Mallya vs Chandhok

[DexDexter]

I enjoy how Mallya implies his team is as Indian as Ferrari is Italian. Hilarious. Also Chandhok hasn't achieved anything in F1, lets not kid ourselves and try to justify his future presence by his feeder category performances. Once in F1, they mean nothing. See Kobayashi. Or at the opposite end of the spectrum at the moment, Ricciardo.

We have to look at the past when a guy is driving for HRT or Virgin for that matter since their cars are so slow and unreliable that one cannot make any judgement about the abilities of the drivers driving for them.

[CaptainRaiden]

^^This.

I enjoy how Mallya implies his team is as Indian as Ferrari is Italian. Hilarious. Also Chandhok hasn't achieved anything in F1, lets not kid ourselves and try to justify his future presence by his feeder category performances. Once in F1, they mean nothing. See Kobayashi. Or at the opposite end of the spectrum at the moment, Ricciardo.

Which driver has really achieved anything or shown anything brilliant driving an HRT, Virgin or Lotus on a 24-car grid in the last two years? As for Chandhok's 2010 performance, it wasn't anything great, but he did outqualify and finish ahead of Bruno Senna a couple of times. Add to that, he comes from a country where there is next to nothing to gain experience from and feed drivers to European or American formulas. As for Kobayashi, he didn't have to drive for any of the backmarkers, did he? He went straight to Toyota because of him being Japanese, and then was picked up by Sauber because he impressed, both midfield teams.

People have loads of excuses for Schumacher's last two dismal years, but the backmarkers get no love.

[Koz]

And so I shall point you to my earlier post in this thread, which you probably missed.

I posted a reply to that? Or at least I think I did.

Regardless, I will again when I have some spare time.

[F16]

I think Vijay who bought this team from Spyker, survive in their forth season and seem to stay in the seasons onwards, drives the business in the sport well. Performance of the team from points collected in the seasons during which they started racing also improved. The current drivers, Sutil, di Resta, and Hulkenberg in reserve seat they look strong.

Vijay would have used any Indian drivers only if he rates them can meet the standard to drive VJM's cars and bring any good to the team. Karun and Narain are great, we may find them better if only they have chances to drive the better cars in better teams, but whether or not they can perform any good than their current drivers is another question, imo.

[ShiftingGears]

We have to look at the past when a guy is driving for HRT or Virgin for that matter since their cars are so slow and unreliable that one cannot make any judgement about the abilities of the drivers driving for them.

Klien managed to get straight in the car and beat Senna right off the bat, and he hadn't been driving in F1 since 2006. There was nothing to pick between Senna and Chandhok either, it's got nothing to do with being backmarkers.

[Garry Walker]

Perhaps, but I think Chandok is angry because its commonly known throughout the paddock that Mallya wouldn't hire an Indian driver even if they were better than Senna, Schumacher and Vettel combined.

Is it? I didnt know it. How can you prove it, besides saying "it is commonly known".

Actually it's somewhat of a miracle that KC and NK made it to F1. I am an Indian, and was in the national racing scene for a couple of years. IMPOSSIBLE to get to even Formula BMW without huge financial backing. Besides all that we have in India for young talent was the Indian national karting championship, in which I took part, which is now discontinued. It had four stroke Honda karts, which you couldn't set up to your liking. The entry fee was nominal, but that meant that the kart you'd get for the race was a lottery. That was the only legit low cost championship, which MIGHT have fetched real talent, but it got scrapped when the motorsports association of India was merged into another association backed by Mallya and Karun's father, the president of Federation of Motorsport Clubs of India, Vicky Chandhok.

Then there's the Rotax Max Karting Championship, where I did around 5-10 races, paying around $300+ per race. After that there are the single seater championships like Formula Rolon, Formula Swift, Formula Maruti etc. I did probably a total of 2 races in Formula Rolon, paying $1000 each. I paid as long as I could for my passion, but sadly if you wanna go further than that, you gotta be a millionaire or have a millionaire dad. Enter, dads of Karthikeyan and Chandhok, both freakin wealthy, Narain's father an industrialist, and Chandhok's father being an important figure in Indian motorsports.

Even if you are good at what you do, you still need a truckload of money to make it anywhere in motorsport in India, because generally Indian sponsors aren't interested in motorsports. Everyone's focus is only cricket. The problem with Chandhok and Narain, and almost all Indian drivers was not only lack of motorsports in India, but also very less experience in European formulaes, which is crucial in getting experience, understanding aerodynamics, car setups etc. Up until Formula Rolon, we only had wingless single seater cars, after which if the drivers graduated to let's say Formula BMW, they would have NO idea about aerodynamics whatsoever. It's only and ONLY money that got Force India and two Indian drivers to F1, because experience wise we just can't compete with European or American drivers. Hard to find a combination of raw talent and being filthy rich.

It is the same everywhere, getting somewhere in motorsport is very expensive.

Mallya's treatment of Emirates, and the comments made specifically about his character and lack of trustworthiness by the judge has also put off a lot of potential sponsors I think. Also he's shown that he is willing to disregard contracts, terminating Liuzzi's contract after one year despite having signed him for two.

The real mistake he did was signing that fool Liuzzi, terminating his contract was the best thing he could do.

[CaptainRaiden]

It is the same everywhere, getting somewhere in motorsport is very expensive.

More so in India, a country where motorsport is not so popular. Sponsors don't want anything to do with racing. Completely different story in Europe. Wasn't Hakkinen the son of a radio operator and part time taxi driver? Schumacher the son of a bricklayer. Hamilton's father took up three jobs to support his son's career. Someone like that from India would NEVER in a 100 years get to F1, ever, even if they were more talented than the aforementioned three drivers combined, because no sponsor is interested, and so no scout will ever get to see that talent. We are only getting our own F1 track NOW. Malaysia has had one since 1999. There are no more karting championships governed by a sporting body, where one can participate for a nominal fee, which means you either have to buy your own kart or rent it at a mind-boggling price AND pay the huge participation fee, and that means that only the rich play. And Narain and Karun's fathers are filthy rich. The single seater series are even more expensive. The drivers who have won in these series in the last decade have gotten nowhere. Only the ones who are rich enough can travel to Malaysia and participate in things like Formula Asia, GP2 Asia series etc. It's nothing but a playground for the filthy rich kids of willing filthy rich fathers.

Different story in Europe, USA and Canada, where there are many more opportunities, willing sponsors, manufacturers, and it's much more affordable, streamlined and better structured, and that means more often than not, at least in karting, even kids from poor to middle-class families get a fair chance, get picked up by scouts, and can make deals with sponsors from their country. You only have to look at the number of entry level single seater championships run in Europe, easily around 20. How many in India? ONE. A little research would do you good.