India's F1 connection, and it isn't Mallya or Chandok or Narain

By Dhananjay Khadilkar Formula One fever has gripped India with sponsors going overboard and promoting the teams, the drivers, the sport all over the place. But to most Indians, Formula One in a very desi sense means only Vijay Mallya or Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok. Everyone else talks but only these three have actually been part of the circus; only these three have something real to say. But it turns out that the Indian connection with the sport is much stronger and not restricted to them. For Monisha Kaltenborn Narang, Tony Fernandes and Bal Sira, this Sunday’s race at the Buddh International Circuit in Noida is a sort of homecoming — one they didn’t expect till a few years back. They occupy important positions in three different F1 teams. [caption id=“attachment_118148” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Monisha Kaltenborn Narang is the CEO of the Sauber team. IBNLive”] [/caption] Monisha, who is the CEO of Sauber F1, was born in Dehradun, spent the first eight years in the North Indian town before moving to Austria. Tony’s father, who is the owner of Team Lotus, was born in Goa and brought up in Kolkata while Bal’s grandparents, who works as the No.2 mechanic on Sebastian Vettel’s car, are from Punjab. Not surprisingly, all three of them are looking forward to Sunday’s race for more than just sporting reasons. According to 41-year-old Monisha, “it will be a very special experience because for the first time I’ll be able to combine my work with a visit back to the country of my birth – and, moreover, as part of the inaugural grand prix in India.” [caption id=“attachment_118150” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“Tony Fernandes is the owner of Team Lotus. Reuters”] [/caption] For the 47-year-old Tony, who also owns the budget airline Air Asia and is a majority stake holder in th English football club Queens park Rangers, the Indian GP is a sign of the country’s strength. “Formula One needs to be in India, to embrace a huge pool of fans, and, more importantly, start tapping into the wealth of talent that will help drive the sport forward, from drivers and engineers to mechanics, designers and commercial and marketing staff,” he said. Thirty-one-year-old Bal, who was born in London, is in India for the first time. “I’m really looking forward to the Indian GP. I’ve heard so much about it from my family. New races are always good fun to go to. The show car team has completed two events in the run up to this race - in the Himalayas and on the Buddh international circuit, and they came back with such great stories. It should be good,” he remarked. Though none of them are based in India, they are still passionate about Indian food, language and culture, namely Bollywood and cricket. Monisha, who has been based in Europe since the late 1970s, tries to speak Hindi with her two kids. “My son is nine, my daughter six, and I’d like them to learn the language. We’ve got to the point now at home where we only use Hindi for certain words. For example, no one says ’tea’ in our house – that’s ‘chai’. And when the children were smaller and wanted to be picked up, they’d always shout out ‘godi’,” she said. Tony, in his own words, loves Bollywood and is passionate about cricket too. “I don’t have any favourite actors, but I met Shah Rukh Khan couple of times and am impressed by his personality. In cricket, (Indian captain) MS Dhoni stands out as the player to follow,” he said. Bal, on the other hand, loves dal-roti, which he terms as his favourite dish. He is fond of Bollywood too with Amitabh Bachchan being his favourite actor.