If the F1 races were supposed to have been an exhibition of India’s coming of age in motorsports, think again, says Veeresh Malik

Veeresh Malik

How the recently-concluded Formula-1 (F1) races in Greater Noida almost did not happen due to issues of safety and completion are open knowledge. That they did take place, despite external and other infrastructure not being in place, is also open knowledge. What does take the cake, is the continued repetition of the expression: ‘world class’ experience—in the context of the complete episode.
What is meant by ‘world class’ is unknown; France has already withdrawn from the F1 circus—South Korea, Nürburgring (Germany) and Turkey are off the calendar for 2012, and Melbourne in Australia is probably into its last F1 in 2012. If anything, a close look at the numbers behind the whole F1 circus makes it appear more like a global ‘tax evasion’ class event. It is likely that the complete hype was also due to the fact that media of all sorts, not just motorsports media, and their extended families, were present in full force on complimentary tickets for the best seats in the house. And then they put their own mugshots on social networking sites too. As far as quotable quotes from the vast variety of foreign entities were concerned, here’s what their PR guidance was, apparently—“Keep flattering the Indians as much as you can, and then double it.”

In addition, the excessive pollution caused by the event itself and the supporting movement, has been largely responsible for the heavy smog in and around Delhi for the past few days. Over a few lakh extra cars, more stuck in traffic jams, and the light breeze from the south-east into Delhi—all these factors did not help. Motor-racing of the internal combustion engine sort is increasingly considered to be about as politically and environmentally correct as smoking tobacco and burning plastic—and is one reason why such events are not on or going off the calendar in ‘world class’ cities globally.

Post-event, and not just pertaining to the issue of entertainment tax, the numbers will start coming out. Apart from the deep inner feeling that once again the long-suffering tax-paying public has ended up paying for a huge and loud party thrown for the benefit of a select few, is the simple issue that the organisers need to be brought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, to explain these numbers, especially in view of the ‘substantially financed’ aspect.

German & French Cars: French Miss It

When will they ever learn to reach out to Indians

Renault has joined the bandwagon of those who are announcing a small car in India. After over a decade of hearing about their proposed small car with a wide range of potential partners, and then the rather unfortunate experience (for owners) of Renault’s otherwise good car, the Mahindra Logan, this is one company that has got its PR machinery into overdrive.

The French have messed up on Indian roads, for the past few decades, and it seems they plan to continue. Few will remember that TELCO first approached the French for truck technology after World War-II, only to be snubbed, an opportunity which the then recovering Daimler Mercedes-Benz grabbed with both hands. And, in the bargain, the 3-pointed star also became the generic term for luxury cars in India, forever. The sad story continued with Peugeot and then Renault. In between, there were some long forgotten two-wheeler episodes too. It is not as though the French technology or brands don’t work for India—far from it. It appears that they place little emphasis on getting the product out to the people, expecting customers to go looking for them. Something like French food being placed on a pedestal of ‘not for everybody’.

That doesn’t work in India. We want value for money. In everything. As the ‘luxury’ car manufacturers from Germany are great practitioners of, and have used to their benefit, if you expect to sell cars in India, it does not harm perception that your buses and smaller cars are known for their practical aspects also.

Which is where Renault appears destined to follow the previous French attempts. They just haven’t reached out to the people. Even though they make brilliant cars—as of now, they are very expensive, but once the prices drop—they are worth taking a look at. If you can find a dealer, that is.

Long-Distance Bus Drives: Who Needs Trains?

Increasingly, roads are becoming a better option

There has been a big shift in the way long-distance buses are increasing their reach, with the slow but steady improvement in roads in some parts of the country. As well as the rapid growth of multi-axle buses equipped with toilets which are capable of handling such long journeys. A bus journey to replace a 24-hour train trip is no longer the invisible glass ceiling, and some new city pairs that have recently started operating on routes where trains took 24-36 hours include Mysore–Ahmedabad, Pune–Jammu, Hyderabad-Mangalore, Bengaluru-Nagpur, Hyderabad-Indore and New Delhi to various points on the Nepal border with India. Likewise, plenty of similar routes already operate from cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Goa and Kochi.

So it was not surprising to learn that a government from a newly resurgent state in east India was looking for methods to improve connectivity by luxury buses from their towns to non-metro cities in the rest of the country, with a 24-36 hour railway time window. Point-to-point trains were obviously not doing it anymore, since many smaller towns had evolved into huge cities, but remained way-stations for railway connectivity. Wouldn’t that increase the number of cars on the road? More data was brought to show that even for people who had cars, the idea of travelling long distance, especially through the night, did not seem to work. One reason being the lack of good simple family-oriented non-tourism related night-stop facilities en route in much of India. Which is where F1 comes in. Being a fairly closed shop kind of race, with a majority of the global automobile majors absent for some reason, the real story for F1 is written by the absentees. Those who don’t care about spending time watching it, but also those who make good automobiles, but are nowhere near it. For those global manufacturers, the message was clear—our focus is going to be on building better cars for quasi-public transport usage—as well as looking at how to re-enter the heavy vehicles market, but for fast buses this time around. For which—not half in jest—one can carry out heavy vehicle endurance testing and racing at the F1 tracks in Noida... anybody game?

Veeresh Malik started and sold a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing. He is also involved actively in helping small and midsize family-run businesses re-invent themselves.