Force India Formula 1 "has nearly completed the task of paying off the creditors of the original team after a highly unusual move" by new Owner Lawrence Stroll, according to Adam Cooper of MOTORSPORT. Stroll and his associates paid £90M ($119M) for the assets of the old team before "creating a new company and lodging a new entry" with FIA under the Racing Point name. As the original company is under administration, usually that £90M "would be locked into a legal process that could take months or even years" before the funds are divided and used to pay the creditors, led by Mercedes and driver Sergio Pérez. However, Stroll "took the unusual step of taking over those debts himself and ensuring that the creditors were paid immediately," rather than having to wait for the "legal process to unfold." When that process "is finally completed, Stroll will get his money back." Force India Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said, "It's important to note that the current shareholders have taken all the risk for the creditors. And have put it in extra money such that the creditors can be paid off immediately, and not at some future date, post-administration. That can take one or two years sometimes. Lawrence wanted to do what's right by the suppliers that have supported us, and a lot of them are industry suppliers who don't just supply us, but other teams in the paddock." Szafnauer suggested that the process of paying the creditors "could be completed this week, just two months after the sale to Stroll" (MOTORSPORT, 10/16).
