Unofficial Indian Grand Prix Site

“The Fastest Indian in The World” Narain Karthikeyan opened a new chapter in his distinguished International Motorsports career last weekend, by finishing 6^th in his first Le Mans Series race for the Kolles Audi Team, driving the Audi R10 TDi LMP1 Sportscar. The 5.5 liter V12, turbo-diesel powered car is one of the most successful sportscars in the history of the championship, winning the Le Mans 24-hour classic for the past three years.

Narain added another couple of ‘firsts’ to the innumerable ‘firsts’ in his career CV, becoming the first Indian driver to enter the Le Mans Series, and the first to score championship points, that too in his debut race.

The 1,000 km Endurance race held at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Belgium was the venue of the second round of the 2009 Le Mans Series (LMS), where Narain started his summer season of racing in 2009. With its mixture of long straights, fast corners and varying gradients, the circuit ranks as one of the most technically challenging circuits in the world, and is a firm favourite with teams and drivers alike. Narain has good memories of this track, as it was the venue of a great battle between himself & Jacques Villeneuve during his 2005 Formula 1 campaign.

Due to the 1,000 km long endurance nature of the races (a Formula 1 race is only 305 km long), Narain shared driving duties with two other drivers, Briton Andrew Meyrick & Dutchman Charles Zwolsman. Narain undertook the driving duties during qualifying on Saturday and qualified the car 9^th on the grid, ahead of the teams’ second car driven by Christian Albers.

As per championship regulations, the qualifying driver can either start the race, or finish the race, and Narain chose the latter, thus doing the 3^rd & final stint during Sunday’s race. He took over the car at 5:15 pm local time, approximately 4 hours 25 minutes after the race had started, and drove the last 1 hour 25 minutes of the race. He crossed the finish line in 6^th position, 2 laps ahead of the teams sister car which finished in 7^th position.

The global financial crisis which has left realty majors like DLF, Emaar and Eros gasping for breath and money will not threaten the construction of the 2011 formula one Indian Grand Prix. The MD of the company made the following statement to a press agency :

“The progress is very nice…I’m absolutely, absolutely confident that the track  will be completed”

Samir Gaur, managing director of India’s JPSK Sports Pvt Ltd was quoted as saying.

“The track will be ready in 2011.”

The JPSK group is a subsidary of Jaiprakash Associates who own a large number of Industries and Educational Institutes in India. The track will be built at Greater Noida which is a satellite town on the outskirts of Delhi. Its connected to Delhi via an expressway.

Finally some good news for Indian fans of formula one. The force India formula one team after giving one dismal performance after another despite spending so much money has come out with an aerodynamic improvement which they hope will give them much better performance.

Vijay Mallya was quoted as saying :

We are planning to introduce a significant aerodynamic upgrade for the Bahrain Grand Prix, including a new floor and an interim diffuser. Amongst other items, we also plan to use new auxiliary wings on the front wing and reprofiled sidepods to incorporate the amended rear end. We have been planning this upgrade since the debut of the VJM02 as part of our scheduled aerodynamic cycle and it will represent a good step forward for the team. Although we nevertheless expect other teams to have moved forward as well, we hope this will keep us racing with the rest of the field.

Adrian Sutil (car 20, VJM02/03):
FP1: 15th 1:37.241  (18 laps)
FP2: 16th 1:36.875  (36 laps)

Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21, VJM02/01):
FP1: 12th    1:37.025  (20 laps)
FP2: 19th 1:37.432  (27 laps)

3 April 2009 - The Force India Formula One Team today completed the opening day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit some 60km from the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. Under increasingly cloudy skies, Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil recorded times just over a second from the fastest lap of the day, with Giancarlo 12th and 19th in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively, and Adrian 15th and 16th. 

The team completed short runs on the harder tyre in the morning, but concentrated the majority of its programme on the afternoon session, with its high ambient temperatures and later time slot being more representative of the expected conditions for Sunday’s race, which will start at 17:00hrs this year. Both drivers compared the soft and hard tyre compounds available this weekend over both long and short runs, fine-tuned the set-up and reacclimatised to the tough physical pressures associated with the heat and humidity of this event.

The only blip in the programme was an accident for Giancarlo in the second practice. The Italian put a wheel on the grass at turn 11 20 minutes from the end of the session and went into the gravel trap and into the barriers. His VJM02 sustained suspension damage in the impact but will be repaired overnight in time for tomorrow’s final practice session and qualifying.

Adrian Sutil (car 20)

‘It was a good day today overall. We got through all our work and had no problems with the car. We have some work to do with the set up, it’s still a bit understeery in the high speed corners and we can still make some improvements in this respect. The soft tyres seem to work quite well, but the hard tyre at the moment is really hard and never seems to come in. Overall it was a pretty productive day to set us up well for the weekend.’

Giancarlo Fisichella (car 21)

‘We are still finding the best compromise under braking as there is front locking and poor grip and traction so we have to work a lot to make the balance work for us. Over the longer runs it doesn’t look too bad however. It’s a shame about the accident in the afternoon - I just went a little bit wide as there was some graining on the tyres and I lost control of the car. It was just unlucky to go onto the gravel and into the barriers.’

Racing isnt just formula one you know, The A1GP or the worldcup of motorsport is also a world famous racing series with Team India as one of the participants. The cars in A1GP are all the same, so its up to the drivers and the team to tweak the cars and get the best performance. The drivers are forced to push the cars to their limit without actually incurring the wrath of their respective insurance companies for totaling their cars.

The formula one Indian Grand Prix may very well have a rival in the A1GP’s Indian Grand Prix, there were rumours of a track being selected near Rajasthan. Anyway some A1GP Team India statistics with a pretty photo of Team India wonderboy Narain Karthikeyan and his tricolour helmet :

A1 Team India Statistics

A1GP standings
2005/06 24th
2006/07 16th
2007/08 10th
2008/09 15th

Drivers Caps
Karun Chandhok - 3
Armaan Ebrahim  - 22
Narain Karthikeyan - 36
Parthiva Sureshwaren - 4

A1GP statistics
Races started 65
Wins 2
Points 82
Pole positions 1
Podium places 2
Top 10s 22
Raced laps 1537
Raced km 6259
Races led 4
Led laps 36
Led km 142

The A1GP team India has had limited success in the various seasons but with 2 wins and 82 points in total its definitely a team to watch out for in the A1GP format of racing.

Martin Whitmarsh (GBR) McLaren Chief Executive Officer and Dr. Vijay Mallya (IND) Force India F1 Team Owner announce a technical partnership to supply Force India F1 with Mercedes-Benz engines and EADS.

Force India is all set to reveal their 2009 challenger the Vijay Mallya (VJM) 02 on Sunday 1st of March 2009. Its definitely one of the last teams to do so, doing it before only the Italy based Scuderia Torro Rosso team. The new car is powered by a Mercedes engine. Our readers will remember our news item about Force India switching partners from Ferrari to Mercedes for the supply of engines. The new car will be tested from Sunday on the Jerez de la Frontera formula one testing track.

Force India will be able to do 6 days of testing. Team owner Vijay Mallya seemed confident about his F1 outfit’s chances. He was quoted as saying :

“We will have six-day test, which I think is enough”Dr Vijay Mallya had said

“I think we would be ready for the first race & I’m confident we can be in the midfield.”

It is also believed that the VJM02 will be featuring the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) developed by the McLaren team. Both Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella will be there and will get a taste of the new car as its tested on a large number of parameters by the Silverstone based outfit.

It may be remembered that the team no longer has Mike Gascoyne and Collin Kollees and Vijay Mallya is now the top supremo calling the shots.

Lets hope the VJM02 gets the Force India team a few points in the 2009 formula one season.

Well good news and bad news.

The good news is that it really doesn’t look like Force India F1 team is in a financial crunch, i mean signing new brand ambassadors (Deepika Padhukone) , inviting actresses to launch parties etc.

The bad news is that the Indian F1 fan is again ignored. Instead of sponsoring an Indian fan to a F1 race, it seems that Force India F1 only cares about glamour. They have launched a show called Speed Divas with MTV which will hunt for 4 girls who will accompany the Force India F1 team globally.

The winner also gets to act in a motion picture (woohoo ?)

Honda Formula One Team was recently forced to close its F1 division due to a financial crunch

Formula One and the world is facing the toughest ever phase in its glorious history. This recession has had many a victim including top auto firms who have resorted to asking their respective governments for bailout packages. Honda was forced to shut down its formula one division, a decision which they painfully had to take on an earlier occasion too when the going had gotten tough.

Bernie Ecclestone has made it clear that formula one teams who are expecting to be paid more should lower their expectations and would infact be paid comparatively lesser.

Taking a potshot at the corporate culture in the formula one team, Bernie Ecclestone said that earlier on negotiations used to be easy and crisp and you only had to talk to the man with the money and hence the control. But these days teams come with lawyers and ‘masseurs’ and cant seem to agree on anything.

This year F1 teams are also vying for the share of the pie that Honda F1 has left in F1. Most F1 teams are going through a rough patch primarily due to the shortage of sponsors. As big corporate houses face a credit and liquidity crunch, their expenditure on advertising also decreases. And the first to go is usually the outrageous expenses on formula one teams.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has reiterated his commitment to India for holding the 2011  formula one Indian Grand Prix. He was asked in an interview if the 2011 Indian Grand Prix was still going ahead.

Responding to the question coolly, Bernie said that ofcourse the plan was on and that is the reason why an agreement had been inked with the organisers of the Indian Grand Prix. The question was asked amid conflicting reports on the current status of the Indian Grand Prix.

The formula one Indian Grand Prix was first scheduled to be held in 2010. It was then postponed to 2011 . Bernie attributed the delay to prior contracts but the popular press opinion had been that it was due to the laziness of the Indian Grand Prix organisers.

Further justifying the formula one Indian Grand Prix , Bernie Ecclestone had the following to say :

“It’s a large, large country with a big population and it’s good for the sponsors, good for the car manufacturers and its good for everyone involved in Formula One to be in their country,” 

“I doubt in India anything will be a rival to cricket, but let’s see.”

Bernie Ecclestone said.

India just got another place to be noticed on the formula one track. After Narain Karthikeyan’s run in Jordan, Tata promoting Williams F1, Mallya buying Force India formula one team, Tata TCS will be now seen on the Ferrari formula one team’s chasis.

”For the first time an Indian brand will appear on the Ferrari,” president Luca di Montezemolo said

Another Ferrari representative was quoted as saying that the deal was historic. This is a great shot in the arm for Formula One which was in dire straits after the announcement by Honda Formula One team. Most people were anticipating sponsor pullouts and further team pullouts. So an announcement by TCS that it shall sponsor the Ferrari formula one team comes as a breath of fresh air and would also bring global recognition to the Indian software major.

The TCS logo will share space with other brands such as Alice, Shell, AMD, Magnetti and Acer. TCS has been providing software solutions to Ferrari from 2007.

“Building on our existing long-term relationship of over three years, Tata Consultancy Services has entered into an historic agreement with Ferrari for an enhanced technology and marketing partnership,”

“As part of the deal, the Tata logo will be displayed on Ferrari FI car for the 2009 Formula One season,” TCS said in a statement.

It may also be of interest to some of the readers, that Tata Motors and FIAT market cars jointly and FIAT gets its cars serviced via Tata Motors.

Later statement by Ferrari formula one team :

Maranello, 19th December 2008 - Ferrari is pleased to announce the extension of its collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services.
TCS, a world leader in the field of Information Technology consultancy, has been a partner of the Maranello Company since 2004, in the capacity of Official Supplier.
This new agreement means that the TATA logo will be present on the Ferrari Formula 1 cars for the next three years.