Force India F1 2008

This really was a bad beginning for Vijay Mallya’s Force India F1 team. I mean, I wanted an Indian in the Force India car and all. But my heart goes out to Fisichella and Adrian Sutil.

Both th Force India F1 cars had to retire - Giancarlo Fisichella had to retire in the first lap of the Melbourne GP. There was a really bad scrum between a lot of cars in the first lap, and the Force India F1 driver gt caught up in it, I think Vettel touched him or he touched Vettel, was sent flying, and ended in the gravel trap. And sent him to retirement, and brought out the safety car.

Very unfortunate. The Force India driver started right behind Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari, and the car had potential to move up a few positions and possibly get into the top ten. Instead, now we have a retirement. Can’t even see where the car really stands compared to others over a race distance. Sad.

Things went all bad for Adrian Sutil in the other Force India F1 car too. Sutil started his race from the pitlane - behind everyone else on the grid. So what else can go wrong? Well, something did.

On lap 6, Timo Glock of Toyota and Adrian Sutil (Force India) were running behind Sebastien Bourdais. But on lap 9, we see Adrian Sutil driving the Force India car into the garage. Don’t know what went wrong, but that’s the end, folks.

What I want to see now is how Vijay Mallya really reacts. It is at moments like this that strength of purpose, and the reality of F1, hits a team owner. Will he stick to his guns? Super, then. AFter all, neither Ferrari finished too in this race, hehehe.

No Comments »
Filed under: India

Some good news, but mostly bad news, especially if you are an Indian Formula One fan.

The bad news first.

Narain Karthikeyan is leaving his test driver role at Williams in 2008. Nothing much to do there, is the reason. Due to the traction control ban in 2008, regular drivers - that is, Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima - would need a lot of time at the wheel during the tests, leaving no time at all for test drivers like Narain Karthikeyan.

Secondly, he has not been called by Vijay Mallya to test for Force India. Neither is Karun Chandok, it seems. Both have not been called to test the Force India car so far, and Karthikeyan thinks it is unlikely that he would get a last minute call from Vijay Mallya. He said that if they wanted to call him, they could have called him any time till now.

Which means we may end up seeing Narain racing full-time in A1GP - where he just had a lacklustre start in the first race.

Problems, problems, my friends.

I have been griping in this blog for the last two months about how something is wrong with the Force India plans. What I suspect is this:

Mallya wanted Narain Karthikeyan.

Karthikeyan wanted to see if he could manage a race drive with Williams. So he kept Mallya waiting.

Mallya did not like that.

Now Karthikeyan does not have a race seat at Williams, but has A1GP. He is still not sure about wanting a Force India seat. So has not tried to get it, and Mallya has not bothered to call.

We might end up the losers in all this. Bloody Force India F1 team without an Indian driver - Ha!

I want to see how Mallya would manage to handle the negative publicity of having a team on the grid named Force India, without an Indian driver. If that happens, I hope he has to kiss his Indian advertising revenue hopes goodbye.

Of course I may be wrong in all this, and Mallya may manage to pull off something at the last minute.

Meanwhile, other plans of Force India seem to be moving reasonably well.

The Force India team need to build up on their promising end to the 2007 season and start fighting for points more regularly, according to technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

Read more at Autosport and ITV-F1.com

Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil who did quite well last year, is pretty much confirmed at Force India. He says he is not looking to go anywhere else.

That’s about it for now.

Here’s wishing Karthikeyan all the best. Whoever he is with. I hope he does superbly in A1GP, the last thing I want to see is this chap fade away.

1 Comment »
Filed under: Drivers

Bernie Ecclestone is pulling off surprise after surprise, guys.

First we had Suresh Kalmadi suddenly popping up on the scene, waving some agreement with Bernie Ecclestone and bringing the Indian Olympic Association into the picture. A first, that. No one knows the exact reasons, but Kalmadi talks like he knows what he is doing.

Before that, the different CMs were meeting with Herman Tilke, the F1 track designer - and suddenly out of the blue, its gonna be Delhi.

Vijay Mallya was active on the scene to bring F1 to India; then suddenly he’s an F1 team owner, and is nowhere to be seen talking about F1 in India, but doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.

And today, news is out that JP Associates has signed a deal with Bernie Ecclestone for setting up a Formula 1 track in Greater Noida, UP.

The ET spoke thus:

A 10-year contract has been signed between the company and F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone to build the track in a bid to bring the first race to India in 2010, the report said. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the race promoters, could not be immediately reached for comment. 

Hehe. Looks like this time Kalmadi is the one who’s caught by surprise! I am beginning to wonder if Bernie understands the Indian political system better than Indians themselves!

The Hindustan Times has got pretty much the same story, apart from a standard clueless line at the end. Take a dekko.:

Suresh Kalmadi, president of Indian Olympic Association, said, “I have no idea (about the deal). If there is anything, it will be announced by Bernie Ecclestone.”

The Rs 34,000-crore JP group beat celebrated contenders like liquor baron Vijay Mallya in the race.

Full story here.

What?

JP Group DID NOT beat Vijay Mallya, Goddammit. Mallya wants to bring F1 to India, not build the track here. He has never expressed any desire to do so.

Anyway, apart from that little piece of rock in my gruel, all is fine with the world. Ciao and keep coming, drop a comment if there is anything you would like me to find out for you.

No Comments »
Filed under: India

Formule 1 Race Report, a Dutch magazine, reports that Force India would start the 2007 season with the Spyker car from 2007.

Don’t sweat - yet.

Force India now does not have the time - and the money has probably not started flowing in yet - now to build and test an entirely new car for the 2008 season. And they were improving the 2007 car quite a bit towards the end of last season. Considering that, it may be a good idea to start the 2008 season with the old car, and introduce the new car at Silverstone, UK in July or so.

Also, there is the added complication of a common ECU for all teams for the 2008 season. And no traction control. All cars are going to drive very differently indeed without traction control. Much more difficult.

So Force India is left with no choice. Is it necessarily a bad thing? No. A good thing? Probably not, unless the loss of traction control affects the old Spyker car not too badly.

No Comments »
Filed under: Spyker

There is some good news, and some potentially bad news.

Spyker is one of the first to start testing for the 2008 season (Is testing in November winter testing? I have no idea). The Force India car now has an interim burgundy colour scheme, and the 2008 FIA engine management system. The testing will open with test drivers Roldan Rodriguez (who is hoping for a race seat) and Giedo van der Garde to start with. On the second day, current driver Adrian Sutil (who has a race seat for 2008, almost confirmed) will be joined by Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi on the other two days.

A german newspaper has also reported that Ralf Schumacher - Michael Schumacher’s brother and Mallya’s close friend - will also be testing.

And the bad news? You don’t notice any Indian names there. No Karun Chandok, no Narain Karthikeyan.

I have been scouring the Net for looking for information on Narain and Formula One, but my searches have turned up zilch. Narain has not even said that he is considering Force India for 2008. And No such news from Vijay Mallya or Gascoyne either. Just what the hell is Karthikeyan up to? A William seatis closed to him, his test driver status there is just in name, and no offers from any of the teams? Is he going to stick with A1GP and forget about his F1 career?

Testing is no big deal, I know. The final race driver name may not even feature among the testers so early.

But frankly Vijay Mallya is getting me nervous. Will the unthinkable happen -  a Force India team with no Indian driver?

Oh screw that. Let us hope the testing turns out alright - remember it is without traction control and driver aids in 2008 - and the car shows some promise.

No Comments »
Filed under: Team