Roman veteran, Giancarlo Fisichela , driving for Force India Formula 1 managed to snag the teams first pole position, this afternoon at the Belgian grand prix.
Force India, which is not considered a front running team managed this feat without rain, crazy accidents or any untoward incident. Normally that would be the only way you would see a back marker team pulling such an upset.
To their credit, Fisi’s car was not lightly fueled. With the fuel adjusted levels (an indicator or how much fuel they have, resulting in how it affects …

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 …

Mallya is no stranger to controversy, neither is Narain. But the media has successfully orchastrated a death match between the two.
So here is what went down.
A few days ago, when asked about “An Indian driver driving for an Indian team” statement that Mallaya had made early in his F1 career, Mallya decided to conclude that neither Narain Karthikeyan nor Karun Chandok fit the bill.

In my F1 context, [Karthikeyan] doesn’t fit in,[Chandhok] is like my son, but I have not broken the professional rules of Force India F1 and announced in …

There is news (at this time, I would consider this pure speculation) that Mallya is one one the interested parties, along with a host of other big names, including Pro Drives Richard as possible buyers of the Honda F1 team.
For those who care to remember, Pro Drive wanted to start 2008 buying their chassis from Mercedes, but because of the Customer Car row, they decided to pull out.
Mallya might already be over committed with Force India, but now that he has almost given up control and “sold” the team to …

Narain Karthikeyan might not be racing in F1 anymore, but he still is very popular in India, according to this article by Rediff.
He spoke about a lot of things, but his answer to the most important question, his return to F1 had a very terse response.
Now that Vijay Mallya’s [Images] Force India has severed ties with Ferrari — opting for McLaren instead — does it mean a return to F1 for India’s only driver with that experience? Has he had talks with Force India regarding a comeback?
“No,” said Narain, a …

After Narain and Karun, it looks like we have another Indian climbing the rope into international motor sports circles. The Hindu reports that Aditya Patel will race at the Formula BMW Pacific race in the Macau street circuit this weekend.
For Patel, currently placed ninth overall and fourth in the rookie class of the Formula BMW series, it will be a steep learning curve on a circuit that has tested the best of racing drivers.
Of more significance is the fact that Macau Grand Prix is often considered as a stepping stone …

Narain seems to be in the news a lot these days, maybe that will convince Mallya to give him a shot. I know I can’t stop rooting for him.

For any racer, Formula One is a big thing and I am no exception. I have been working hard with the A1 team and thoroughly enjoying it but F1 is my ultimate dream, When I was with Jordan, the aim would
be to out-do your teammate. You have to be with bigger teams to get podium finishes.
He also spoke about missing the first …

In the high profile game of F1, for that matter with any professional sport, its always WYSIWYG as far as the athelete goes, nothing more nothing less. Well unless they write a biography or if they are a party animal, who loves to go cross country skiing a week before the season starts (hint Ferrari’s Finnish driver), you never get to read about their exploits off the track or off the field. But here is a golden nugget about Narain.
Then there was Narain Karthikeyan and the great SARS scare. It’s …

Earlier in the week, we reported that Force India F1, amongst management changes had also decided to go with a Mercedes drive train for next year. Earlier this year, Mallya said that he was retaining his drivers for 2009, but all that seems to be out the window.
Mallya reiterated at the deal’s announcement that the team does not intend “at present” to change its current line-up of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and Germany’s Adrian Sutil.
However the billionaire businessman did not rule out the prospect that other candidates might be tested for …

Renault Roadshow in Delhi
With an amazing season coming to an end, the F1 circus, Renault in particular, took a detour to India before heading home.

The road show of the F1 team, sponsored by ING Vysya, will have a spectacular display of the 2007 Renault F1 cars driving down the Rajpath. The show will comprise stunts by professional drivers on Renault Megane Trophy cars, the Toon cars and the display of their Logan cars.
Delhi GP delayed by a year
Meanwhile, Delhi’s GP has been delayed by a year [Tip F1 Fan]. There …

With the GP2 series wrapping up, Karun finished a distant 10th, but let that not fool you. He had some amazing races, fought and for a lot of the races, luck was not with him.
A few days ago, I wrote about why Karun should not take the tester role at Force India F1 and he agrees.
It’s nice to hear that he would like me to be involved in the team and from a patriotic and emotional angle, that’s great. But at the end of the day, races and careers …

I’m not sure on how people dig this stuff up, but someone decided to pick a quote from Mallyas statement from over a year ago and have figured that Karthikeyan could be back.

Force India boss Vijay Mallya has indicated that his Silverstone-based team will not be changing their line-up ahead of next season but an earlier promise by Mallya that by 2009 the team would field a countryman could yet be honoured.
While Karthikeyan is keeping his silence, personally I think Karun Chandok has a way better shot. He is in …

A couple of weeks ago, news broke that Balbir Singh, Michael Schumachers’ ex spiritual guru and physiotherapist was back, after a 3 year break.
As happy as I was to seeing another Indian face in the paddock, I was intrigued by who this man was. The regular readers and friends know that F1 is the only sport I really care about and Schumacher is one of my all time favorite driver and the Scuderia being my choice of team. The fact that I knew nothing about this guru, who apparently was …

… until the fat lady sings. Or in the case of Formula 1, till they sing the national anthems.
Just over an hour ago, the desi presence in Formula 1, Force India, found this the hard way. Just over 10 minutes to go before the clock ticked to zero (there is a 2 hour limit on the duration of every F1 race, in addition to the lap limit) at Monaco and because of a few DNFs plus the timely appearance of the safety car, Force India driver Adrian Sutil was running …

Regular readers will notice that this is styled after the “Letter to cousin Pedro” featured on planetf1, what can I say, I am just a big fan of them and Force India. So here is Mallya writing to his friend Patel and hopefully he will find the time to keep writing for the rest of this season.

Namaste Patel. Hope all is well with you and I hope bhabi is doing well too.
I know I have not written to you, but I hope you understand that with my new commitment of …

The Yellow Jordan F1 cars changed much of the F1 landscape. Image from bennettsocial
For anyone who has been an F1 fan from before Narain started racing in F1, the name Eddie Jordan will ring a lot of bells. Besides Paul Stoddart, the owner of the erstwhile Minardi F1 team, Eddie is one of the few remaining personalities who is often called on by the F1 fraternity for views and opinions.
Mallya the amazing businessman that he is, apparently invited Eddie over to the Force India F1 factory, which was …

Dubbed VJM01 for ViJay Mallya, the Force India livery for 2008 lacked ‘India colors’. As we suspected, Kingfisher found it’s way into the car and so did a lot of Gold. Until I see the car on screen, I cannot comment on how ‘good’ it looks.
Speaking during the launch, Mallya had this to say,

This is truly historic for two reasons, One, this is the first time in history that an Indian ASM (motorsport authority) of the FIA has issued an entrance license for a Formula 1 team. So we go …

It’s not everyday that an Indian driver breaks into the world scene. Even if he does, you know little or nothing about him, but Naren seems to have made a few good friends over the years.
Anand Philar, a reporter for Sify, recalls his various meetings with Naren and how the ‘Lanky kid’ got his drive with Subaru, If you are a Desi Motor sports fan, this should be a very interesting read.
For all his talent and achievements, Naren never got his dues. During his decade-long association with MRF where he …

With the testing leading up to the 2009 season, things most people expected have come true. Feranando’s lack of pace, Hamilton and Alonso exchanging words in the media, Super Aguri being under more pressure and the Scuderia showing everyone who the daddy in F1 really is. but one thing most people did not expect was the pace shown by Force India.
On day one of the Barcelona test , FIF1 set the fourth fastest time, with Fisi piloting the car. The time was less than a second off of Hamilton’s McLaren, …

Naren Kumar in the NZ round of the Asia Pacific WRC championship. Image from Mark Heyes
With a robust economy, India is doing more than just buying F1 teams. Right on the heels of Vijay Mallya, The Spice Telecom group is trying to get a piece of Super Aguri and put Narain back in an F1 seat, in the shadows, Naren Kumar is all set to make his debut in the World Rally Championships.
For the noobs, you can find more information about the WRC over at the wiki …