No this is not a man-bites dog story. While I (and maybe you) were sleeping, India has develope a race car team and I am not talking about a Bollywood movie.
Here are the first ranking from Formula One laps in Valencia, Spain
1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1 minute 13.769 seconds, 93
2. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:13.938, 71
3. Gary Paffett, McLaren, 1:14.292, 91
4. Paul di Resta, Force India, 1:14.461, 28
The Hindu, a newspaper based in Chennai, had this to say
Force India’s Adrian Sutil clocked the second fastest time while Narain Karthikeyan in the Hispania Racing car dropped nearly two seconds off his Wednesday’s pace as the first Formula One (F1) pre-season testing concluded here Thursday. The 34-year old Karthikeyan, returning to F1 after a five-season break, clocked a best of one minute, 16.535 seconds over 63 laps as against the 1:14.472 he did the previous day while focusing on different set-ups. The Indian completed 188 laps in the three-day session.
The future isn’t what it used to be as Yogi Berra would say. Discard (many of ) your old assumptions about India and you may see some opportunity that you did not see otherwise.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
