Fears grow over Indian GP future

Fears continue to grow over the future of the Indian Grand Prix. This weekend's Grand Prix could be the last staged in the country. Vicky Chandhok, president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India, and Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn have raised their concerns.

(c) Sahara Force India F1 Team

The race debuted on the F1 calendar in 2011 but is set to take a year off in 2014. It could return in 2015 but there has been no official confirmation of the comeback.

It was missing from the provisional 2014 calendar that was released in September.. If the race does return in 2015, it is likely to join the likes of Malaysia and China at the head of the calendar. Organisers Jaypee feel that they cannot hold two races within the space of five months.

Concerns over the future of the three-year-old race continue to grow, with Vicky Chandhok telling the Guardian: "If it doesn’t come back in 2015, it may never come back at all. That is my concern.

"Once you lose a race it can be gone for ever. That is why I am calling on everyone in India to make this Sunday’s race an event to remember, so everyone in Formula One will realise that it needs the Indian Grand Prix.

"If we lose it, I would be very disappointed, because it took us 10 years to get the race in the first place. It was in 1999 that Bernie Ecclestone [the sport's commercial rights holder] first had talks with organisers and sponsors in India."

Chandhok, who is the father of former HRT and Caterham driver Karun, believes that the race has had a big impact on India's economy and has willed the government to step up and help save the race.

"Basically there were two reasons. First, Bernie [Ecclestone] wanted to switch the race to March but there was no way we could stage two races in five months. Second, everything has become a lot more expensive," he said.

"This race has been good for the economy for the past two years. Hotels and taxi drivers have been busy and so have other workers. The taxpayers have not been paying for it. It has been a private promoter.

 

"India is now recognised worldwide as making great technological advances. So F1 makes sense. It is more than just a sporting occasion. It is an event capable of encouraging people all over the world. It is good for India and good for its government."

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn, who was born in India, agrees that it will be difficult for the race to return in 2015: "I think it is very difficult once when you leave a country to come back to it – especially where we have not really managed to establish the sport."

"In the first year we had the benefit of something new coming in there, and a lot was done around the race. There was a tremendous amount of in-depth coverage, not just about telling the people the sport was about 11 teams, and all the celebrities and parties and the show. It was about explaining what are the teams about, why are the tyres important, what are the strengths/weaknesses of the people? It was very comprehensive coverage – even before the race."

However coverage on the race has decreased since its debut in 2011: "That was already less in the second year, and the critics came up more about the race. Was it really a sporting event? Then people put up issues, like the tax and the difficulties many people had. That was put further ahead in the second year.

She added: "I think now it is a bit like giving up. When you know you are not planning to be there the next year, maybe the interest has gone down through that. That has been the problem – that we have not been able to market ourselves properly in there."

 

"We have not been able to convince that many Indian companies. You can count the Indian companies that are in F1 since then on one hand. We’ve somewhere collectively failed to do more there."

It could be very difficult for India to return to Formula 1 in 2015, particularly with the ever expanding calendar which could include New Jersey, Russia and the returning races in Austria and Mexico next season.

It would be a massive shame to see such a popular country and well-loved circuit removed from the calendar, particularly as the sport has only just started to visit India. However, the odds look to be stacked against the race at the moment.