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Narain Karthikeyan: So proud to be taking part in Indian Grand Prix

Saturday 29, October 2011

First Formula One driver from India is fired up as his country prepares to make Grand Prix debut

Sunday is one of the proudest days of my life. I never thought I would be racing a Formula One car in India, but it has all changed very quickly in the past two years, in the past six months. My first visit was three months ago. It has changed a lot. It has come out well, there is still a lot of cement dust everywhere and we needed maybe another week to do the proper landscaping, but the track is perfect. There are no bumps, it is very smooth. In India there is a big workforce and they will get the job done.

I don't agree with those people who say that this is an elitist sport. People who do shouldn't be involved with so many other businesses and sports. Cricket generates billions of dollars of sponsorship. The cricketers all have their own millions. I read in the paper, everywhere – Indian papers especially – "Oh, it is an elitist sport." For goodness' sake, they can do so many other things other than crib about the sport or the poor people in our country. It started a month ago. Where I have come from, there was nothing. It was so hard. I moved to England, and in Formula Three I drove with Jenson Button and I won races in the same year he did, in 1999.

It was a real struggle to get from where I was to where I am. It is just a few people who do not know about the sport who are critical. How can you call it an elitist sport because manufacturers put in billions of dollars into research and development and then things get transferred to road cars. It is not an elitist sport, it is a high-profile sport. The government hasn't put a penny into this. What is happening here is fully backed by private money.

India is trying to keep up with the world in so many ways. We are going to be a huge economy soon. We are already big, but we are going to be the second or third largest. Why don't people think more out of the box and see what Formula One will bring – huge publicity.

So everything is not bad about Formula One. It is a great sport. The depth of knowledge of motor sport here is still very small, so some think that you just sit in the car and drive.

Credit: Narain Karthikeyan (www.narainracing.com)