Looks like the recession that is hitting India has led to Spice Energy backing out of the sponsorship of A1 Team India.

Neha Rastogi, the spokesperson for Spice Energy was quoted as saying

Spice Energy is temporarily out of handling operations for A1 Team India given the current economic situation. We will look forward to continue our support to the team.

The news is not all bad. Narain Karthikeyan while confirming that things have changed, confirmed that the drivers are staying put

There is a reshuffle in the management but the team will be on the grid with me as lead driver and Armaan (Ebrahim) and Parthiv (Sureshwaran) as backup

Hindustan Times adds a little bit more to the mix, predicting that Narain might step in and buy the team.

Even as A1 GP looks to find another seat holder for the team, which has now changed hands four times in as many seasons, speculation suggests it is likely to be Karthikeyan himself.

This in my personal opinion is a very good thing. Narain is a grat band ambassador and sponsors have always loved him, at least in the Indian market and he is sure to rope in a few good people to support the organization. This will also ensure that his race skills are being put to good use. Almost every F1 driver has a racing team in one league or another. This is true even for people like Tiago Monteiro, who owns a GP2 / F3000 team.

The other front of this drop out is bringing A1 GP to India, for which Spice had done a lot of work, besides which, the article claims that Spice owes Narain a significant sum of money.

We will keep our fingers crossed to see how this plays out.

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