The racing star who wore many hats

There was a buzz when Narain Karthikeyan made it to the Formula One almost 15 years ago. No one knew what was it like competing in F1 or the financial burden on the aspiring drivers. Narain was able to make the cut thanks to a group of sponsors who backed him. 

It took a while for a second driver in Formula One to emerge from India and not surprisingly he was also from Tamil Nadu. Though Karun Chandhok had to work hard for his space in the sport at the highest level, the Chennai lad hung in there and also diversified his skills and made a career out of motorsport. 

Soon India became a hub for motorsport when the Buddh Circuit in New Delhi was added as a round in the sport and soon it was thought everything was falling in place. But it was not to be as the sport began to hurt both the sponsors and the drivers from this region on the economic front. “One of my pet projects is to try and help other young Indian drivers out and to this end, I’ve been working closely with Arjun Maini guiding him with his driving, fitness training and also career moves. I’ve also spent some time with Jehan Daruvala and Tarun Reddy and their fathers offering some advice but Arjun is the one that I work most closely with,” says Karun the coach.

Karun has not given up on his motorsport career as he is competing in the Le Mans 24 hour race and World Endurance Championship. The positive thing about Karun is that he is not deterred by what is going on in the world of motorsport and keeps chasing some goal or the other.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be the first and only Indian thus far to compete at the Le Mans 24 hours, which together with the Indy 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix form the trio of blue riband events of our sport and I look forward to being back there in 2017,” recalls Karun. 

Apart from this, he has been working with Channel 4 in the UK on their Formula 1 broadcast and his commentary also goes out to India. This means he travels to all of the F1 races around the world which makes life very busy.

“Motorsport as a career is like any other sport in the sense that the risk versus reward factor is heavily biased towards the risk side. Perhaps the risk is a bit higher than other sports because of the dangers involved, but from a career standpoint, globally, for every ten thousand drivers who start karting, maybe one will make it a profession where they can earn a living out of it,” says Karun with a smile.

Though he acknowledges that only Narian and himself made the cut in F1, Karun quickly points out that there are some good bike riders like C.S.Santhosh and K.Aravind who have secured backing from the two wheeler manufacturers. He also cites the case of Gaurav Gill who has established himself as the top Rally driver in the country. 

He brings these names to the discussion to tell you that there are many who earn a living off the sport in their own way, either from competition or allied fields. “People like Aditya Patel compete in GT racing but are able to make a career out of being coaches or mentors and he’s very good at it. There are others like Rayomand Banajee for example who competed at a National level for many years but is now able to make a career out of running a team in go karts for young drivers,” he reels out names. Karun is sad that the Indian Grand Prix no longer part of the F1 championship but he is not going to cry over it: his philosophy is to make the best of what is available. “There’s no question that the Indian GP brought the sport to the forefront of everyone’s mind – that’s why my father (Vicky Chandhok) and I spent many years working with Bernie (Ecclestone) to try and make it happen. For that one weekend F1 had 3 or 4 full pages of coverage in every major newspaper in the capital which was unprecedented for any sport bar cricket. That sort of attention from the media has gone away a bit,” agrees Karun. 

Yet, the domestic motorsport has improved a lot in the last decade. The major tyre manufacturers continue to invest heavily in creating series and platforms for the drivers to compete in. Brands like Volkswagen have invested in creating a category of saloon car racing, Mahindra has entered rallying, Tata has created Truck racing while Hero, TVS and Honda have all invested in two wheeler motorsport. The karting scene has stabilised but needs growth with more high level tracks in different corners of the country. The overall scene is promising, though it is not as rosy as it was when the Indians were racing. 

“I don’t think it’s bleak but we’re in a holding pattern. You have Jehan Daruvala, Arjun Maini, Tarun Reddy and Kush Maini all competing in single seaters in Europe and it will be interesting to see which of them makes the step up to Formula 1. They’re all talented boys but talent alone isn’t enough in this sport – there are plenty of talented drivers from around the world that don’t make it. They need the right financial backing, the right doors opened at the right time, the right mental approach to perform under pressure, the right family support and guidance and ultimately the right results to bring themselves to the attention of the F1 fraternity,” explains the former F1 driver. 

Karun admits a lot has changed in th4e world of motorsport since he last raced in F1. 

“I last raced in F1 in 2011 and since then the sport has seen some pretty big changes on and off the track. On track, at the time we had some great competition with Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren all producing cars that were capable of fighting for victory. Since the big engine regulation changes in 2014 moved F1 to a hybrid era, we’ve seen Mercedes leap to the front and really nobody else has been able to challenge them consistently,” says Karun who expects the F1 to change further when a big regulation change coming up this year which may affect the pecking order. 

At the same time, there are some fantastic new drivers in F1 - Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz to name a few and hopefully they will all have an opportunity to fight for a World Championship with the established stars like Hamilton and Vettel soon. 

He also thinks a lot has changed in F1 off the track with the takeover of the sport by Liberty Media which has meant that after 40 years, Bernie Ecclestone will no longer be the man in charge. This could mean wholesale changes in the way the races are run, how the fans watch the races, how the media cover the events and how the financial model for the teams is structured. Interesting times lie ahead indeed.