Midland F1 Racing

Midland F1 Racing (also known as MF1 Racing, or simply as MF1, or Midland) was a Formula One constructor and racing team which competed in the 2006 Formula One World Championship with drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro. The team was created by the renaming of Jordan Grand Prix after its purchase by Canadian businessman, and owner of the Midland Group, Alex Shnaider. The team was licensed as the first Russian Formula One team, although it continued to be based in the United Kingdom, at Jordan's Silverstone factory. Towards the end of the 2006 season, the team was sold to Spyker Cars N.V.; the team raced in its last three Grands Prix under the official name Spyker MF1 Racing. In 2007, the team competed as Spyker F1, and in 2008 was sold to Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and was renamed to Force India.

The Midland Group's interest in Formula One involvement began in 2004 when they confirmed plans to create a team to race in the 2006 season. Although they were initially linked with creating a new unit or purchasing Jaguar, the group instead signed a deal to buy the Jordan team from Eddie Jordan prior to the 2005 season, for a sum of $60 million. As a result, the team would be a legal continuation of Jordan and not a new entity subject to Formula One's $48 million entry bond. It also allowed Midland to claim the television revenue generated by Jordan's subsequent ninth place in the constructors' championship.

The team retained Jordan's name for the 2005 season but struggled at the back of the grid with rookie drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro. The highlights of the season were Monteiro's third-place finish at the US Grand Prix (in which only six cars competed due to problems with Michelin tyres), Monteiro managed an excellent eighth place at Spa in wet conditions to give the Jordan name its last point and his lengthy streak of consecutive finishes, which underlined the car's reliability.

Some media reports at this time began to speculate that Midland were unhappy with their purchase and looking to offload Jordan even before the team entered under its own name in 2006. Team principal Trevor Carlin quit the team after seven races, and chief engineer and designer Mark Smith before the end of the season. There were consistent reports that the team was linked with a buy-out by former Formula One driver Eddie Irvine.

The name of the team was changed to MF1 Racing for the 2006 Formula One season. In the UK a joke emerged regarding this short form being written in the same way as economy furniture manufacturer MFI. Over the winter Russian driver Roman Rusinov tested a new car, the Midland M16 with a new livery (red, white and black to reflect Midland Group's corporate colours) and Toyota leased customer engines. MotoGP motorcyclist Max Biaggi also had a test in the car at Silverstone in January. Italian racing car constructor Dallara had originally been contracted to develop the M16, however the agreement was discontinued during the design process after a disappointing contribution from the Italian manufacturer. The senior management subsequently placed its faith in the incumbent design team, promoting former head of vehicle science James Key to the role of technical director towards the end of the 2005 season.

Shnaider had been insistent that Midland intended to field Formula One's first Russian driver - although Russian drivers had tested in the past, mainly for the Minardi team, none had ever raced in a Grand Prix - but instead signed Dutchman Christijan Albers from Minardi, and retained Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro. The team had previously failed in a bid to sign Takuma Sato.

During the team's very short time in F1, they used three drivers on the Fridays of Grands Prix:

During the last three races, as Spyker MF1 Racing, the team used the following test drivers: