 "India’s long road back to F1: Karun Chandhok on festivals, funding and why talent alone isn’t enough")
India’s long road back to F1: Karun Chandhok on festivals, funding and why talent alone isn’t enough
As talks of Formula 1’s potential return to India build up after recent developments involving the Adani Group and the Sports Ministry, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok outlined a game plan for what it would really take to get the sport back and keep it here.
For Chandhok, it starts with vision. Not just a race weekend, but an experience built as a festival that draws crowds well before the cars even hit the track, much like global events where tens of thousands turn up days in advance for concerts and build-up activities.
“What can you do to create this event to pull in a crowd to make it a big event. They want it to be a festival. They don’t want to race around an empty stand. Silverstone, for example, we have 60,000 people coming on Thursday when there’s no car just to watch a concert before the Grand Prix,” said Chandhok, only the second Indian ever to race in the F1.
How will India return to F1 calendar?
In India for the Red Bull India Moto Jam, Chandhok stressed that the real pitch is not merely about hosting cars on track, but about alignment off it – particularly between the private sector and the government, something that proved problematic during India’s previous stint on the calendar at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) between 2011 and 2013.
“The big pitch, to be honest, is making sure that the private and government sectors are aligned. Because historically, they had issues here. Showing that there’s good collaboration with the government and whatever the issues were, they won’t be a problem. My father ran the operations at Jaypee. I was coming to BIC when it was an empty site,” said Chandhok, who drove Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull R8 at the Buddh International Circuit on Thursday.
“I remember when the freight arrived, custom clearance was an issue, the spare parts didn’t get cleared, all these hurdles need to be cleared. F1 is a circus. People come, seven jets arrive, freight comes, they hold their event, and then they leave. There’s no messing around; we can’t do this and that. You have to call this undersecretary or someone, it doesn’t work”
Drawing from international examples, Chandhok highlighted the importance of ease of access – particularly visa processes – if India wants to position itself as a seamless global sporting destination.
“Why not create visa on arrival exemption? When we used to do the Russian Grand Prix. It’s not easy to get a Russian visa. The Russian embassy people would come to Silverstone during the British Grand Prix and they would set up a camp there to provide visas even before the race. There has to be e-visa, there has to be ease.”
As for Formula 1’s stance, Chandhok revealed that the door is not shut, but the path is layered and complex.
“F1 is open to coming back to India. They are open to a dialogue. But that is step No 1. There are various layers in terms of funding, regulations, regulatory support and government support. The infrastructure on track needs to be upgraded and there has to be a spot on the calendar. There are four blocks. Until there’s a clarity on how these four blocks can be built and then put together, I can’t give you an answer. This is the process of getting the race together.”
Encouragingly, he believes the new possible custodians of the Greater Noida circuit understand both the appetite and the financial realities involved.
“The good news is that people who own the track are making the right noises. You need the appetite to do something. They understand what it is going to cost. So many people have called F1 and said they want to host a race, but they don’t understand the financial model. But these guys do understand. By acquiring Jaypee, they (Adani) will have that historical data.”
Why doesn’t India produce F1 drivers?
While the possible return of F1 to India dominates the headlines, how the country can have more drivers in the sport remains a major concern. Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, after all, are the only Indians to have ever raced in Formula 1, with no one from India competing in an F1 race since 2012.
When asked how India can break its drought, Chandhok had a blunt and uncomfortable truth to share.
“There’s a reason we have 1.4 billion people and only two F1 drivers,” he said. “The primary reason is money. We are in a country where one sport is so dominant, and like a big vacuum cleaner, it just sucks up so much of the sponsorship money.
“One telecom company said to me, ‘Why should we sponsor you for Rs 50 lakhs when I can buy VVS Laxman’s bat for that money?’ It’s quite hard to answer that.”
Ultimately, as he said, talent alone is not enough. In India, producing a Formula 1 driver requires a rare convergence of timing, funding, opportunity and institutional support. The stars must align within a narrow window, and without a robust ecosystem to sustain that alignment, raw speed and potential often fade before they reach the global stage.
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