Formula One takes note of Asian draw
Formula One takes note of Asian draw
Alan Baldwin, Reuters/London
The confirmation of Narain Karthikeyan as India's first
Formula One driver is an important step for the sport, even if he
is unlikely to trouble world champion Michael Schumacher too
much.
Jordan's own press statement spelled out the true significance
on Thursday.
The signing, it said, gave Formula One "exceptional appeal in
India with the potential for an enormous new audience and
business market associated with a national racing hero known as
'the fastest Indian on wheels.'"
Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who played
his own part in last week's takeover of Jordan by the Midland
Group, will be delighted.
India has long been on the 74-year-old Briton's radar, with
the southern city of Hyderabad considered as a potential race
venue until the chief backer of the project was voted out in
regional elections last year.
"In the next 10 years, Europe is going to become a third world
economy," he declared in 2004 as Formula One looked forward to
breaking new ground in China and Bahrain.
"There's no way Europe will be able to compete with China,
Korea, India."
If Asia's third largest economy is not yet ready to be
included on a calendar already stretched to an unprecedented 19
races with the addition of Turkey in 2005, then a driver is the
next best thing.
China, with its debut race at the $325 million Shanghai
circuit last September, has brought the world's most populous
country into the Formula One fold, and Karthikeyan can now
deliver another huge headcount.
The Indian is a good promotional fit for Midland, with their
extensive interests in old fashioned heavy industries throughout
the former Soviet Union and Asia.
Karthikeyan's main sponsors are the Tata Group, India's second
largest business conglomerate, and state-run refiner Bharat
Petroleum Corp.
Formula One has moved a long way from its old European
heartland in the last few years, spurred on partly by a desire to
escape European Union anti-tobacco legislation and partly by the
desire of major sponsors to be present in key emerging markets.
Bahrain now caters for the Middle Eastern market while Turkey,
with a race at a brand new track on the Asian side of Istanbul,
fills another geographical hole.
Next year it will be Mexico's turn, returning to the calendar
after a 14-year absence with a race scheduled for a $70 million
circuit to be built near Cancun on the Caribbean coast.
Minardi, which gave Alex Yoong the chance to become the first
Malaysian Formula One driver in 2001, also announced another
first this week by signing Israeli Chanoch Nissany as its
official test driver.