Hi folks, just thought I'd share with you (although if this has already been posted, do take this thread down), a quote from Vicky Chandhok, president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India. He believes the first Indian Grand Prix in October could inspire the country's biggest names to join the sport. He said: "Cricket and Bollywood stars as well as some top industrialists have shown a keen interest to own teams." Could we potentially see India really take to F1, and bring a whole new level of sponsorship, and potentially new teams into the sport? Whether the current F1 grid has the capacity for any new teams is debatable, but if India's rich and famous start buying up backmarker teams, and getting them really competitive, we could see some of the closest grids for years. I know F1 is always trying to break new ground, and increase the fan base, and open new markets - thats why the current calendar includes so many developing markets, and whilst there has been some money coming in, no new country has really gone for F1 in a really big way, so do you all think India could? Could we be seeing Force India dominate, with an all Indian driver line up in 5 years time, will they be like Red Bull with a second team? What do you all think?
No, I think for the next 10 years, McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari ,Mercedes and Renault have the resources to lead the way. I would love to see Williams back up there, but at the moment they need to sort out there Aero Department after they have secured Renault engines for a while... I think it's good India is getting involved, but I would like to see F1 in Africa sooner rather than later.
I think India has a lot of potential - with the Indian Grand Prix, Force India and drivers like Karun Chandok, the awareness of F1 in India will be greatly increased and as a result, we have increased chances of finding hidden talents from the huge population, bringing more sponsors to the sport and eventually having another Indian F1 team (or a much better funded Force India). While many Bollywood stars might have an interest in owning an F1 team, I doubt any of them will go through with the idea. I'm sure that as long as Vijay Mallya remains committed to F1, Force India will continue to improve and it's only a matter of time before they start scoring the occasion podium like Kubica did last year. The prospect of an all-Indian driver line-up might be appealing to Mallya, but he knows a good driver is more important than one of specific nationality (which is why he'll never sign Karthikeyan and is reluctant to sign Chandhok). Force India launched their own driver academy for young Indian drivers back in April, so I think in a few years Mallya will have at least one Indian (that he perceives to be deserving of an F1 seat on merit) driving for his team. On the final point, I don't think Force India will dominate in a few years because their current level of financial income and their designers restrict them to the midfield; and I don't see that changing in the near future.
Indian presense in F1 is improving no doubt, but you are exaggerating the impact it will have (or Chandhok is). In the next 10years there will be more indian drivers because of the increased exosure but they will not become a dominant force. Certainly not with force india anyway who are as high now as they will probably ever get although they too could benifit from indian sponsers it will not make them catch the likes of Mercedes let alone Red Bull.
To what extent, if any, does India host national motorsport events? Do they have a similar thing to Touring Cars or any of the junior open wheel series? Can some please elucidate me?
India is one of a few major rising powers, its space program for example is pretty advanced and so it shows they both have the knowledge and can obtain the people to do cutting edge research. If they wanted to they could have a major stab at F1 and could easily be fighting for podiums in a handful of seasons. This is all ifs buts and coulds though, until they actually do it they can only hope.
There was an interview last year with Karun Chandhok, and he said that they only have a tiny number of karting tracks, let alone junior formulae. Remember, it's a cricket obsessed country.
They host a few small things, like the JK National Racing Championship (which according to Wikipedia is "the breeding ground for young racers in India"). In this Championship, they use saloon cars, superbikes and open wheel cars. India have also hosted the Asia Road Racing Championship, but this is their only international two-wheeler event. I'm not aware of any other international events but as you know F1 will be there soon and they might host a MotoGP race in 2012. There are signs that motorsport is growing in India but there are still a few problems that may persist, like a lack of marketing and event promotion, little interest from big Indian companies (potential sponsors) and very few circuits. In England you get some kids dreaming of being the next Jenson Button, but in India they dream of being the next Tendulkar.
