The arrival of the newest and tallest motor homes in the Formula One paddock is an overt statement of intent by the sport’s youngest team, Force India.

As the series arrives in Asia for the Turkish Grand Prix outside Istanbul on Sunday, Force India provides a glimpse into the sport’s future. It is a case study in how to save and revitalize a team, especially in light of last week’s collapse of the financially struggling Super Aguri team from Japan.

Force India’s hospitality suite is airy, easy to move around in and full of smiling team members and visitors.

“I am very proud of my new motor home, but this motor home with a slow car means nothing,” said Vijay Mallya, the Indian billionaire who owns the racing team, as well as Kingfisher Airlines, Kingfisher beer and other companies. “The car is performing, the motor home is adding to it all, and I think that the message is that on the track and off the track, we are serious in this business.”

The team, then known as Jordan, was third in the series in 1999. It was the last true independent team to win a race the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2003 before it fell on hard times. It was renamed twice more after being sold. Then Mallya bought the team from the Dutch car company Spyker last fall.

“Cricket, which is a religion in India, is for everyone,” Mallya said. “It’s for your staff, for your chauffeur, for your boss, for your maid, for everyone. But there is this breed of youngsters in India who are proud of their success we call them upwardly mobile and aspirational Indians they are earning well, they want to show their wealth, they want to show that they are different.”

The way they do that, he said, is by dressing differently, eating differently and having different sporting interests.

“And that is where we felt, and research showed, that F1 could be absolutely the ideal platform,” he added.

But for the plan to succeed, Mallya said, the team must succeed.

“Vijay has really taken the trouble to understand the finer points of the business and listen to people who could advise him against his quickest return,” Ian Phillips, the team’s director of business affairs, said. “We were four and a half seconds off the pace and dying on our feet. After six months, we’ve lifted ourselves off the bottom and we are clinging on to a very competitive group.”

The team finished 10th in the last race, and 12th in the previous two.

“If you want to beat the big boys, and do it consistently, you’ve got to match them everywhere, and that’s budgets,” Mike Gascoyne, the chief technical officer, said. “But you have to be realistic. If someone like Vijay comes in and if they just throw money at it, they wouldn’t get results, anyway. You’ve got to build.”

Mallya convinced the team that he was serious when he hired the experienced Giancarlo Fisichella to drive and help improve the car. .

But Mallya would someday like to have an Indian driver.

“In four years, five years, I say to myself, Amongst 1.2 billion people there’s got to be a Lewis Hamilton somewhere,” he said. “It’s a question of finding him and training him, giving him the opportunity. We will do that.”

Formula One will hold an Indian Grand Prix in 2010, and Mallya said he wanted the team to be competitive by then.

“India and Indians five years ago thought that this is something that we will never see, never reach, never touch,” Mallya said. “Now the announcement there is an Indian team on the grid in the Formula One championship itself has not only evoked excitement and viewership, but pride. So all of that’s working.”

Gascoyne added: “Last year, we were the only team running without a seamless-shift gearbox because we just didn’t have the finance to develop it. We have been able to start all of these programs and finance them and do them properly, we’re doing a lot more testing.”

For Mallya, the investment is also a question of perfect business timing. With the loss of Super Aguri, the value of the existing teams has increased. And as a marketing tool for his other businesses, there is little better.

In the book “India’s Global Wealth Club,” the author Geoff Hiscock calls Mallya “a walking, talking, marketing marvel” for whom “a Kingfisher beer India’s favorite brew is never far from his hand.”

Mallya bought the Deccan airline last year and merged it with Kingfisher to become one of India’s top two airlines. In August, the airline plans to introduce international flights, with service to the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“The fact that we have put a large Kingfisher presence on the car is a huge visibility factor in preparation for our international launch,” Mallya said.

He attends all of the races.

“The leader of the team has to be leading the team,” Mallya said. “The fact that I’m here in the same uniform as the guys, walking around in the garage and being wherever else I need to be, it inspires confidence. It shows I’m committed. If I am demanding commitment from others, I need to show I’m committed myself.”

That sounds like the philosophy of Ron Dennis, the leader of the successful McLaren Mercedes team, whose motor home sits next door and is ever so slightly shorter than that of Force India.