Although the meeting was ultimately cancelled, it was expected that one of the touted 'popularity working group' protagonists would be Vijay Mallya. The Indian, reportedly now a former billionaire, has had a troubled time recently as his airline Kingfisher stalled, forcing him to dip into his main source of wealth, his United Spirits drinks empire. Although he apparently put up his hand to sit on F1's new 'popularity' panel, ultimately it was his Force India deputy Bob Fernley who was drafted in for the (cancelled) meeting on Thursday. That is because Mallya was in his native India, respecting a summons to personally appear in court for a criminal case about Kingfisher's non-payment of...
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