[3] Force India scored points again in the following race when Adrian Sutil finished fourth, and set the team's first fastest lap, at the Italian Grand Prix.

By July 2018, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the team announced that they had been put into administration by the High Court in London.

Ex-Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella was chosen for the race seat, and Vitantonio Liuzzi secured the reserve role;[10] they were to drive an updated version of the Spyker F8-VIIB chassis with Ferrari engines, christened the Force India VJM01.

[12] With an increased budget and wind tunnels from defence company EADS,[13] the team set itself the target of beating Super Aguri, a squad which spent the previous seasons contesting at the back with Force India's predecessors.

After disappointing results in the opening races, Sutil gave the team the chance to score its first points in the wet Monaco Grand Prix, but towards the end of the race Kimi Räikkönen's Ferrari lost control and hit Sutil's car causing immediate retirement.

[15] Although a furious Gascoyne called for Räikkönen to be penalised,[16] overtakes under yellow flag conditions would have meant Sutil receiving a time penalty post-race, dropping him out of points.

[19][20] Despite halting work on the VJM01, Fisichella put his car to a season-best 12th on the grid at the Italian Grand Prix during an extremely wet qualifying session; he was however to crash out during the race.

[24] At the wet Chinese Grand Prix, Sutil almost secured Force India's first points, holding sixth place in front of Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock with six laps remaining when aquaplaning led to the Force India car skidding off the road and crashing out of the race.

[26] Force India gained their first pole position in Formula One at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, when Fisichella qualified fastest.

[28] On 3 September 2009, Force India announced that they were releasing Fisichella from his contract to allow him to race for Ferrari for the remainder of the season.

[41] A number of senior personnel left the team during the season, with technical director James Key being the highest-profile member, leaving to join Sauber in a similar role.

Chief designer Lewis Butler, senior aerodynamicist Marianne Hinson, and commercial director Ian Phillips also left the outfit.

[43] On 26 January 2011, the team announced that reserve driver Paul di Resta would be promoted to a race seat for the 2011 season, to partner Adrian Sutil.

The VJM04 is the first car created under new technical director Andrew Green and developed using the resources from partners McLaren Applied Technologies and Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines.

Di Resta was bound for points in Britain before a collision with Buemi, while Sutil finished sixth in Germany ahead of the Mercedes cars.

[49] For their 2012 line-up, the team retained Paul di Resta and replaced Adrian Sutil with their 2011 reserve driver, Nico Hülkenberg.

[52] The Force India crew tried to pull out of the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix due to a revolution against the regime and the death of a protester.

[54] In the last race of the season, the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, Hülkenberg qualified 7th but was promoted to 6th after Pastor Maldonado received a 10 place grid penalty.

The deal was officially confirmed two weeks later at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Pérez signing a two-year contract, until the end of the 2016 season.

The team later introduced a highly modified B-spec car at the 2015 British Grand Prix,[79] featuring two distinctive vents in the nose.

In September Sahara Force India lodged a formal complaint to the European Union against Formula One for breaching competition laws.

[85] This is a remarkable achievement considering the team's financial plight and their late preparations of the season by delaying the B spec version of their car.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, the two collided again whilst battling for position with Ocon damaging his front wing and Pérez getting a puncture.

The legal action was instigated by a group of creditors, including Sergio Pérez, as a means of allowing the team to continue to operate while a new owner was sought.

Pérez justified the action as a response to a winding-up petition filed by HMRC and supported by Formtech, a supplier, which would have resulted in an unmanaged insolvency of the company and almost certain collapse of the team.

[92] Approaching the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix, the situation regarding the team's ability to compete remained unsure, as in order to buy the shares in the team, the consortium needed agreement with the creditors of the parent company - including 13 banks which held a freezing order over the assets of the parent.

In December 2009, Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, and Force India Formula One Team announced an exclusive three-year multimillion-dollar partnership deal to offer a fully automated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solution to aid the design of the team's next generation race cars as well improve aerodynamic efficiency in the current racing models.

[99] Other sponsors include Kingfisher Airlines (former), Whyte and Mackay, United Breweries Group, Vladivar Vodka, AVG Technologies, Alpinestars, Reebok, Schroth Racing, Muc-Off, Hackett, Chatham-Marine, UPS Direct, STILL and STL.

[104] Force India have featured Hype Energy branding on the rear wing and side pods of the car for races where alcohol advertising is prohibited.

[106] On 14 March 2017, Force India announced a new sponsorship with BWT AG, which saw the VJM10 gain a striking pink livery, leading to the 'Pink Panther' nickname used for the cars by fans, commentators and the team themselves on social media.