Illustration: Ashoke Mullick

When she was four, she broke the gearbox of her mother’s Fiat while she was fiddling with its clutch. When she was in kindergarten, she smeared a can of car wax all over the car.

Monisha Kaltenborn Narang doesn’t mess with cars anymore. At 40, she is deft in not just dealing with cars and speed but also in negotiating water-tight contracts with drivers, sponsors and suppliers.

Kaltenborn is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Swiss Formula One (F1) team Sauber F1, which is participating in the three-day mega 2011 Formula 1 Airtel Grand Prix of India which ends today. She is the first woman CEO of a Formula One team.

“Perhaps the attraction to cars started at that young age. Though little did I know then that my association with cars would be here to stay,” says Kaltenborn with a dazzling smile, almost outshining the sparkle of the diamond studs on her ears.

The pink lipstick complements her fair skin. In a white shirt, marked with the logos of the sponsors of her F1 team, and a pair of grey trousers, she looks like a thorough professional — which she no doubt is. Since the time she landed in Delhi on Friday morning, Kaltenborn has had a series of meetings with organisers and the media as a run-up to the event. She has also taken several rounds of the $215 million racing circuit — the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

But even after a hectic day, she looks fresh and calm while chatting in the lobby of a five-star hotel. The excitement of being in India after a gap of two years may have added to her high energy level. “For the first time I have been able to combine my work with a visit to India,” she says in an accent still rooted in her origins.

She admits that she doesn’t get to speak Hindi much these days but tries to speak in her mother tongue with her nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter back home in Switzerland. “At home, we want to use Hindi words as much as possible. For example, no one says ‘tea’ in our house — it is always chai,” says Kantelborn, who is married to a German.

Not surprisingly, she is happy to be in India, which she stresses is a huge consumer market for the Grand Prix. There are enormous investment opportunities not just for car manufacturers but also for telecommunication companies and technology specialists, she points out.

“It has opened doors for more engineers and companies to find their way into Formula One. This year’s Formula One schedule comprises 19 races in 18 countries, and it’s right and proper that India is now a part of this exclusive group. This will also generate a lot of local interest in the sport,” says Kaltenborn.

Yet there has been criticism galore about the event. I point out that Indian athlete P.T. Usha has called it a “criminal waste”.

“It is not a criminal waste at all,” she replies promptly. “There are different images that India holds. This event nicely fits into the global image of the country at a time when it is emerging as a superpower. India will gain out of it and this will clearly show where India wants to go in the next few years.”

The last grand international event that India had hosted was the Commonwealth Games in 2010 — and that was marred by a series of ugly controversies, including allegations of graft about top government officials in charge of the games. Kaltenborn replies that she is “happy” the F1 event has been solely handled by a private consortium.

“It is great to see that private people can do it too without involving the government in it,” she says.

Kaltenborn left India when she was a child, so the role of the private sector still comes to her as a surprise. Born in Dehradun, about 250 kilometres from Delhi, she spent the first eight years of her life at her maternal grandparents’ house. A student at Welham Girls’ High School till the second standard, she recalls being pampered by her grandfather. “I got away with every mischief as my grandfather always came to my rescue,” she chuckles.

In 1979, her father, who used to run a motorcycle dealership, decided to move to Vienna, where he looked after his uncle’s restaurant. “My parents wanted a better education for me, so we moved early to avoid any problems with adjustments later,” she says.

She completed a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1995 and then worked as a research assistant at the UN Industrial Development Organization and the UN Commission on International Trade Law in Vienna. Later, she studied international law at the London School of Economics.

Her first job as a legal professional was at the German law firm Gleiss, Lutz, Hootz, Hirsch in Stuttgart in southern Germany. This is where she met Jens Kaltenborn. After they were married, they relocated from Germany to Liechtenstein, where she began working for the Fritz Kaiser Group in 1998 in its legal and corporate affairs section. Kaiser was a shareholder in the Bull Sauber F1 team.

“When Kaiser sold its shares in the team at the turn of the millennium, I was asked by the Bull Sauber F1 team’s co-owner Peter Sauber to join him. I thought I’d take up the job to see how it worked. So I moved to Hinwil in Switzerland from Liechtenstein to head the Sauber Group’s legal department in 2000.

A year later, she was on the management board. “I learnt a lot on the job but opportunities came up since I’d grasped the nitty-gritty of the business well,” she says.

Kaltenborn was with the team in its most difficult period when BMW pulled out of Formula 1 in 2009, leading to uncertainty related to Sauber’s racing cars and the company’s future. The number of employees came down from 388 to 260.

“But the job was to keep the company going and secure funding and we ensured that this happened,” she says.

Her contribution to the company was recognised, and in 2010 she took over the business operations of the entire team. Her responsibility was extended to dealings with the Fédération Internationale de ’Automobile (FIA) — the federation of the world’s leading motoring organisations.

She holds she is satisfied with the young drivers of the team — Kamui Kobayashi and rookie Sergio Pérez, who rank 12th and 16th, respectively, in world ratings. The team is in the seventh spot.

“I’m quite happy with the season, especially when you think of the obstacles we’ve had to overcome since 2009. Our aim for 2011 was to make a clear improvement over 2010. Now we want to reclaim the sixth place in the standings.”

Kaltenborn, who is also a member of the FIA’s newly founded Women & Motor Sport Commission, which promotes women’s participation in motor sports worldwide, now wants to encourage more women to join the sport.

Surely that’s easier said than done in the heavily male-dominated industry? “Certainly it’s not easy. Though I never faced any discrimination as such at work, there are inhibitions,” she admits.

But she has seen the industry change for the better too. Earlier, she says, she was mostly asked questions about the company, the team, the future of the F1, but her opinion was never sought on a race or a driver. “But that’s slowly changing now,” she says.

Not that remarks against women in the industry have stopped. A few years ago, Bernie Ecclestone, the 80-year-old commercial ringmaster of Formula One motor racing, observed that women should wear white and stay in the kitchen — like all domestic appliances.

“I feel women should go to the kitchen if they cook well,” she says jokingly. “But,” she adds, “nothing can stop them from going out and working. I would always want women to appear strong and confident in whichever role they play.”

Even though her life moves around “speed” and “race”, she says she is a “quiet and calm” person. Yoga, tennis and opera are her outlets. But what fascinates her most is the sky above. “As a child, I dreamt of becoming an astronaut but that could not happen. But anything up in the sky still enthralls me,” she says, rushing off to attend another meeting exactly after our stipulated time slot of 20 minutes.

The F1, after all, is all about speed and precision.