Bridgestone keen to develop “Indian” compound

Interest in Formula One now sees the series going stratospheric in India. The sub-continent has had a grass roots interest in motorsport for many years, with races being staged at Madras, but F1 looks set to becoming second only to cricket in the nation's sporting affections.

The renewed interest in F1 is for two reasons: Indian entrepreneur Vijay Mallya is in the throes of buying a 50 percent stake in the Spyker F1 team and an Indian Grand Prix in 2010 has basically been confirmed.

Mallya is teaming up with Spyker's director of F1, Michiel Mol, to buy Spyker. Their 80 million Euro bid has been accepted by Spyker cars and the deal is expected to be completed before the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of the month. The new team has been dubbed Team India and could end up with two Indian drivers, which raises hopes of a return to the top echelon of the sport by Narain Karthikeyan.

"The deal is good for F1," said Mallya. "It's good for India and it's good for Formula One Management because the viewership is going to shoot up now."

All the while Mallya has been working on the deal to buy Spyker, F1 track designer Hermann Tilke has been visiting various sites for a planned Indian GP. He recently returned from a two-day visit to New Delhi, where he was a guest of the Indian Olympic Association.

Tilke has already investigated the possibility of a street race in Mumbai and if the infrastructure for a race is going to be ready for '09, a decision about its location will have to be taken shortly. And Bridgestone will be first on the long list of motorsport companies that will head out to Mumbai, to ensure it develops the right compound of tires for the race.

"Once the race and venue is confirmed, we would like to check the asphalt as early as possible," agreed Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport's Head of Track Engineering Operations. "If the Indian GP is held on a street track, we'd expect to use a-soft tire compound because the speeds are low and the track surface will be slippery. If it's on a permanent venue, a lot depends on the track surface and the speed of the corners."