E@zyVG’s Vichar::World Connected

Are we going to see another Indian Formual 1 team soon … that is the question. With the ambitious Indian company offering to underwrite Aguri’s $66 million dollar debt, much to the delight of Honda, it’s now just a matter of time before a second F1 team comes home. Quite amusingly, if the deal works out Spice would end up shelling out $66 million plus one full dollar as token amount.

“Telecommunications giant the Spice Group is behind an Indian bid to take a stake in troubled Super Aguri, SPEEDtv.com can reveal. The company, whose name is derived from the phrase “Synchronized Performance Through Innovation in Communications and Entertainment,” is already involved in India’s A1GP entry. It is anxious to bring Narain Karthikeyan back to F1, in place of Anthony Davidson.”

“ However, matters are complicated further by the fact that Force India is believed to have a legal agreement with Super Aguri which relates to any changes in the shareholding of the latter.“

The Hindu Newspaper has the following to say:

With the Spice Group eyeing a stake in Super Aguri F1 team, drivers Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim are enthused by the prospect of having a second Indian outfit on the ‘Formula One’ grid.

The country already made its presence felt on the F1 circuit after Vijay Mallya, along with the Mol family, bought Spyker and re-named it ‘Force India’.

Now if Spice Group’s negotiation with the cash-strapped Super Aguri falls in place, it would be a double delight for motor sport enthusiasts in the country.

Karun, a test-driver with Red Bull F1 team, is excited by the prospect, especially with the Spice Group insisting on having Narain Karthikeyan as their driver.

“It would be fantastic for motor sports in India. Though it’s little premature to talk anything before the deal is actually inked, it’s thrilling to imagine that out of the 11 F1 teams, two would be Indian,” he told PTI here Thursday.

Karun himself is in Force India’s radar and the Chennai driver is optimistic about his transition to F1 after a consistent GP2 series this year.

“With they (Spice) insisting on Narain, it would be great to see at least one Indian driver, if not two, on the F1 grid next year,” said the driver.

Fellow driver, Armaan, too could not hide his glee with another Indian team likely to join Force India on the F1 circuit.

“It would definitely be a huge boost for all of us. The more Indian teams, the better,” he said.

During the course of the day, however, it looked like the deal might run into rough waters as Honda’s F1 chief executive suddenly didn’t sound too enthused about getting Narain Karthikyean as part of the package. I’d really not like to see Anthony Davidson kicked off from the team, even if it will be Indian. In my opinion, Anthony has much more experience and has to offer much more to the team than Karthikeyan. Second, if not being 100% Indian owned team, a joint Indian-Japanese team also sounds very interesting.

In 2010 Indian motor sports fans will be in for a treat closer to home. That is when the country with the second largest population in the world will host its first Formula One Grand Prix. India has a great fan following for this sport and F1 is set to provide yet another boost to the economy. As an example, the small country of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf region made a small investment of $150 million in the sport three years ago. Today, it is reaping huge returns.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.