Mallya vs Chandhok

[CaptainRaiden]

This is what's going on between the two of them in the last week. First Mallya said this (http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/264214/mallya-hits-back-at-indian-driver-criticism/):


Mallya hits back at Indian driver criticism
13 July 2011

Vijay Mallya has slammed suggestions that he does not want to place an Indian driver in a Force India car. The Team Principal and CEO insists that the country’s currently available drivers would not suit the team and that he continues to search in the ongoing 'One From A Billion' driver scouting programme.

“To be criticised, largely by the Indian folks, that I don't have an Indian driver is I think just blatantly unfair,” Mallya told Reuters. “My only response to them would be that I know more about Formula 1 than they do.”

Mallya has already said that Scotland's Paul di Resta is likely to be retained for 2012.

At present, India’s Karun Chandhok is reserve driver for Team Lotus, with Narain Karthikeyan having lost his Hispania race seat to Daniel Ricciardo from Silverstone onwards.

“As far as the existing Indian drivers in Formula 1 are concerned, I can only feel very sorry for them,” adds Mallya. “They are getting drives by the teams who clearly can't compete; if that's what they want to do - drive a Formula 1 car for the sake of driving a Formula 1 car and winding up at the back - I can't do anything about it. There has got to be good, raw talent in India and I am determined to go find it.

“If Ferrari is on the podium, the whole of Italy applauds. If Ferrari wins a race, the whole of Italy celebrates. Nobody ever asks the question of where is the Italian driver? Why suddenly in India? Be thankful for the fact you have an Indian team, sporting the Indian colours on the grid to begin with. The Indian driver will follow but let's not put the cart before the horse.”

Karun Chandhok responded to that by saying this (http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/264273/chandhok-responds-to-mallya-s-comments/):


Chandhok responds to Mallya's comments

Chandhok, who made his race debut with Hispania last year but is now reserve driver for Team Lotus, responded by hitting out at Mallya’s ‘One From A Billion’ driver scouting programme in India.

“I think it's a bit sad that in one breath the chairman of our Indian ASN (National Sporting Authority) is talking about how much he has done for Indian drivers and then in the next breath he is criticising India's only two Formula 1 drivers,” Chandhok told Reuters.

“If you are going to criticise people, at least do it with some facts. Having never tested either Narain or myself in one of his cars, he doesn't have the facts. I understand the need to find the next Indian star, and I use the word ‘next’ not ‘first’, and the need to create more Indian F1 drivers.

“But you are not going to find the next Indian star by running events in single-engined four-stroke rental karts on 400-metre tracks made out of concrete.”

I have to agree with Chandhok here. Mallya is not going to pick up a good karter and then fund his career just like Ron Dennis did with Lewis, let's be honest. He's currently more interested in getting sponsorship and funding for his team, and Di Resta and Sutil are pretty much pay drivers. While neither Karun or Narain has displayed anything special to be considered for a drive, he could have at least given both of them a test.

Having said that, I agree with Mallya's analogy about Ferrari, and about Force India not needing an Indian driver right now. It might happen in the future, but no need to rush in on it. All this nationality crap comes in between a team performing. A team should get the best driving talent possible, not just the national talent, and Mercedes should listen in on this, because I think they can do better than Rosberg and definitely much better than MS right now.

Thoughts?

[gshevlin]

Vijay Mallya has one significant outside sponsor on his team's cars - Medion, which came to the team with Adrian Sutil. All of the other brands on the cars are "in house" sponsorships, via companies owned by Mallya. I see no visible evidence that Mallya has had any success raising significant money from other Indian sources.
The fact that neither Karun Chandok or Nairan Karthikeyan has ever looked likely to drive for Force India is telling. Given the financial track record of Force India (poor record of paying suppliers, not paying up the legal judgement for Guido Van Der Gaard etc.) I am of the opinion that Mallya is somewhat difficult to do business with, hence the lack of new sponsors, especially from India.
There are no short-cuts to success in F1, India needs a proper motor racing collection of feeder series if it is to create an Indian F1 star.

[Koz]

What has Chandhok done to deserve a drive?
He was crap in GP2, beaten by team mates every season, by big margins - twice his teammates score more than double his points.

Hell, PdR has accomplished far more in his career than KC and NK every will.

Funny how some under performing pay-driver thinks he has any rights to tell a team boss about his hiring policies. But then again, when you don't have enough talent for anyone to actually hire you, what else can you do?

He should never have been in F1, and I for one hope I don't see him in an F1 car again.

Edit: In India there is a word they have "Sifarish", it means getting some important official to "endorse" you through bribes (and/or intimidation) to get you the job. That's what KC is playing at, so someone (Bernie, perhaps an indian political) steps in and "suggests" him racing for the team.

[Roamy]

What has Chandhok done to deserve a drive?
He was crap in GP2, beaten by team mates every season, by big margins - twice his teammates score more than double his points.

Hell, PdR has accomplished far more in his career than KC and NK every will.

Funny how some under performing pay-driver thinks he has any rights to tell a team boss about his hiring policies. But then again, when you don't have enough talent for anyone to actually hire you, what else can you do?

He should never have been in F1, and I for one hope I don't see him in an F1 car again.

Edit: In India there is a word they have "Sifarish", it means getting some important official to "endorse" you through bribes (and/or intimidation) to get you the job. That's what KC is playing at, so someone (Bernie, perhaps an indian political) steps in and "suggests" him racing for the team.

I suppose he could get a job as a Oracle DBA

[Koz]

I'm not sure he will do all that well with database optimization... :rotflmao:

[Garry Walker]

Chandok and Narain are both losers in f1 terms and Mallya should not waste his time and money with either of those.

[steveaki13]

Chandok and Narain are both losers in f1 terms and Mallya should not waste his time and money with either of those.

May not be F1 standard but for the Indian GP, they could make a team millions.

[Garry Walker]

May not be F1 standard but for the Indian GP, they could make a team millions.

You mean for Force India?

[Malbec]

Chandok and Narain are both losers in f1 terms and Mallya should not waste his time and money with either of those.

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. To pretend that he isn't interested in Indian drivers yet because they aren't good enough is a bit rich.

He doesn't want an Indian driver taking away his glory, he wants to be the first Indian to win a race and he knows that if he has an Indian driver do that for him then noone will remember him.

The guy has an ego bigger than his own yacht. Shame he's misrun his team which is about to go down the pan, hope he manages his other businesses better.

[Koz]

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. To pretend that he isn't interested in Indian drivers yet because they aren't good enough is a bit rich.

He doesn't want an Indian driver taking away his glory, he wants to be the first Indian to win a race and he knows that if he has an Indian driver do that for him then noone will remember him.

The guy has an ego bigger than his own yacht. Shame he's misrun his team which is about to go down the pan, hope he manages his other businesses better.

What you say is true, but it's irrelevant because since is no half-decent Indian driver.
If there were it would be a different story, KC is talentless and NK (slightly less talentless) is owned by Tata and it'd be a cold day in hell before Tata approve NK to go to FI.

[F16]

May not be F1 standard but for the Indian GP, they could make a team millions.

I heard of Mallya and Shilpa Shetty are good friend, she may better to play in more films in par with Akki.. :)

Both Karun and Narain need to stay for some longer period to be top drivers, but if they had chances to drive better team or car than they have driven at we may see them with some progress.

[tfp]

This shouldnt be about nationalities. I say, when india produces a driver thats faster than di resta and sutil, then get rid of one of them in favour for the indian driver. Until then, they'd do well to keep the current line up.

[CaptainRaiden]

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. :eek: 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. :D

[DexDexter]

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. To pretend that he isn't interested in Indian drivers yet because they aren't good enough is a bit rich.

He doesn't want an Indian driver taking away his glory, he wants to be the first Indian to win a race and he knows that if he has an Indian driver do that for him then noone will remember him.

The guy has an ego bigger than his own yacht. Shame he's misrun his team which is about to go down the pan, hope he manages his other businesses better.

I don't know, if Mallya had a good Indian driver, they could both make a whole lot of money. There simply isn't a good Indian driver at the moment, so why hire a poor/average one?

[Jake Stephens]

Mallya and Chandhok are both are the same, both full of it. Only difference is one is rich and successful in their career, the other, isn't.

[woody2goody]

Karun is a smart guy and a good driver, so he should probably ignore Mallya and get on with his own career, which could be at Lotus if Trulli doesn't get his act together like he managed to do last season.

Narain was unlucky, he was brought in to Hispania in a poor situation, and he got their best finish this year I believe at Canada, beating Lotus AND Virgin.

By all means search for Indian talent, but don't run down the guys who've paved the way.

[CaptainRaiden]

Mallya and Chandhok are both are the same, both full of it. Only difference is one is rich and successful in their career, the other, isn't.

Why is Chandhok full of it? From the few times I've heard him commentating during an F1 race, he seems like an intelligent and a very knowledgeable, all around nice guy. Never came off as an A-hole. So, do you know something extra that we don't? Also, his father is the president of the motorsports federation in India, so he's quite rich himself. Successful? Nope.

[Koz]

Karun is a smart guy and a good driver, so he should probably ignore Mallya and get on with his own career, which could be at Lotus if Trulli doesn't get his act together like he managed to do last season.

What exactly has he done to show he is a good driver?

He has done absolutely nothing, to deserve to be in F1.
Please show me otherwise, I am dying to know why you think he is any good.

[Malbec]

I don't know, if Mallya had a good Indian driver, they could both make a whole lot of money.

The Indian driver wouldn't have to be that great for money to be made.

How about Mallya being genuine about making his team an Indian Force? Chandok came with JayPee funding, NK with Tata money. How about pitching to Indian industry and creating a team that is overtly Indian full of brands that want to pitch their products overseas. There are plenty of Indian high tech IT and financial firms, aren't these the industries that F1 is supposed to appeal to most? Wipro, ICICI, Bharat oil, these are three big companies that I can think of off the top of my head.

A team named after India, owned and run by an Indian with an Indian driver backed by Indian industry with the first Indian GP later this year. Spot the obvious marketing synergy?

With such strong funding FI would have done better than by hiring two strong drivers as it has now but with only one genuine sponsor.

But no, Mallya hasn't courted Indian companies and Indian companies have preferred to do business with other teams.

Its not about the money or skill...

[CaptainRaiden]

What exactly has he done to show he is a good driver?

He has done absolutely nothing, to deserve to be in F1.
Please show me otherwise, I am dying to know why you think he is any good.

Erm, he has won 2 GP2 races. That's more than what Kobayashi achieved in GP2, and equal to Buemi. Also he won the Formula V6 from Renault series. Daniel Ricciardo didn't even get to GP2, and apart from the British F3, hasn't won anything else of notice. Yet, he's in F1 because of some hot laps in the best car on the grid, and a huge media hype from the Australian media. Vitantonio Liuzzi has shown absolutely zilch in his time in Formula 1, yet he somehow keeps finding drives. Also, you do realize that Chandhok drove the HRT, the absolute crappiest F1 car in a long time. Do you want him to get a top 10 finish in that?

As for Narain, he has won 2 A1GP races for team India. While the careers of Liuzzi, Buemi and Sutil have been winless in A1GP, yet they are in F1. Agreed that all this is not such a big deal, but drivers who have achieved much lesser in their careers have ridden into F1 on pure sponsorship money, so what's wrong with these two then? It's not like ALL 22 drivers are the next Sennas. Narain and Karun have always only driven for the bottom-of-the-grid teams in really crap cars, and in today's F1, car performance equates to success, as simple as that.

[CaptainRaiden]

But no, Mallya hasn't courted Indian companies and Indian companies have preferred to do business with other teams.

True. His ego is actually getting in the way of the team doing well and attracting more sponsors. If you look at the Force India 2011 car, it's pretty much a billboard for his Kingfisher brand, both the airline and the beer company, and another beer and a whiskey brand now owned by his brewery. Any other sponsor names are in miniscule lettering. While when you look at the first Force India car when he took over Spyker, there were many more Indian sponsors, including ICICI Bank and Reliance. Probably most of the sponsors moved on after Mallya didn't follow up with his promise of having an Indian driver in his team.

While he has made sound business decisions in partnering with Mclaren for their technology, his obvious lack of marketing knowledge will ultimately hurt the team and he will most probably give up very soon.

[CaptainRaiden]

What exactly has he done to show he is a good driver?

He has done absolutely nothing, to deserve to be in F1.
Please show me otherwise, I am dying to know why you think he is any good.

Also, he finished ahead of his teammate Bruno Senna and the two Lotus' multiple times in 2010. Is that good enough to MAYBE deserve at least a test, or does he have to get to the podium in an HRT to be considered good?

[Malbec]

Probably most of the sponsors moved on after Mallya didn't follow up with his promise of having an Indian driver in his team.

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.


While he has made sound business decisions in partnering with Mclaren for their technology, his obvious lack of marketing knowledge will ultimately hurt the team and he will most probably give up very soon.

I found it interesting to see that McLaren has just signed a deal with Virgin that sounds very similar to the deal they've already signed with FI. While McLaren might be able to supply components and windtunnel time to two teams at once I do wonder if FI is on its way out of the McLaren deal too.

[CaptainRaiden]

I found it interesting to see that McLaren has just signed a deal with Virgin that sounds very similar to the deal they've already signed with FI. While McLaren might be able to supply components and windtunnel time to two teams at once I do wonder if FI is on its way out of the McLaren deal too.

Wouldn't surprise me. He ran out of patience fairly quickly with the Ferrari engine. Also, while his decisions have made what was a backmarker team, into pretty much a midfield team these days, for the last two years their growth has been pretty stagnant and they haven't made any major aerodynamic gains. It almost seems like they're happy being a midfield team, while Mallya's financial resources coupled with some major Indian sponsors could accelerate the development growth and help the team immensely. But that all depends on how serious he really is about this. For now, it only seems like the car serves as a billboard for his main business, and to stroke his ego in front of the whole world.

[DexDexter]

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.


As you know...that's very common in F1, most team owners/managers have done it and it doesn't really reflect the trustworthiness of a team at all. To me it's good that Mallya spends money (even if he doesn't appear to want to pay the bills unless forced to) and keeps Force India on the grid. There are so few teams in F1 that the seats should not be handed out to people based on their nationality. Chandhok isn't better than Sutil or Di Resta, nothing suggests that.

[Malbec]

As you know...that's very common in F1, most team owners/managers have done it and it doesn't really reflect the trustworthiness of a team at all.

Taken in isolation you're absolutely right. However you have to look at it in the context of other deals he's made.

How about agreeing with Emirates not to advertise any other airlines on his car before using FI to promote his own Kingfisher airlines, the move that cost him the Emirates deal? The judge saw fit to make comments about Mallya being untrustworthy in his summary of the case.

How about not paying for using Aerolab's facilities in Italy, then when they launched a court case to recover unpaid fees countersuing them by accusing them of passing information to Lotus?

What about his reputation with Indian companies? Why is it that they avoid dealing with the only team with an Indian face on it?

And finally why is he haemorrhaging staff that were prepared to stick with Jordan/Midland/Spyker through thick and thin? He's not even losing them to top teams like Ferrari or McLaren, they're moving sideways to Sauber and downwards to Lotus. Doesn't that tell you what kind of guy he is to deal with? Williams and Sauber conversely despite similar performance to FI manage to hold onto their staff, look at the difference in loyalty levels.

For sure I felt great that he took over a team that was being threatened with bankrupcy, his first actions with the team were beneficial but he isn't taking the team anywhere and his behaviour is getting to the point where it harms the team.

[Koz]

Also, he finished ahead of his teammate Bruno Senna and the two Lotus' multiple times in 2010. Is that good enough to MAYBE deserve at least a test, or does he have to get to the podium in an HRT to be considered good?

First you must consider that HRT is/was an incomplete POS of a car, so no assessment for any of its drivers is fair. That being said, there is something about statics...
Many times while Senna and KC raced, Senna retired first giving KC a higher finishing position.

If you look at this chart (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/statistics/bruno-senna-vs-team-mate-2010/) you will see there isn't that big a difference between them unless something erratic happens.


Also please do tell me when exactly has KC actually finished ahead of Lotus when they didn't have technical issues and were still classified??

Another point to look at his how often Senna out qualified him.

My arguments is KC has done nothing even remotely mentionable in his pre-F1 career that would warrant him a driver.

Tell me, has he done even remotely well in GP2??

[Koz]

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.


If that's the worst he's done than he's a saint compared to some of the team bosses we've had in F1...

[CaptainRaiden]

My arguments is KC has done nothing even remotely mentionable in his pre-F1 career that would warrant him a driver.

Tell me, has he done even remotely well in GP2??

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


Erm, he has won 2 GP2 races. That's more than what Kobayashi achieved in GP2, and equal to Buemi. Also he won the Formula V6 from Renault series. Daniel Ricciardo didn't even get to GP2, and apart from the British F3, hasn't won anything else of notice. Yet, he's in F1 because of some hot laps in the best car on the grid, and a huge media hype from the Australian media. Vitantonio Liuzzi has shown absolutely zilch in his time in Formula 1, yet he somehow keeps finding drives. Also, you do realize that Chandhok drove the HRT, the absolute crappiest F1 car in a long time. Do you want him to get a top 10 finish in that?

As for Narain, he has won 2 A1GP races for team India. While the careers of Liuzzi, Buemi and Sutil have been winless in A1GP, yet they are in F1. Agreed that all this is not such a big deal, but drivers who have achieved much lesser in their careers have ridden into F1 on pure sponsorship money, so what's wrong with these two then? It's not like ALL 22 drivers are the next Sennas. Narain and Karun have always only driven for the bottom-of-the-grid teams in really crap cars, and in today's F1, car performance equates to success, as simple as that.

[ShiftingGears]

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.

[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. :eek: 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. :D

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.