Karthikeyan among the best youngsters today

New Delhi: Motorsports Association of India (MAI) president Nazir Hoosein has said promoting Narain Karthikeyan would not only help the ace driver realise his dream of driving a Formula One car but also quicken the arrival of Grand Prix racing in the country.

Not expecting the F1 to come to India before 2010, Hoosein said funding Narain would serve the twin purpose of helping him break into elite racing while also boosting the fans’ interest in the sport back home.

“Narain may be too old by the time F1 arrives in India, which at a tentative estimate would be six or seven years down the road. In fact, he should be promoted to accelerate the interest in F1 to shorten the time,” Hoosein said here on Sunday.

The motor sports chief ranked the 27-year old Indian among the best of new generation Formula racers. “He is very good and could be placed alongside some of the new comers in F1,” said Hoosein.

An aspiring F1 driver needs not just the talent and skill but also millions of dollars to get a contract at the beginning stages of his career.

Although top teams like Ferrari, owned by auto giants Fiat, have the financial resources to sign up Michael Schumacher whose earnings run into tens of millions of dollars a year in wages alone, the lesser car makers struggle to make their ends meet and depend on the money brought in by the aspirants.

It is only after proving his class with the likes of Minardi and other low rung teams that one could expect hefty pay cheques coming his way. And it is here that Narain, the only Indian to have test driven an F1 car, is stuck.

Hoosein cited the case of Malaysian government helping Alex Yoong as a solution to Narain’s problems. “Yes, money is the major hurdle. Narain’s funding can come from more Indian companies that want to project a wider international image or by government itself as was the case in Alex Yoong and Malaysia,” he said.

On the worthiness of having a Grand Prix in India, the MAI president said the Sepang circuit in Malaysia showed that the F1 might bring economic benefits to the country although the race by itself was not successful.

“Like so many other circuits, Sepang loses money... At the same time, the economic benefit to Malaysia is great and hotels near the airport raise their tariff by ten times when F1 runs.”

While India does not have a circuit homologated with the FIA, sports world governing body (meaning currently the country cannot host even a basic international race), China’s Shanghai circuit is gearing up for its first GP in September.

The Arab kingdom of Dubai, has a circuit of F1 standards and was planning to commence a Formula known as the A1 Grand Prix to showcase its bid for F1.

For a viable business model, however, Hoosein said India should take the lead from Brazil and Hungary. “From economics point of view, Brazil, Hungary and India have a few aspects in common,” he said.

Hoosein said hosting a Grand Prix also improved the image of the country. “Bahrain was able to successfully quash rumours about the F1 race being able to run in a country considered unsafe. It had in fact a number of very high level dignitaries present at the same time. This has put Bahrain in a different light.”