Chandhok fears 2013 Indian GP could be the last

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Indian motorsport boss Vicky Chandhok is concerned India’s F1 race won’t come back after its year off in 2014.

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Indian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday could be last, warns Vicky Chandhok (The Guardian)

“If we lose it, I would be very disappointed, because it took us ten years to get the race in the first place. It was in 1999 that Bernie Ecclestone first had talks with organisers and sponsors in India.”

UP government withdraws entertainment tax exemption to F1 (The Times of India)

“Four days before the third edition of India’s F1 race gets rolling at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC), the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday sought the Supreme Court’s permission to withdraw its 2011 decision to grant entertainment tax exemption to Indian Grand Prix organizer Jaypee Sports International.”

Di Resta faces uncertain Formula One future (Reuters)

“It’s tough because of circumstances that don’t help drivers that don’t have big funding. The team know knows what I can do. They gave me the tool to achieve what I can.”

McLaren: Hard work ahead with Honda (F1)

Jonathan Neale: “We’d be happy if [Peter Prodromou] was starting first thing tomorrow morning, but we do fully respect Red Bull’s position as we do when we’re recruiting anybody from another organisation.”

Looking beyond the F1 paddock (Carlin)

“There are a handful of drivers in each junior category, racing for various teams that are capable right now of racing in Formula One. That’s not to belittle what it takes to drive in Formula One. That’s highlighting how good these junior drivers are.”

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Comment of the day

WillP argues F1’s process of picking tracks for races is back-to-front.

The whole process is backwards.

If a country wants to run an F1 race these days, it needs to build a circuit. The circuit is given some land and it is created within the boundaries of the rules. That’s what we now end up with. Sometimes it is successful, sometimes not so.

In earlier years, a country would apply for an F1 race because it had a track – often a great track. But even if it wasn’t that great, it would often come about through a love of motor sport, an evolution of tarmac through the local terrain.

This is probably overly romantic but there is a point in there somewhere. You can’t force a natural track rhythm and atmosphere.
WillP

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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54 comments on “Chandhok fears 2013 Indian GP could be the last”

  1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    23rd October 2013, 0:05

    How long will DiResta keep claiming he has a har time? Deal with it!

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      23rd October 2013, 0:07

      har hard… and BTW, it’s also the press who keeps on this “rowing for our helpless child DiResta”

      1. I think he needs to understand it is quality of time, not quantity of time that moves you up in F1.

        The way he spoke about missing out on McLaren last year its almost as if he assumed that this would just be a natural progression…..and what do they say about assumptions?

    2. i think he is preparing a PR strategy for the moment Force India fired him, more based on results than on his size or money from sporsonship.

  2. What a shame. I always enjoyed hearing how wonderful it was by the Beeb and Sky before sleeping through the race.

    1. To be fair the circuit has a decent layout. I think to some extent the India GP is one of the victims of Red Bull and Vettel domination. The races have been snooze fests because of it.

      Then again, I guess there wasn’t even much mid field action either.

      1. In terms of racing, it’s a bit like a worse version of Korea: one really long straight and then two sectors where you just have to follow.

        Actually, I quite like the track, simply because it’s a bit shorter than the standard 5.5km.

      2. I believe it’s more of a victim of DRS. The circuit was most likely designed without the consideration of what DRS could do and then we all watch DRS pass after DRS pass on the long straight, like in Korea. Only a few well thought out KERS assisted passes have come about at other sections.
        Also, there probably is plenty of elevation but the camera angles used hardly give that impression. Surely some more variety of cameras can be used to make some better TV viewing? But then this is an issue at other circuits too.
        However, I don’t think new tracks should be completely dismissed for F1. You only have to look at CotA and see what a wonderful new track that is, so it’s certainly possible to get it right.

        1. @chalky

          I agree the debut in Texas was excellent. But will it be repeated?

          The quality of a race is almost as much based on the situation for the drivers that day as it is the layout. For instance, after years of sleepy Sundays in Valencia and Abu Dahbi… along came two stunning races in 2012. Both had been flammed for being terrible circuits prior to that year, but if they had been debut events in 2012 and showed races like we had last year nobody would have criticised them.

          Conversely, Spa, Montreal and Silverstone are ofen regarded as some of the best tracks on the clendar. All of them have had their share of dull races.

  3. Jack (@jackisthestig)
    23rd October 2013, 0:21

    Wasn’t Paul’s route into F1 built on ‘big funding’ from Mercedes?

    1. I don’t know how far back the connection between Mercedes and Paul goes, but it certainly has been since his DTM days when he competed with a Mercedes car, even winning the championship in 2010, the year before getting signed up by Force India.

      1. …….because of Mercedes affiliation and backing. Whos the poor sucker he replaced – Tonio Liuzzi

        1. Mercedes gave di Resta backing BECAUSE of his talent. Which is a totally different thing to someone getting in to F1 purely due to their nationality or wealthy background.

          Also are you saying that di Resta didn’t deserve that seat over Liuzzi? In 2009 Liuzzi — 5 years in to his F1 career — was nowhere near Sutil’s pace; in 2010 di Resta — coming straight from touring cars — equalled and often outpaced Sutil. I think di Resta was/is incomparably more talented than Liuzzi.

  4. I think it will be a shame if the Indian Gp doesn’t return in the future, I don’t really get why this circuit is hated so much as its a nice circuit thats popular with the drivers & has produced fairly entertaining races the past 2 years.

    I also cannot understand why people say its produced boring races, Yes Vettel’s pretty much dominated both (Hardly the fault of the circuit, Just down to car/driver been better than anyone else on the day) but there has been plenty of good, close racing behind & both races have provided good levels of overtaking, 27 on-track overtakes in 2011 & 31 in 2012.

    Circuit layout is nice I think, The 1st few corners are interesting with the elevation & the long straght is made more interesting by the elevation. The wide entry into the proceeding turn 4 was done as per Driver/Team input, Turn 5 is fairly fast & the following double chicane at Turns 6-9 is another section done with driver input & is quite a fun little section. Turns 10-12 are fast & technical with a little banking adding to it & turns 13/14 are a fairly flowing. Turn 15 is a fairly straightforward bend but does have some elevation change to make it a bit more interesting & the final corner while nothing special isn’t so bad.

    1. produced fairly entertaining races the past 2 years

      Not a view shared by the majority I’m afraid. Of all the tracks to have held more than one race since 2008, Buddh has had the lowest average rating from readers:

      https://www.racefans.net/2013/06/26/your-view-on-the-last-100-races-analysed/#circuits

      Still I do think the tyre choices have probably been on the conservative side so that might change things this year.

      1. I know its got low ratings the last 2 seasons & that is what I honestly cannot understand because neither race has been dull unless your only looking at the race winner.

        In both 2011 & 2012 there was loads of great racing, Close battles, Some interesting incidents & as the stats show a decent amount of overtaking.

    2. Steph (@stephanief1990)
      23rd October 2013, 8:36

      @LindaF1 the races haven’t really been that great but loads of tracks which fans love usually produce boring races (Monza, Suzuka, Monaco, Silverstone) and the Indian race is still very young so it hasn’t been given a fair shot.

      I do love the track though – it’s fast, flowing and has some really challenging corners. I think it probably will disappear from the calendar but I’ll be really sad to see it go.

    3. I agree with you that it would be a shame to see India get dropped from the calendar, but certainly not for the great races there.

      – Its a shame because that is almost a billion potential fans to the sport (attendance was not the biggest problem for the event)
      – its a shame because someone invested hundreds of millions that now end up being wasted
      – its a shame because the reasons for it are the incredible change in the exchange rate that make it too expensive for the Indians to pay the fees and the uncooperative Authorities helping it further down the drain.

      The only Indian race I have been exited about was the first one. It was new, the track looked interesting and we did not know what to expect. After that, its one more race we can file under “ah Vettel will do a pole and win from there, what’s the action behind him look like” race.

      1. Something like 90% of the Indian population lives on less than $5 a day, so its impossible for them to attend the race.

        A ticket for the Australian GP this year was $150 for 4 days walk around.

        1. yeah, well, if only 10% of a billion people is still an enormous crowd.

      2. @BasCB I understand how you feel regarding thd Vettel domination at India, but unfortunately that seems to be occurring at more tracks than less now days. Like Steph and Linda I love the track, that doesn’t need to change, but you made some valid points all of which are controllable measures. My view on COTD I think reflects this. The new circuits have no atmosphere! Classics events have an aura, street circuits have a hype, modern day purpose built tracks have are generally dust bowls with stands. Shanghai, I think is a great circuit, but I couldn’t believe how run down and empty it felt when I was there this year, only the fans keep this sport alive. I know it’s the same old bang wagon I’m riding on, but fees need to be dropped, incentives and entertainment needs to bolstered (especially with the lack of running in everything but q3 and race now days) people need things to do in this time if they are going to pay good money for an event. @LifeW12 makes a good point, it you going to build a track in these environments and climates you must be in touch with the immediate climate. Anyhow I’ve now made this into a long draw out boring rant. On a closing note, maybe they could add some trees at the circuits. That would make them more attractive.

        1. I am not that sure its Vettel and Red Bull that are the problem here though. Sure, they have mastered the game of being fastest, then pulling a lead out and staying ahead.

          But I haven’t seen all that exiting action behind him either. I think the problem is rather the track that just does not work for current F1 @funkyf1.

  5. To the COTD, is also backwards in that drivers are put into F1 because there’s a race in their country not the other way around.
    Especially Sirotkin, as talented as he is, we wouldn’t even consider he could get a seat in F1 if it wasn’t for the race in Russia next year.

    1. @mantresx – Are you coming to that conclusion based on Sirotkin’s performances or Sirotkin’s results. On paper, he’s had a shocker, as he has been let down by poor machinery or on the receiving end of another driver’s silly moves. When he wad on form and the mechanical gremlins took the day off, Sirotkin was usually racing da Costa.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys Yes, I don’t think he doesn’t deserve to be in F1, all I’m saying is that the fact that he’s russian has landed him a seat a couple of years earlier than it would normally take to get a drive in F1 (but he would get it eventually anyway), the same could be said about Kvyat to an extent.

        1. @mantresx – You need to prove that. Kvyat might be Russian and Formula 1 might be going to Russia, but correlation does not imply causation.

    2. Very good blog post from Carlin. We talk about pay drivers in F1 but if we look down the ladder we will see loads of them but junior teams these days are well equipped and they really can nurse those kinds to glory. Plus, to be fair, there’s also a good amount of talent in GP2, GP3, WSR, F3 and other categories, it’s just a shame many of them are being left out, even some considered to be “slum dunks”…

  6. Michael Brown (@)
    23rd October 2013, 2:57

    I hope McLaren realizes that they aren’t going to Korea

    1. Haha superb

    2. Aaaaahhh! @lite992, THAT’s what’s been going on at McLaren !!!!!!

  7. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd October 2013, 3:38

    The Buddh circuit is probably one of the better Tilke circuits. The second sector is incredible.

    I hope it does make a return to the calendar in future years.

    1. Yes, it would be desappointing to lose a track with a good layout. And disappointing to see they spent a lot of money for only 3 years ! How could that be profitable ?

  8. So why hasn’t a big team swooped up Di Resta if they know what he can do?

    1. Because they know what he can do. *Exactly* what he can do.

      1. Pretty much that PM!

    2. If performance was the only thing that counts, then Red Bull would have replaced Webber (probably even before this season) with a more competitive driver than Ricciardo, Ferrari wouldn’t have kept Massa after 2011 and McLaren most likely wouldn’t have picked Perez over Hulkenberg when Hamilton left them. Unfortunately many other factors come into play, even for the big teams.

  9. Jonathan Neale: “We’d be happy if [Peter Prodromou] was starting first thing tomorrow morning, but we do fully respect Red Bull’s position as we do when we’re recruiting anybody from another organisation.”

    Made me laugh. It makes you believe that poaching other teams personnel is okay and standard. Oh Mclaren… Red Bull is the new Williams for them.

    1. They made an offer for Prodromou, he accepted pending his notice and inevitable gardening leave.

      Also, you cannot compare this to Adrian Newey’s moves – in both cases he voluntarily left he previous employer. Williams tried to stop him going to McLaren, he won and set the 6-months gardening leave precedent.

    2. Poaching staff from other teams is completely normal and common. Not sure what you have an issue with? In fact it is not just F1 teams most companies will try to poach staff from competitors where especially when there is a shortage of highly skilled staff to fill the position. It is why many work contracts will specify gardening leave if moving to a competitor. There is certainly nothing unusual about it.

  10. Are Mclaren planning on not wearing any pants in India?

  11. @keithcollantine you gotta fix the “The Guardian”

    Indian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday could be last, warns Vicky Chandhok (The Guarfian)

    1. It’s only in keeping with the Grauniad’s own editorial style. I commend Keith for his creativity. @keithcollantine

  12. Great COTD, modern tracks lack atmosphere regardless of their layout. As for Di Resta he’s had his chance, never rated him anyhow. Is his seat under threat because Lotus can’t guarantee The Hulk a seat and he might be going back?

  13. On COTD, I understand the sentiment, but the parochial view of F1 as a predominantly European sport is unsustainable. The new markets are essential for the sport to maintain its global appeal and justify the quingigillions of dollars that are spent on it every year. You could argue for a somewhat cheaper model that places greater emphasis on staying on traditional circuits that are largely in western Europe, but you’d risk F1 losing its status as the pinnacle of world motorsport.

    It’s not a new phenomenon either – F1 has been pushing the boundaries into markets that might be considered lucrative for decades. Sometimes it pays off (e.g. Hungary, at the time an unprecedented foray behind the Iron Curtain) and sometimes it doesn’t (e.g. the Caesar’s Palace car park).

    It’s true that new venues often lack atmosphere, but a lot of that is down to local race promoters not doing enough to promote the event, or having ticket prices that are way beyond the means of the locals, or both. The hosting fees FOM charge are part of the story, but not necessarily the whole of it.

  14. as keith says, i hope the softer tyres for this race will produce some excitement. the last races here have been so, soooo dull.

  15. Pity the track was built where it was, its not bad. Should have built it in South Africa.

  16. I just hope The Indian GP can be shifted to a slot in the early season (if) when it returns.. somewhere between Bahrain and China or Malaysia as it is the logical thing to do as far as logistics go. Also everyone here by this time must know that as per the 2009-spec rules of F1 it is the early races of the calender that give us the most exciting .. or rather the most eventful of races…Also as there is going to be another overhaul in 2014 who might know what teams start competing at the front.
    India is always seen by the big companies as .. our biggest market.. just like other destinations in Asia.. but why? It is not just that it is your place to just advertise your brands , promotions of new ventures and highlighting the monetary aspects of F1.. it is about bringing the passion of racing to the people of a nation who are rather distanced from it traditionally.
    Vicky Chandhok can out rightly be termed as the “Father of modern Indian Motorsports” but how many people here in India would recognize him for his effort ?? The percentage would be far less than that of Britain which is because countries of the Europe, Americas, Japan, Australia,New Zealand and Europe-bordering Asia have had the taste of Motorsports since a long time now and it is a part of their sporting culture whereas in India the British were not able to leave behind the legacy of any other sport apart from Cricket and that has been dominating ever since.
    Someone ( @lifew12 )here mentioned the poverty in India, I don’t have the stats but if you want to look at the kind of money people pay for watching just 40 overs of cricket, which is additionaly full of “fixing allegations” , would blow your mind away. So it is not a matter of spending money to attend the race or moving out from various locations in India to come to the remote locations near the National Capital Territory of Delhi but it is about association.. Vijay Mallya, Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok were the catalysts for that. For general fans like myself , it doesn’t matter because I can go to a GP because I’ve been following F1 for a long time and am interested in the sport, but for creating a new fan base .. a Force India team just competing in the series is not enough.. Indian drivers paying huge sums from sponsors to get into shit teams is not enough.. we need Winners and everyone here would be smart enough to understand it if there is one good Indian driver in a Mclaren or a Ferrari … or there is a Force India on the front row of the race… The tickets for the GP would be sold in black, such is the power of potential achievements in this country.

    On a parting note.. not everything is gloomy for the future of F1 in India, as my compatriots here might add on to, We have the General Assembly elections in the first Quarter of 2014 and the nation would be voting to end the Corrupt and dark era of the current RULERS of the nation to bring in real democracy and a vibrant PM who understands the nuances of Industrial Revolution for India and there is a great chance that Formula 1 returns to India in 2015, to a place where they are welcomed with even more enthusiasm , not just by the spectators and the fans and the promoters like the Jaypee group, but by the Authorities, the TaxMen, and A government that Funds Motorsports too..coz it is smart enough to know that Formula 1 is a Sport afterall.

  17. Personally, and I may be biased because I’m Indian, I like the track layout with its long straights and relatively easy overtaking. But it came into being in the wrong era of F1 with these Tyre rules and DRS for orne thing and Vettel’s domination another. In 2011, everone saw how ridiculously easy it was to overtake using DRS on that long straight. I feel that with old fashioned ‘open’ tyre rules and no DRS or similar artificial aids, this track could produce very interesting and competitive races.

  18. I note that McLaren aren’t bothering to take the rocket red. Probably a safe bet.

  19. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber) was a GP3 Champion. Its really hard for him to adapt to F1. True to say, this three last races he performed acceptably. Daniil Kvyat is not even a champ, he has been sodomized by Facu Regalia all season long (but the two first races). What’s the difference? One excelent unfunded pilot (Regalia) and a wealthy average Joe (Kvyat).
    Facu Regalia, Kamui Kobayashi, Kubika…a lot of good pilots watching F1 every other week…..through SKY.
    Chilton, Maldonado, Pic paying the best tickets you can afford to watch a F1 race.

  20. On the Kvyat biograohy:

    In 2012 he claimed the Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS title following a controversial final-round clash with Norman Nato. Kvyat went into the final race at the Circuit de Catalunya three points ahead in the championship, but when Nato tried to pass him for the lead on lap three the pair collided and retired, handing Kvyat the title.

    Thx to Schumacher, our hero ^^

    1. Senna, Prost….

  21. Money Money……

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