Force India F1 2008

Err.. I have a bad feeling about this, man.

I mean I laughed when people told me Karun Chandok is testing for Red Bull. Tests happen all the time, does not mean that the driver is going to get a racing seat easily. And no driver refuses a test - unless it is a Super Aguri car.. or a Spyker.. Sheesh. Bit embarrassing to write that line.

But anyway Chandok testing for Red Bull is no big deal. But.

Now Roldan Rodriguez says he is gonna test for Force India, and is 80 % sure fo a race seat. Where does that leave Narain Karthikeyan, man?

Make no mistake - Narain was, and is, a superb driver. Is he right there at the top-level? We will not know, because he was driving a bloody Midland - and a good driver can screw up easily in a Midland. Narain’s failure to consistently finish beside his teammate Tiago Monteiro means nothing. Narain was an aggressive driver, and a bad car in the hands of an aggressive driver is a horibble sight often.

But right now he is a test driver for Williams, and he is getting older (he has a few more years left to go, frankly), and Williams have already declared their driver line-up for the 2008 season. Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg are the drivers. That means no drive there for Karthikeyan - I think he really wanted that. Did not work out.

So that leaves him with Force India. Adrian Sutil is already confirmed for Force India, and there is only one seat left - and now Rodriguez is going to take that?

And how ridiculous is it to have a Force India team with no Indian driver in it? Mallya, your plans to kindle that patriotic spirit in millions of fans in India .. it would all go kaput. In fact, you may face a kind of backlash - worst case scenario.

And Narain, I don’t know if you are undecided, or have a definite plan and are working towards it - but please do something quickly. There is that out of sight-out of mind thingy, and the age thingy, and both are soon so not gonna be in your favour. Do something.

Filed under: Drivers