Well, UPS is already in NASCAR, but a desi in NASCAR is definitely news.

After weeks of rumors, dropping hints and uncertainty, Karun Chandhok as confirmed by the HRT F1 team as their second driver.
HRT F1, which was originally named Campos Meta, will be the final team on the grid and the only team that has not tested their car yet. Karun will be partnering with Bruno Senna, Ayrton Senna’s nephew. Oddly enough, Bruno who was confirmed before Karun get’s the number 21 and Karun get’s the number 20 on his car.
With two rookies, a car designed by Dallara, who have not built an …

It’s a shame that Hamilton lost his position on the last lap of the race. Nice to see Rubens winning another race and Brawn getting a 1-2. Also nice to see that Ferrari are picking every point possible.
Force India did well for a car without KERS and had Sutil managed to have a better stop, chances are he might have found himself ahead of Raikonnen, but that’s something that comes with experience.
Fisi, who started for Ferrari this race, finished just outside the points, at least he did not come …

Force India snagged its first points last race with Fisi managing to secure the second position. Since the entire world was talking about the success of the team, I did not feel that it was necessary to blog about it.
What I failed to realize is the fact that this remarkable achievement has re-energized a lot of fans who’ve been dormant for the past few seasons.
To that end, I will be live blogging the race at Monza, starting at the ungodly hour of 4:30 AM. Yes, I live in …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Each week between March and November, a deep schism develops between some of the Über bloggers here as the Formula One circus travels round the world, a direct effect of the omnipresent cold war between the Intelligent World and the *cough* dumb *cough* Tifosi. But when it comes to Vijay Mallya and Team Force India, we always cheer as one for Fisi and Sutil as they fight their way through the ranks.
So it was indeed a pleasant surprise to hear today that Force India is going to tie in with …

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 …

Formula One defending world champion leader for 2008, Lewis Hamilton of the McLaren racing team visited Mumbai and entertained hundreds of fans by showing his skills off on a kart with a few laps around a Go-Kart track. [Yahoo]

F1 legend Schumi is not making a comeback to F1 racing but his “guru” is. [link] (tip Karthik via email)
‘Guru’ Balbir Singh and Fisichellaimg: via F1-live.com
Balbir Singh, physiotherapist and spiritual guru of the erstwhile F1 champion and legend is all set to make a comeback to bigtime F1 racing, after “retiring” in 2005.
Michael Schumacher’s former physiotherapist and ‘guru’ Balbir Singh has made a surprise and full-time return to the Formula One paddock. The Indian – revered by former seven time world champion Schumacher as F1’s best physio, masseuse, dietician and …

… 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 …