F1: Mazepin's company raises serious questions over Force India takeover

What's the story?

The story surrounding Force India has been one of the major talking points throughout this Formula One campaign but was thought to have been put to rest after Lance Stroll's father Lawrence Stroll purchased a major stake in the team through his own consortium.

But as it stands, the saga isn't quite done yet. Russian chemical firm Uralkali, which is closely associated with Dmitry Mazepin, father of GP3 driver and current Force India test driver Nikita Mazepin, has now claimed that the process behind Stroll's eventual takeover was flawed at the very least.

In case you didn't know...

Force India suffered heavy losses while still continuing to be an active part of F1, but the situation reached its boiling point this season and even caused a rift between the team and its driver Sergio Perez. The team was co-owned by Indian business tycoon Vijay Mallya who has had his assets frozen by the Indian government.

The heart of the matter

Uralkali reportedly came up with a team of experts and came to the conclusion that it "considers that the process conducted by the Administrator may not be in the best interests of Force India creditors and other stakeholders, and the sport in general".

They further went on to reveal that the process was far from transparent and a fair chance was not given to the firm to compete with other bidders. The fact that 13 Indian banks needed to give their consent because of Mallya's frozen assets has further raised suspicion that the timeline for submitting bids was not achievable.

This has, of course, been denied by administrators who say that a fair chance was given to all bidders involved in the bidding process.