lubricants will complement the academy.
“Our partnership with the Force India Formula One team academy reaffirms our commitment to supporting the sport of Formula 1 worldwide,” Raymond Wong, chief executive officer of ExxonMobil Lubricants Pvt Ltd, said.
However, Force India will not opt for any government funding for promoting racing sports in the country. “We have never asked for government funding to promote this sports in the country and will not do so in the future,” Mallya said.