THE FIRST-EVER Indian Grand Prix has been done and dusted and quite literally so. The inaugural race in India has been signed off as a success by the teams, drivers, officials and even the Formula1 fans. While the drivers loved the track, the team personnel believed that the organizers could have done much better with their off-track facilities. However, lessons have been learned and JPSI know what to improve on next year. As for the fans, the views and facilities from most stands were very good, however, the race barely witnessed around 30 overtaking moves!
Moving away from Formula1, in this column, I will talk about the sport of motor-racing, which is expected to get a boost from the Indian Grand Prix. Brands and corporate companies embraced the inaugural race in India well and invested more than a few million dollars in promoting themselves via the platform of Formula1. The fact that there were over 95,000 spectators in the stands and TAM Sports TV figures say that the viewership of the Indian F1 race was nearly 7 times more than any other should appeal further to these brands and corporates.
Motor-racing is in dire need of funding and corporate investment to grow at the grass-root levels. Sir Jackie Stewart during the weekend of the Indian Grand Prix stressed on the need of more karting tracks in the country and if you were an F1 follower, you will know what he meant. India has all of two drivers who can boast of Formula1 experience and an Indian-owned F1 team. However, to increase its presence in Formula1, one needs investment in building karting tracks in the country and starting racing schools and this is where the success of the Indian Grand Prix should encourage corporate companies to come forward with funding.
While that is an ideal world scenario, in the real world, there is talk of a new Formula1 track being planned in and around Mumbai. A little too premature I would say, but I won’t be surprised if it came somewhere between Pune and Mumbai, where a lot of automobile companies are present. However, the need of the hour is to make the most of the Formula1 craze and raise investments for funding grass root motorsport. It would also be in the interest of JPSI to help grow the sport at its start-up levels to ensure that their investments in the Indian Grand Prix do not go down the route of Turkey or China where the Formula1 craze has faded and the organizers are finding it tough to fill spectators in the stands.
Talking of motorsport, the other Indian racing series MRF F1600, JK Racing Asia Series and the VW Polo Cup would have received a shot in the arm with the Indian GP. I will be keenly following two important factors for these series; 1) its acceptance with the general public and media 2) increase in involvement from sponsors / partners. One thing I can guarantee is extra participation from young Indian drivers. However, what the talented ones do need is funding to help them in their path towards Formula1. The other motorsport event that anticipated this buzz was Sahara Force India’s ‘One from a Billion Hunt’, which concluded by announcing their three winners on the eve of the Indian Grand Prix weekend. Young racers Arjun Maini, Tarun Reddy and Jehan Daruvala will receive funding from India’s only Formula1 team as their pursue their racing careers in Europe.
Since we are on the discussion of young drivers, the other series that will be closely followed will be the i1 Super Series, which is expected to debut in January 2012. The series, which is a part of the Indian Racing League, has already made a few striking announcements which included having Sachin Tendulkar as their ‘brand ambassador’ and ‘advisor’ and Shahrukh Khan and Arindham Chaudhari as their Mumbai and Delhi franchise owners respectively. This league will be spoken about in many forums due to the starry names attached with it. However, the success of the series will depend on the brand sponsorships it can raise and of course the opportunity that it can offer to young racing talent in India.
The driver line-up for any i1 Super Series team compulsorily has to include 1 international, 1 Indian and 1 domestic driver, giving a clear indication that young driver development will be key to their series. The other important announcement that the series organizers made was a broadcast deal with Ten Sports. While the programming schedules and content hours haven’t been revealed, anything less than LIVE motorsport programming will be difficult to get ‘appointment viewing’ for!
So the inaugural Indian Grand Prix has proved that motorsport is well followed in India and can be sold if packaged well. I hope the marketers of the other junior series in India are following…!
