Motorsport needs PPPs for a long drive in India: Executives
show immense promise but require strong
public-private partnerships
(PPP) for sustainable growth, industry executives said, citing the Uttar Pradesh government's deal to host
MotoGP
as a positive step.
Despite having hosted marquee events like
Formula One
(F1) and MotoGP in the past, regulatory and taxation challenges led to F1's exit from the country. Both F1 and MotoGP have over 50 million fans in India.
Industry executives added motorsport holds the potential to boost tourism, generate employment and drive infrastructure development. However, they cautioned that without supportive policies and active government backing, this potential will remain untapped.
"We see a fully structured and inclusive motorsport ecosystem getting built out in India, which definitely needs a two-way partnership-government putting in, private sectors coming in-with support through policy frameworks, funding, and a strong emphasis on the educational threshold that's needed," said Anshuman Singhania, MD,
JK Tyre
& Industries.
He added that an equally critical factor is how the sport gains popularity and how people begin to view it as a viable career path. Narain Karthikeyan, India's first F1 racer, was a JK Tyre prodigy.
Live Events
"JK Tyre will continue to invest in people and technology to make India a global motorsport hub," he said, noting that up to 15% of the company's annual marketing budget is allocated to motorsport.
"Over the past decade, JK Motorsport has invested approximately '200 crore in the development of motorsport-ranging from infrastructure creation and support for both emerging and established talent, to building intellectual properties, collaborating with existing events, and more," he noted.
Vicky Chandhok, vice-president of Madras Motor Sports Club and former president of FMSCI, said red tape and tax-related issues had forced F1 to exit India due to lack of government support. However, he said that the UP government's backing to keep MotoGP in the state has raised hopes.
"Today, we often say that India is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world-and rightly so. But if we truly believe that, we must embrace Formula 1 and MotoGP. These are among the most technologically advanced sports globally, and many corporates are keen to partner with such events-even if it's just for a single India round," Chandhok said.
He noted that F1 and MotoGP, being globally popular sports with billions of viewers, can deliver significant economic value to the country and help build Brand India.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
5 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Lando Norris holds off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri to win F1 Hungarian Grand Prix
Sometimes, a Formula 1 win is less about speed than strategy and gritty driving. Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a tense finish to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday (August 3, 2025) and boost his title chances. Overtaking in Hungary is tough, but Norris had to work hard to keep the win as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. Norris celebrated with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's standings lead to nine points from 16. 'I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough,' Norris said. 'The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out.' It was the fourth one-two finish in a row for McLaren, with Norris winning three of those head-to-heads as the momentum swung back toward him ahead of the four-week midseason break. Making the right callA year on from a contentious first win for Piastri over Norris in Hungary after awkward radio messages, this was a race decided on the track. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tires last to stop only once, while Piastri changed tires twice. Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tires to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap. Still, it was Norris who held on to have the last word in their title fight. 'Good racing. Good strategy. Good call,' was how Norris summed it up on the radio. Piastri's two-stop approach happened because, at the time, he and McLaren were more focused on getting ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, whose pace eventually fell away anyway. 'It wasn't obvious that we just had enough pace to blow past (Leclerc),' Piastri said. 'For Lando, there was virtually nothing to lose by trying a one-stop race. For myself, potentially there was." George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell while defending. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth after being off the pace all week. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points off leader Piastri in another heavy blow to an already unlikely title defense. Ferrari frustrationLeclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth after a radio message of what he later admitted was misplaced blame aimed at the team. 'This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness,' he told the team over the radio. However, he later told broadcaster Sky Sports that the car actually had a chassis problem he only learned about later. A day after calling himself 'useless' and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. His comments after the race seemed set to fuel more speculation about his troubled first season with the Italian team. 'There's a lot going on in the background that is not great,' Hamilton told Sky Sports, without explaining further. Hamilton never seemed to have the pace to fight for points and was at one stage forced off the track by Verstappen as his old rival overtook him. Aston's dayFernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. Liam Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls, with Verstappen ninth and Kimi Antonelli 10th for Mercedes.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Motor racing-Brown hails McLaren's 200th win as close to perfect
By Alan Baldwin HT Image BUDAPEST, Aug 3 (Reuters) - McLaren boss Zak Brown hailed the team's 200th Formula One win, with Lando Norris ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri in a one-two finish in Hungary on Sunday, as close to perfect. The win was Norris's fifth of the season and McLaren's seventh one-two in 14 races as well as the team's fourth in a row. "You're never perfect in a race but I think that was as close to perfect as you can get," Brown told Sky Sports television. "The drivers were awesome, pit stops amazing, strategy was great to get Lando up there, Oscar drove brilliantly. I couldn't be prouder of this racing team." Norris and Piastri crossed the finish line 0.698 of a second apart, with the pair almost touching when the Australian tried to make a move on his British teammate on the penultimate lap and locked up. Team principal Andrea Stella said it had been 'firm' racing but also fair between rivals now separated by just nine points. "We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar but at the same time Lando left some space because he knew that Oscar would have been at the limit of braking," said the Italian. "We keep being very proud of our Lando and Oscar for racing. I think this is a great way of honouring Formula One racing. These are the value of McLaren." Despite celebrating his ninth career win, Norris said he needed to improve because he was making life too hard for himself. He won from third on the grid, after dropping to fifth at the start and then making a one-stop strategy work with Piastri on two. "It's going to be a good and tough battle probably until the end. It takes a lot out of you trying to focus so much for every single session, race, everything. So, it's going be a long second half of the season, I'm sure," he said. "There are those things I need to improve on and want to improve on. I'm not giving myself the best opportunities. Even though the results have looked great, I'm not making my life very easy for myself at the minute. "So if I can work on those things, then I'll be in a better place." McLaren are only the second team to chalk up 200 grand prix wins since the world championship started in 1950. Ferrari, yet to win this season, are on 248. Mercedes, next after McLaren, have 130. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
Lewis Hamilton still down after difficult Hungarian GP
Lewis Hamilton said there was a lot going on in the background after he finished 12th in the Hungarian Grand Prix, a day after calling himself useless and suggesting Ferrari should find a replacement. The seven-times world champion cut a despondent figure, giving only terse replies to media questions about the race and his earlier words, but confirmed he would return after the August break. 'I look forward to coming back,' he said. 'Hopefully, I will be back, yeah.' On Saturday Hamilton had told reporters that 'it's me every time. I'm useless, absolutely useless' and said Ferrari 'probably need to change driver.' Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur said Hamilton, the most successful F1 driver of all time but lapped on Sunday, was demanding of everyone but most of all of himself. He said it was a tough situation to be 12th on the grid, at a circuit where he has won a record eight times and been on pole nine, when teammate Charles Leclerc qualified in first place. 'I can understand the frustration from Lewis, that this is normal,' added the Frenchman. 'So we will be back and we will perform. 'I don't need to motivate him. Honestly, he's frustrated, but not demotivated. It's a completely different story.' Leclerc ultimately finished fourth after leading for much of the race. Hamilton's former Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also spoke out strongly in the 40-year-old Briton's defence, calling his Saturday comments just 'Lewis wearing his heart on his sleeve. 'It was very raw. It was out of himself and we had it in the past when he felt that he underperformed his own expectations,' added the Austrian. 'He's been that emotional, emotionally transparent since he was a young boy, a young adult. So he's got to beat himself up. 'He's the GOAT (greatest of all time) and will always be the GOAT and nobody's going to take that away.' Wolff said also that he was sure Hamilton had unfinished business in Formula One, after losing controversially in 2021 what would have been a record eighth title, and still had what it takes. 'He shouldn't go anywhere next year,' said the Mercedes boss. 'Brand new cars, completely different to drive, new power units… I hope he stays on for many more years and certainly next year is going to be an important one.'
