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India Offered Formula-1 in 2009
Nishit
INDIAN GRAND PRIX 2009. If this line doesn't send chills down through your spine, probably you don't understand how huge this news is. Suresh Kalmadi, in rarest display of wisdom, announced that India will be hosting F1 race, as soon as 2009, at Delhi. Indian Olympics Association will be taking all the responsibilities for the same.
Since last few years there has been growing interest in Formula-1 in India. Majority of people became aware of the terms like Ferrari, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, when Narain Karthikeyan debuted in Formula-1 in 2005 with Jordan team and became first Indian driver to do so. As of now, fan-following of India has been dedicated to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, but India has definitely one of the prime market for Formula-1 in recent times.
"It is not vital to Formula One to be in the United States. There are bigger markets for us to be in other parts of the world. We could be in India soon instead of the United States", said F-1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. There had been various talks of Hyderabad hosting Formula-1, until Chandrababu Naidu, who initiated the talks, was thrown out of the power.
FOA (Formula One Association) has laid out lots of terms and conditions, but Kalmadi has promised to satisfy them all before September 20, 2007. FOA has lots of Infrastructure requirements pertaining to travel, accomodation of teams and supporting crews. eg., a city hosting F-1 needs to have 5000 five star hotel rooms for total crew including all teams and many more. India is already lacking behind in the schedule of 2010 commonwealth games, also being held at Delhi. Added responsibility of F-1 will surely add up lots of responsibilities, but we can only hope that Suresh Kalmadi lives upto his word, which doesn't go too well with his past records.
They need huge land to build the track around Delhi, which I am sure will take up loads of time in bureaucracy and add to it stadium building and other overhead. Tough times. I hope he does live upto it and this dream turns into a reality. If Delhi is indeed hosting 2009 Grand Prix, you bet I am there. Are you game?
India Offered Formula-1 in 2009
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Chandra
June 15, 2007
04:02 AM
It is Great that we are likely to have a race....but......
a. The contract has to be signed by end fo season...still a long way to go...Bernie is a cunning negotiator.....
b. what the F**K are the IOA doing in Formula-1???? Are we winning too many medals in the Olympics or what???
Suresh Kalmadi, VK Malhotra, Sharad Pawar, Priya Munshi......when can we get politicians to leave sport alone......
Name Witheld
June 16, 2007
01:29 PM
"...India has definitely one of the prime market for Formula-1 in recent times."
India is the ONLY market left to suck the massive infrastructure dollars needed to host events like these. When will suckers like you wake up and smell the fumes? Dork!
Lest you think this is a troll, let me say that I've at one time served as a statistician for F-1 racing.
The Itinerant Indian
URL
June 17, 2007
05:58 PM
Name Withheld's comments sound ominous. Does he know something we dont? I fear that may be true. When one views these kinds of opportunities from India, it seems like a wonderful opportunity. But when you see what happens in the West, you realise its different.
The French protect their farms through subsidies; India remains shy and coy when the word protectionism is used.
In most parts of Europe a farm with genetically modified crops cannot be adjacent to farms that have organic produce.
Organic farms, corporate responsibility and corporations cringing to report super profits are all unthinkable in India without being perceived as a loony; in the West these are daily issues.
Rishabh
URL
July 4, 2007
10:56 AM
Yeah Naidu was all set to get F1 to hyd. He lost the elections, YSR took over and decided we need to feed our farmers first before pondering about racing cars and stopped all developments in the racing arena!
theitinerantindian
URL
July 4, 2007
11:31 AM
Rishabh: YSR's family doesnt count as farmers, they are the only ones well fed. Farmers otherwise continue to die. All YSR has achieved is stopped the fantastic work and achievement of Naidu. The loss is not just to AP. Witness the sloth that overtook state governments that were competing with Naidu till just then; notably Bangalore which has relapsed into its comatose state of the two decades that preceded SM Krishna
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