It’s been a long time since I blogged especially in the event of the official announcement of the Indian Grand Prix. Its Airtel which has bagged official rights to be the Presenting sponsor, there are other brands as well which will make it to the fore in the days to come. Vodafone will have its presence in the grid with McLaren Mercedes!

The ticket sales started on Saturday with two of the service providers in Bookmyshow.com and Jaypeesports.com and in a matter of hours they had sold over 10,000 tickets. A big number for Indian standards and this will only grow larger and the online tickets are set to get sold at the earliest opportunity.

While this has ushered in the required media frenzy and the much awaited factor are that of the Indian driver’s presence on the grid. Narain Karthikeyan has said he will do the first Indian GP in front of the Indian crowd, Karun was non committal and said he will be in for the date with destiny on the appointed day.

While I write this Bruno Senna has had a call to replace Heikki at Lotus which augurs well for Karun also.

The best news came today when Mercedes announced the starting of a F1 drivers Academy which is the third one of its kind outside Europe. Imagine being trained by God of the universe, Micheal Schumacher in some days at Indian Soil. This is one great step forward because it comes close on the heels of Force India F1’s Driver hunt titled One from a Billion. This shows the intensity of the brand to involved at the grass roots level of the sport in a country which is half younger than 40 years of age.

This event will usher in a lot of economic activity around the circuit and a lot of employment will be generated in events and sports management for sure. The grandeur of a formula 1 race and the high growth factor of the Indian economy will be a potent combination which can work wonders if streamlined in a proper way.

Its been a long wait for the Indian F1 fan and it looks worth the wait for the crowd what with 12 teams out there to showcase the prowess in a brand new circuit which is supposed to be extra wide at corners to encourage overtaking!
So get set for the most happening sporting extravaganza India has ever seen!

Indian F1 fan