09/09/2009
NEWS STORY
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F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone says that Force India should have given its second seat to Indian driver Karun Chandhok as opposed to Italian Tonio Liuzzi.
Ecclestone, who is keen to see India host a round of the World Championship, believes Vijay Mallya's Silverstone based squad missed out on a golden opportunity when it opted to replace (Ferrari-bound) Giancarlo Fisichella with Liuzzi.
"I was hoping Vijay would give Karun a chance," Ecclestone told the Hindustan Times. "And I'm a little disappointed that he has put the Italian guy in. Whether he has to do this by contract I don't know, but I'd have liked to see Karun in the car for the rest of the season."
Ecclestone and Mallya both remain confident that India will host a Grand Prix in 2011 despite their dream taking a severe knock recently when the Indian sports ministry turned down a request from race promoter JPSK Sports for a $36.5 remit in foreign currency payable to Ecclestone's Formula One Administration (FOA), claiming that it sees F1 as entertainment rather than sport and fails to see the value of holding a Grand Prix.
As for Mallya, despite being keen on promoting the sport in his homeland, the Force India boss has shown little interest in the country's two established stars, Chandhok and former F1 racer Narain Karthikeyan, indeed both drivers have come in for a certain amount of criticism from Mallya in the past.
Chandhok, currently 18th in the GP2 Series Championship with Ocean Racing Technology, and who tested for the Toro Rosso F1 team in late 2007, is the son of Vicky Chandhok, President of the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India (FMSCI), of which Mallya is chairman.
"We need to get Karun in a Formula One car quickly," said Ecclestone. "He has the talent and the ability, so it is a case of somebody just getting on and doing it now."
The words, "put", "your", "money", "where", "your", "mouth" and "is", initially spring to mind.