I usually try not to bother about how the press covers certain sporting events however this article in the Times of India is a good example of getting the facts wrong right from the word go.
The writer starts off by calling the erstwhile Spyker F1 team 'bedraggled and tardy'. Bedraggled they might have been but tardy, hardly. There's no space for tardy in the cut throat competition that exists in Formula 1. The writer should have known that Michiel Mol the co-owner of Force India also owned a part of the Spyker F1 team. Has he even heard about Mike Gascoyne who has worked with most of the F1 teams on the grid who was fired last year from FIF1?
The article goes on to say about the charm and convincing power of FIF1's team prinicipal. If McLaren were that convinced why was Simon Roberts taken aboard? Simon Roberts was McLaren's Operations Director at the time of being absorbed as COO in FIF1. Mercedes high performance engines was signed on as a engine supplier and McLaren would supply gearbox and hydraulic systems and also give on track support. KERS was available as an option which apparently FIF1 haven't exercised up till now.
The only area where FIF1 has had to do some R & D was in the wind tunnel in Brackley which has a Jordan legacy attached to it. Of course the work these guys have done in the aero package has paid rich dividends in the medium downforce circuit that is Spa. Any one who has a decent understanding of the sport would invest in a windtunnel, that needn't be a good idea injust in 'hindsight'. The writer goes on to state that "Force India obviously found that important piece of the puzzle", pray what puzzle I ask? Isn't that a basic requirement if you want to run an F1 car in a competition?
The writer stretches his ignorance further by calling KERS "Kinetic Energy Restoration System" and "an ex McLaren brain" "Simon Peters". KERS my friend stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems and the "ex McLaren brain" is Simon Roberts. A simple visit to FIF1's website would have helped the TOI writer to double check his facts. But that is just too much to ask isnt it because then he'd have also seen that not one name on 'the force' page is 'Indian' except the team prinicipal. In fact RIL (Reliance Industries) and the lovely women on Force TV (who apparently also double as pit babes) are what's only Indian in this Formula 1 team's website.
The icing on the cake is this statement -"Mallya has brought pride to a nation that has achieved a lot but has never been associated with this technology driven sport". Can someone please say what brings pride to a nation that doesn't have engineers this team thinks are talented enough to work for them, that doesn't have an F1 driver this team thinks is good enough to drive for them? As somone who has been following the sport since 1997 I take great interest in the sport. It's nice to see FIF1 make such a great improvement to their running, but to call it an achievement to India, to run cover story on our newspapers and to expect that all Indians should take great pride in it is simply stretching things a bit too far.
Imagine the amount of revenue a team can make if it converts even 1/3rd of the cricket crazy sports fans to watch F1. How much more sponsors will line up to support the live coverage of the sport? The bidding price for live coverage in Asia would run into billions of dollars, look at the broadcasters competing for cricketing rights. Force India is a Formula 1 team owned partly by an India but to paint the car in the colors of my national flag and to even expect me to applaud it's achievements only because it's 'supposedly' Indian is a fallacy.
