Mallya: It’s a dream come true

Sahara Force India boss Vijay Mallya has admitted that the Indian Grand Prix is a “dream come true” and an event he did not expect to witness in his lifetime..

Connected to the development of the track since its inception, Mallya said that all those involved had proved any doubters wrong. “A lot of people were sceptical, and I think we proved them all wrong, which is very, very nice,” he said of the circuit’s opening.

“I drove around the track a couple of times yesterday, I spoke to several drivers. They simply love the track. It’s complete, it’s finished. The race is happening, it’s real, it’s a dream come true.

“I have a huge vested interest,” he added. “Over 30 years ago I drove my Ensign Formula One car here in India and I never thought I would ever see a Formula One car race around India in the future.

“As the chairman of the ASN responsible for motorsport here, we have been trying to promote motorsport in this country for over three decades and this is like a dream come true. When I acquired the then Spyker team, I re-named it Force India and there was a lot of strategy and meaning behind it, as it was meant to put India on the Formula One map. We have had an Indian team since 2008 on the Formula One grid and now a grand prix here in Delhi. This is unbelievably fantastic.”

Asked if the Indian Government would now become involved in the event financially, Mallya said that the Grand Prix would continue in the hands of private enterprise. “In a country like India, with the profile of our people, with the number of under-privileged people we also have, it would be too much of an ask if we went to government and said ‘subsidise motor sport’,” he said. “So this initiative here at the Buddh International Circuit is a private initiative by the Jaypee Group – God bless them, they’ve done a wonderful job and invested a lot of money and they haven’t depended on any sort of government grants.”

The Sahara Force India boss was then asked about reports contrasting the glamorous nature of F1 with the underprivileged population he had mentioned. “In every country there are the privileged and the under-privileged. We have under-privileged people in our country, but that doesn’t mean that the country must be bogged down or weighed down,” he said. “India is a progressive country, we have a strongly growing economy, a large economy. The government is doing all it can to address the needs of the poor or the under-privileged people but India must move on.

“Back in 1990, we consciously made a decision to integrate ourselves into the world economy, to open up from an era of total government control and so the country must move forward. The Commonwealth Games were held here in India, now it’s Formula One. I’m sure there will be several more global events in our country, because this is a world-class country in many ways. Sure we have our problems but those are being addressed.”

F1 Media