'India can knock Europe out of the park'

NEW DELHI: Anthony Francis Fernandes,better known as Tony, loves to fly high. If there is one man who can turn afaltering business around, it has to be the 45-year-old Malaysian owner ofAsia's largest low-cost carrier - Air Asia. After launching Team Lotus in 2010, Fernandes stepped into Formula One following other aviation giants Richard Branson (Marussia Virgin Racing) and India's Vijay Mallya (Force India). Fernandes now is looking forward to Asia's latest F1 destination with the inaugural Airtel Indian Grand Prix set to flag off on October 30. Narain Karthikeyan might have sealed a spot for the Indian GP, but Fernandes still remains non-committal whether Lotus test driver Karun Chandhok will be in the cockpit in front of the home crowd. TOI spoke to the Lotus team owner about India's arrival on the F1 scene. Excerpts: I think it's been okay - westepped away from the cars behind but haven't reached the cars ahead, which iswhere we want to be. I would like to be about one second quicker, but withoutKERS and having started this as only our second season I am still pretty happy.I'd like him (Karun) to drive in his home GP. But I have leftthe decision completely up to the team management. We haven't reached a finaldecision yet. Absolutely! F1 needs India much more than India needsF1. So, I think the sport will do whatever it can to make the race there as goodas it possibly can be! You have two drivers now in F1, a team with India in thename and a fan base who are keen on the sport. So, India could well be knockingEurope out of the park in a few years!All I have heard is good news from Karun and his dad Vicky.They have been raving about what a fantastic track it is, how good it will be tosee F1 on their home soil and how well F1 will be embraced. So, whatever happenson track, it will be a great race. For us, we will do what we can to push theguys ahead and see what happens.We havefinished the major updates for this season, but we have been working on the 2012car for months now. For next year, I want us to be able to push the cars aheadmore regularly. We will have KERS, we will have two wind tunnels operating andwe will have had a full design office working together on the car since thefirst day of the 2012 build. So, I want us to take another step forward, as wedid this year. Definitely - if they have thetalent we will give them the chance.I suspect so, but it's not all about the drivers. Fans havetraditionally followed one team, Ferrari and then drivers. But we have beenworking very hard since day one of our team to make sure people follow us andour drivers. We see a lot of fans out there in our team kit who say they loveboth drivers, but what they most like is how we as a team go racing. So,hopefully, Indian fans will support us because of what we do, not who we are.Talent, money, wind tunnel time and teamwork. Simple,really!