Mallya vs Chandhok

[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. 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.

[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.