Word from motorsport circles suggests that Vijay Mallya may well look beyond an Indian driver and that Narain may not have a place in team Force India.
Speculation abounds that he is not being considered for drive
MUMBAI: Word from motorsport circles suggests that Vijay Mallya may well look beyond an Indian driver for his Force India F1 team.
While it was earlier reported that Mallya wanted an Indian in the driver’s seat, the grapevine is abuzz that the only Indian to have F1 experience is set to miss out on an invite from the team which is slated to bear his country’s name.
Narain Karthikeyan may well be out in the cold as far as Mallya’s hunt for an F1 driver is concerned.
F1 teams will be testing three days ending November 15. Those close to Karthikeyan reveal that he has not been approached yet by Force India.
Reports have surfaced concerning Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher though without official confirmation.
Talk also centres on the premise that since Mallya has 50% stake in the team, driver choice may well not be his sole prerogative.
Then, while Karthikeyan has his supporters and those who avow faith in his driving ability, there are others who focus on his inability to make much of even his second-rate car with Jordan in 2005.
Lack of results in A1 — though largely on account of the fact that his team is still figuring out its act — has also not helped his cause.
Mallya has been consistently making statements that performance alone will be the criteria and that he is looking to build a professional team. He has not once named Karthikeyan as being in contention.
He has also been quoted as saying that an Indian team will attract more attention than an Indian driver.
Mallya perhaps needs to reconsider that. For an Indian corporate in F1 makes one-off news for the pink pages; but to consistently feature in the sports-devoted segments of the media, Mallya’s team may well be better off with an Indian driver.
For an F1 illiterate country like India to expect a fan following purely for a team is a long-term prospect.
It will take some time for the team to start doing well and it will then take longer for a team following to build.
Blanket coverage had followed Karthikeyan’s foray into F1. It will be interesting to see if Mallya manages anything similar.
In the end for Mallya it will be a commercial decision to make. Jingoism will not figure.
The crucial ask would be how the Indian corporate world looks at the team sans an Indian driver.
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