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Raju Bist
The Tata Group
has been supporting Narain Karthikeyan from long before
he became the first Indian to participate in a Formula One
race
Even three
and half years later, Romit Chaterji vividly remembers the
day Narain Karthikeyan breezed into his office on the second
floor of the imposing Bombay House, headquarters of the Tata
Group. By then, the Chennai lad, all of 25 years young, was
already known as 'the fastest Indian on wheels'. But this
reputation alone was not enough in opening the purse strings
of sponsors in his quest to become a world-class racing champion.
Karthikeyan could not have knocked
on the Tata doors at a more opportune time. As Chaterji, vice
president, corporate affairs, Tata Services, remembers, "We
had just conducted a detailed survey which showed that the
Tata brand name did not connect sufficiently well with Generation
X."
The Group was seriously looking at
associating itself with a youth-related activity in sports
or entertainment. "We chose sports since it has always
been a part of the Tata ethos," says Chaterji. The Group
felt that cricket was too overcrowded. Motor sports suited
the Group perfectly. It was thus that the Tatas ended up sponsoring
Karthikeyan in the Telefonica World Series in Japan, the same
event from where Ralf Schumacher, younger brother of current
Formula One (F1) racing champion Michael Schumacher, first
zoomed into the limelight.
Karthikeyan later went on to score
impressive wins in F1 circuits like Magny Cours, France, and
Valencia, Spain. Throughout, he was ably supported by the
Tata Group. The affiliation is now culminating in the speedster
making history by becoming the first Indian to participate
in a prestigious F1 Grand Prix. Karthikeyan is part of Team
Jordan, recently acquired by Russian billionaire Alex Shnaider
and his Midland Group. He will be racing against 19 drivers
and nine teams in the Australian Grand Prix on March 6, 2005,
which is when the F1 2005 calendar will also be flagged off.
"We have gone flat out in the
practice sessions," says Karthikeyan on the phone from
London. He is amazed at the amount of interest his forthcoming
races have generated back home in India and admits to being
weighed under a "sense of responsibility". But he
cautions everybody to look at realistic targets. "There
is no way that I can beat Michael Schumacher. He is a legend.
Also, the new engine that Jordan is using for my car is not
very different from the one used last year. It has just been
modified to meet some regulations."
In a short but exciting career, Karthikeyan
has gone from strength to strength. He created a record in
1996 when he won the Formula Asia Championship — he was
the only Asian to win this championship. He then entered the
British Formula 3 Championship. In 2002, Karthikeyan started
racing in the Formula Nissan World Series as well as in the
FIA GT Championship. Between 1998 and 2001, he had a successful
run at the French F3 Championship. After one season in the
Champ Car World Series, he raced in the Nissan World Series
where he finished second in the championship.
Apart from public sector oil behemoth
BPCL, the Tata Group and Tata Motors are sponsoring the perennially
smiling racer (another sponsor, JK Tyre, has a direct affiliation
with Jordan). Says Karthikeyan, "The Tatas have been
my long-time sponsors and it is only apt that they are with
me when I make my debut on the F1 scene." He is a tad
disappointed because he has lost two days of crucial racing
practice, but he did manage to practice for the earlier six
days and, in the process, also got to know well the Jordan
team of a dozen engineers, each of whom will provide him with
crucial back-up support in Melbourne.
The Australian Grand Prix — and
the other 18 races that comprise the F1 2005 calendar —
will be watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide
on their TV sets. It is a global market that the now resurgent
Tata Group is keenly eyeing. "Of late, the Tata Group
has been increasingly looking at global operations, in terms
of new manufacturing bases abroad as well as increased exports,"
says Chaterji. "And apart from the Olympics, only tennis,
motor sports and golf are truly global sporting phenomena.
It's a perfect fit: a newly aggressive Tata Group being associated
with an assertive event like F1 racing."
But then, the Tatas and sports go back
together a long way. It was in 1937 that the Tata Sports Club
was established. In all, the group has nurtured 32 Olympians,
nine world champions, 41 Asian Games winners, eight Commonwealth
winners, eight Padma Shree awardees and 28 Arjuna Award winners.
The Tata Group is the only industrial house that has set up
training academies for different sports (football, archery
and mountaineering) and sponsored a large number of teams
(including the Indian contingents for the 1920 Antwerp and
1924 Paris Olympics).
Apart from Karthikeyan, Group companies
have supported tennis aces Leander Paes and Sania Mirza; Test
cricketers Saurav Ganguly, Ajit Agarkar and Dilip Vengsarkar;
gutsy mountaineer Bachendri Pal; billiards champions Michael
Ferriera and Geet Sethi; and badminton maestro Pullela Gopichand.
Many of them were supported well before
they became big names. A case in point: the Tata Group has
just taken under its wings upcoming racing car driver Karun
Chandok.
"We are always encouraging, giving
a chance. We don't wait for a sportsperson to become a star
before we start backing him," says Chaterji. "We
have given Karthikeyan a start. The rest is up to him…"
This article was posted before Karthikeyan
raced at Melbourne on March 6, 2005
| Getting
the formula right
Formula One racing, better known
as F1, consists of a number of races, each known as
a grand prix, organised during a particular year. The
year 2005 will see 19 such races, with the first one
being held at Melbourne, Australia, on 6 March 2005.
F1 is the most expensive sport
in the world. Its main organiser is the Fédération
Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Its promoter and
best known face is the flashy Britisher Bernie Ecclestone.
The 75-year-old has build up major stakes in the companies
that control the F1.
Ecclestone made it to the Indian
media recently when he declared on BBC that an Indian
city could end up hosting the F1 within three years,
most probably Mumbai. Narain Karthikeyan, now warming
up for his F1 debut, too got into the act when his team
Jordan unveiled their car at Moscow’s famed Red
Square on 25 February 2005. "India would very much
like to host a race in a future Grand Prix calendar,"
he said. "More people are now backing Formula One.
It’s a great business opportunity for sponsors
with the sport attracting interest in new countries."
Karthikeyan’s entry into
the F1 league has spurred a new interest in the world
of burning rubber, zippy pit stops (for refuelling and/or
changing tyres) and the top three champions spraying
champagne on each other at the victory stand. Now a
few racing enthusiasts have got together in Mumbai to
float The Chequered Flag Club, an affiliation of F1
aficionados.
India continues to be just a
blip on the F1 radar for now. But the sport is really
big in the rest of the Asian continent. According to
one estimate, around 66 per cent of the Grand Prix viewership
last year came from Asia. This fact is not lost on the
FIA and it has organised three of the races this season
in Asian circuits. While Malaysia will host the event
on 20 March 2005, the year’s last two races will
be held in Japan and China on 9 October 2005 and 16
October 2005, respectively.
The sport had its origins in
Europe, in 1920 to be precise. Over the years a few
teams have ended up dominating during particular periods.
Thus the eighties belonged to McLaren and the nineties
to Williams. The last five years, of course, have been
overshadowed by the Ferrari team with the unbeatable
Michael Schumacher at the wheel. In 2004 alone, the
burly German won 12 of the 17 races.
Every Grand Prix race takes place
on a Sunday and is 300 km long. Each team is allotted
two entries; Karthikeyan’s partner at Melbourne
will be a Portuguese driver, 27-year-old Tiago Monteiro.
Points are awarded to the top
eight drivers in each race. The winner receives 10 points,
the runner up eight and the third-placed six points.
Five, four, three, two and one points are awarded to
those finishing between the fourth and eighth positions.
At the end of the season, the
racer with the maximum points ends up as the overall
winner and picks up the Driver Championship title.
For the record, Schumacher
has bagged this title seven times in the last decade,
having won a total of 65 races!
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Uploaded on March
5, 2005
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