The next Big Entry

Team HRT announces Karun Chandhok as its second driver after Bruno Senna. This makes the official association for India with Formula 1 for the fourth time. First it was Narain Karthikeyan driving a Jordan in 2005 and then a test driver for Williams for 2 years. Then it was the entry of the Business Icon Vijay Mallya taking charge of Team Force India. 2011 was announced as a official inauguration of the India GP and the construction is on. And now for the second time an Indian behind the wheel.

Considered as a motor sports of the highest order with superlative technical innovations, F1 is a sport that all racers would dream of. But unfortunately in India, I think its still not the time for F1. When the Indian GP was planned, it was commented as " A GP in India would be like a Cricket match in Italy". The awareness and the passion towards this sport is very less. This will result in companies to bet on neither the Indian GP nor the Indian racers. A similar situation forced Narain Karthikeyan to go behind the screen. Though heavily backed by TATA, Narain failed to prove his point. 

Mallya proved this wrong by making his mark in 2009. Force India took pole position and points in the second of the season creating a strong brand for itself back home. After the recent preparations and test runs,  the team is confident of challenging the front runners after being followers for quite sometime. 

Now, Karun should learn from the earlier happenings and ensure that brand F1 as well as brand Karun Chandhok live upto the expectations of the few F1 fans in India.