DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Team Lotus end Karun Chandhok's dream of racing in Indian Grand Prix

**Julik19** · 10-27-2011, 05:49 PM

Chandhok was so much out of his depth in the German Grand Prix that I quite understand, why Lotus doesn't risk putting him into the race seat again. I can also remember Chandhok crashing a car or two in free practices. I don't know, how much money could Chandhok have brought to the team (obviously the amount was insignificant compared to what Karthikeyan can bring to HRT), but there is not much to gain from having one of your cars coming home last.

Well, with such minimal time spent in the car, I don't expect him to do much better, much like how Fisichella and Badoer did when they jumped straight into the Ferrari in Felipe's absence in 2009.

I have to agree with those, who say that people have gone a bit overboard about Indian drivers for the Indian Grand Prix. Why not enter drivers based on that criteria in every GP then? There is Brazilian Grand Prix coming up, maybe Luiz Razia should race for Lotus (he is a reserve driver, isn't he). Maybe with Valsecchi they should have entered two Italians for the Monza GP. Perhaps Ferrari should have entered Badoer for the Italian GP too. Doesn't matter that he would finish last, home Grand Prix after all... etc.

You know, F1 is not WRC, when in the past factory teams used to hire local specialists for certain events in order to maximize points total in the manufacturers championship. And even in WRC this strategy has pretty much died out by now. The best approach for getting results in F1 is consistency, constant swapping of drivers only disturbs the progress. In F1 feeling comfortable in a particular car counts more than knowledge of a particular circuit.

While I agree with most of what you say, but this isn't the first ever Brazilian or Italian GP, is it? Most probably this would be NK and KC's last ever chance to drive in front of their home crowds, because I don't see them having permanent drives in the future, nobody does, so they just wanted to grab this opportunity going with the momentum, and they have many sponsors backing them up for it, the reason HRT let NK in. But as I have said before in this thread, I agree with Tony's decision, as it would be quite futile to waste one race over national pride. Also, you're comparing top teams like Ferrari and midfielders like Renault with a backmarker team like Lotus. Having a sponsor paying huge money for national pride is a good way for one of the minnows to fuel the development of their next year's car.

Ho-Pin Tung is Renault's "test" driver, isn't he? What do you think, should he have entered the Shanghai race instead of Heidfeld?

Has Tung ever raced in F1, completed a full season? Besides, you can't compare the factory Renault team with Lotus IMO. With Renault, there are points at stake, where Lotus is really fighting to be the best of the backmarkers. All the last 3 backmarker teams i.e. Lotus, Virgin and HRT are at 0 points, and they would still be at 0 points at the end of the season, barring a race of attrition where they capitalize over some midfielders' misfortune. They're fighting for the 10th place solely based on race position alone. It's not like they'll be getting revenues based on the points they scored. But they're preparing for such a scenario, and I don't blame Tony for that.

Also, in F1 these days, it's all about who brings in the most dough. Didn't Renault replace Heidfeld with Bruno Senna mid-season too, even though Heidfeld was doing quite good? Haven't they taken a huge risk in lieu of sponsorship money?

10-27-2011, 05:49 PM	#15
Julik19 Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 468 Senior Member	Chandhok was so much out of his depth in the German Grand Prix that I quite understand, why Lotus doesn't risk putting him into the race seat again. I can also remember Chandhok crashing a car or two in free practices. I don't know, how much money could Chandhok have brought to the team (obviously the amount was insignificant compared to what Karthikeyan can bring to HRT), but there is not much to gain from having one of your cars coming home last. Well, with such minimal time spent in the car, I don't expect him to do much better, much like how Fisichella and Badoer did when they jumped straight into the Ferrari in Felipe's absence in 2009. I have to agree with those, who say that people have gone a bit overboard about Indian drivers for the Indian Grand Prix. Why not enter drivers based on that criteria in every GP then? There is Brazilian Grand Prix coming up, maybe Luiz Razia should race for Lotus (he is a reserve driver, isn't he). Maybe with Valsecchi they should have entered two Italians for the Monza GP. Perhaps Ferrari should have entered Badoer for the Italian GP too. Doesn't matter that he would finish last, home Grand Prix after all... etc. You know, F1 is not WRC, when in the past factory teams used to hire local specialists for certain events in order to maximize points total in the manufacturers championship. And even in WRC this strategy has pretty much died out by now. The best approach for getting results in F1 is consistency, constant swapping of drivers only disturbs the progress. In F1 feeling comfortable in a particular car counts more than knowledge of a particular circuit. While I agree with most of what you say, but this isn't the first ever Brazilian or Italian GP, is it? Most probably this would be NK and KC's last ever chance to drive in front of their home crowds, because I don't see them having permanent drives in the future, nobody does, so they just wanted to grab this opportunity going with the momentum, and they have many sponsors backing them up for it, the reason HRT let NK in. But as I have said before in this thread, I agree with Tony's decision, as it would be quite futile to waste one race over national pride. Also, you're comparing top teams like Ferrari and midfielders like Renault with a backmarker team like Lotus. Having a sponsor paying huge money for national pride is a good way for one of the minnows to fuel the development of their next year's car. Ho-Pin Tung is Renault's "test" driver, isn't he? What do you think, should he have entered the Shanghai race instead of Heidfeld? Has Tung ever raced in F1, completed a full season? Besides, you can't compare the factory Renault team with Lotus IMO. With Renault, there are points at stake, where Lotus is really fighting to be the best of the backmarkers. All the last 3 backmarker teams i.e. Lotus, Virgin and HRT are at 0 points, and they would still be at 0 points at the end of the season, barring a race of attrition where they capitalize over some midfielders' misfortune. They're fighting for the 10th place solely based on race position alone. It's not like they'll be getting revenues based on the points they scored. But they're preparing for such a scenario, and I don't blame Tony for that. Also, in F1 these days, it's all about who brings in the most dough. Didn't Renault replace Heidfeld with Bruno Senna mid-season too, even though Heidfeld was doing quite good? Haven't they taken a huge risk in lieu of sponsorship money?
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