Karun Chandhok on new Asian talent

What does a Formula 1 driver get up to when he is not being an F1 driver? That's exactly the predicament in which Karun Chandhok finds himself this year as, save for seven laps during Friday practice for Team Lotus so far, he has had plenty of time to fill.

Needless to say, the priority is to find a race seat by 2012 at the latest after proving himself to be a capable driver during his 10 outings with Hispania last year. But unlike some F1 aspirants, Chandhok has little problem filling his days. His boundless enthusiasm for motorsport means that he is already playing a key role in developing racing in Asia through the JK Racing Asia Series (a continuation of Formula BMW). On top of that, he joined BBC Radio's commentary team for the Turkish Grand Prix, filling in for Anthony Davidson -who was winning the Spa 1000kms for Peugeot that weekend - and continues to indulge his passion for standing on muddy banks in the rain during Formula 3 sessions!

But first and foremost, he is a racing driver. As Team Lotus's reserve, he is set to appear during Friday morning's first free practice session at just over half of the races this year. His debut in the car in Melbourne was - and there is no other way to put this - catastrophic as he speared into the wall on his first lap while not even pushing, and in Turkey he had only six laps because weather conditions were against him. But, crucially, he is one of only a few drivers getting seat time during the season, which at least keeps him in the mix for a drive.

Chandhok's Turkish practice session was limited by rain © LAT

"I'm not doing the massive mileage that I would like to be doing in the race car, but I just keep doing what I can," says Chandhok. "I have the opportunity to do quite a few Fridays this year and that's important for putting me in the shop window for next year.

"The objective is not to be a permanent third driver, the objective is to be back racing. It's not costing me anything, unlike some others, and it's an interesting chance to see how the team works. They have made more progress over the last 18 months than the other two new teams [Virgin and Hispania], so from that point of view, it's interesting. But any racing driver wants to race.

"It's a question of what choices you have. I didn't have 15 million euros to get a race seat, which maybe some other people had! It's tricky to stay race sharp, but you can only do what you can."

On Thursday, for example, Chandhok spent three hours on his bike in the morning before heading to Whilton Mill kart track, not far from Silverstone, to blast around in his 125cc Rotax Senior Max kart. All he can do now is stay as sharp as possible, work on 2012 and hope that a chance comes his way earlier than that. At 27, he still has time to establish himself as a regular F1 driver and with the Indian Grand Prix opening up that market, you can see him being a good prospect commercially for a team next year, having already shown that he can cut it behind the wheel.

Mention of the Indian market brings us to his involvement in the revived Formula BMW Asia series (although without the name or the BMW support). With backing from JK Tyres, it kicked off in support of the Malaysian Grand Prix last month. With further races on the F1 bills in Singapore and India, Chandhok hopes that it will ensure that there is a genuinely competitive junior single-seater series in the region that can feed Asian drivers into Europe. In its BMW guise, the Asian series had a few graduates, notably Red Bull rising star Daniel Ricciardo, but there is hope that it can produce many more, with raising the standards now the priority.

"Halfway through last year, BMW announced that they were withdrawing from the Formula BMW programme," says Chandhok. "The series was running in Asia as well as Europe and David Sonenscher [boss of the Asian Festival of Speed package that also features categories like Porsche Carrera Cup and GT3] is a good friend of mine, having won two of his championships before.

He's keeping race-sharp with a spot of karting

"He said to me that BMW is out and whether I had any ideas to resurrect it. I am always looking for ways to give back to the sport, whether it is driver coaching F3 at Snetterton or helping Asia drivers, so I got involved.

"It was a great opportunity for an Indian company to adopt a pan-Asian series, so I went to JK Tyres, who were my long-term partners and have been with me since day one. They have backed racing and rallying in India, as well as drivers like Narain Karthikeyan and myself, and it was a chance for them to expand outside India.

"I don't have time to be involved day-to-day, but I do get involved in the big decisions, the title sponsorship, the title sponsorship, the advertising, the TV. David does a lot of it, but keeps me informed."

With JK Tyres support, the series continued into this season in largely the same form, with its own tyres seamlessly replacing the old Michelin rubber used by BMW. Chandhok is continuing to act as a guiding light for the series, with his official role as a mentor to the competitors in the hope of establishing a conveyor belt of talent to feed into mainstream European racing.

"There is no doubt that if you want to be in F1, you have to be in Europe," he says. "Our objective is to take drivers who are successful in Asia to form a line of drivers into F1. It's not about sporadic bursts, about the odd Karun or Narain or Alex Yoong.

"There is an ever-growing presence in F1 from Asia and we need to make that consistent. Today, we have two Asian companies investing in the series. They, in turn, will look for other Asian partners to join them. Just like drivers who move up, a company that sponsors this series today might sponsor an F1 team in five years time. This allows a foot in the door in motorsport."

It's easy to overlook just how far Asia still needs to come in terms of matching Europe for the quality of its development series. As Chandhok himself found when he came to Europe in 2002 to race in British Formula 3's national class for previous-generation machinery, there is a gulf to be bridged.

In addition to raising the quality of the series to match that of the Formula BMW equivalents in Europe, Chandhok's priorty is to educate drivers to realise just how big a challenge confronts them.

"In hindsight, I should have done Formula Renault when I came to Europe," he admits. "But no-one was there to tell me how different it was. I remember being at Donington Park in the rain and I had never driven in the wet before! There is a lot to be learned and I had to learn it in a very expensive way in F3. Learning is a less expensive way is better."

A full season in the JK Racing Asia Series comes in at around the 120,000 euro mark, making it cost-effective. As mentor, Chandhok hopes to give the next generation of racers from his region the benefit of his own very tough experience of being thrown into F3 at a stage in his development when he could not have failed to be out of his depth.

"My involvement comes from sharing my adventure over the last few years," he says. "Talking about coming from Asia to Europe, what I did wrong, what I did right, what I feel that they should be doing when they come to Europe.

"There are a lot of things that are different culturally and in the levels of the championships. Every time I go to a race, we have a mentoring session on the Saturday. I sit down and they ask me questions. They might ask me how I do 20 consistent laps in a race, what training I do, how to deal with engineers - because engineers don't want to hear excuses about why you were slower they want to understand through you what the car is doing."

As one of the most approachable drivers in the F1 paddock, not to mention one with a sharp interest in all sides of the sport, you can see that this is a role made for Chandhok. His own rise, climbing from those early days in F3 when he was off the pace through to winning a couple of GP2 races and, most recently, turning in capable drives in difficult circumstances at HRT, has been tough. But through efforts like this he can at least push his successors from the region along a more gentle learning curve.

Proof, if any were needed, that Chandhok is about more than just being a racing driver. Where his F1 career goes from here is up in the air, but there is no doubt that he has a big role to play in motor-racing over the coming years. That's one of the reasons why he is so well-liked. In a sport that, for all of its big business and politicking, is full of enthusiasts, it's positive to see a driver enjoying his involvement in racing for the right reasons.

"The problem is, I love the sport too much for my own good," he admits. "I look at the testing times for every category. I enjoy a bit of media stuff, I write columns for people and I enjoy doing various little bits in the sport.

"Nothing beats racing in F1 and I would do anything to get back driving full-time again. But at the moment I can't sit around doing nothing. My brain is far too active."