FEBRUARY 7, 2006

An interesting development in India

The Indian A1 GP team is in the process of being disbanded as South African-based franchise holder Atul Gupta has run out of patience with the team's lack of performance. The major problem seems to be one of funding as the Indian business community has not jumped to support the team as Gupta had been hoping. The team started out being promoted by Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, who was named as one of the franchise-holders, but even that has not helped. Results have been poor as the driver Armaan Ebrahim, son of team principal Akbar Ebrahim, has not scored any good result. It seems that for the moment the only driver in India who is capable of raising big money is Narain Karthikeyan, who has used his connections and experience to get backing to become the fourth driver at Williams this year. The concept of A1 Grand Prix was to trade off national pride and if India cannot raise the kind of money needed there must be fears for other teams.

It is also not very good for the dream of an Indian Grand Prix as such an enterprise is going to cost tens of millions of dollars and the A1 team was not even able to raise $8m.