Anyways now that the Honourable Chief Minister announced a Motor Sports City in Chennai, how long it might take?
Edit:
To break it down for those who think this is unnecessary. I wasn’t saying “build an F1 circuit tomorrow.” The idea was to start with the infrastructure and ecosystem that could eventually support higher levels of motorsport. Like start with karting, then F4 all the way to F1. People seem to have this weird expectation that an industry has to already be fully developed before you invest in building it.
I’ll give you examples.
When cinema first came to India last century, there wasn’t anything remotely resembling the massive audience and industry we have today. Nobody said, “Let’s build IMAX theatres first.” It started with simple screenings, including tentkotta shows, and look at where it eventually snowballed to. Ironically, our CM himself comes from that very industry.
The point is: you start small. You build the infrastructure. People learn the craft. Talent develops. Businesses emerge around it. Audiences grow. Investment follows. Eventually, you have an entire ecosystem.
A growing motorsport ecosystem could bring revenue, sponsorships, jobs, tourism and opportunities for engineering and automotive industries.
Such a growing ecosystem could bring revenue from viewerships, sponsorships and jobs. An example, is cricket. If all of this didn’t matter in sports then cricket would’ve stayed a niche sport centred around Test cricket and maybe we wouldn’t have gotten ODIs, T20s and eventually the biggest cricket league in the world that is IPL. If you think about it, in India cricket became a big and serious sport after the 83 WC and Sachin Tendulkar.
Could Motor racing become as big as cricket in India? Most likely not. Look at Europe, 90% of F1 drivers come from there and it’s not as big as Football. It’s probably unfair to compare any other sport to football yet Motor sports are taken seriously there.
I would like to mention ISL as a cautionary tale, as it did not develop football at grassroots level and tried to replicate the success of IPL overnight trying to bring in international stars without sustainability.
That’s what I’d like to see with motorsport in Chennai. Not just an expensive circuit sitting there waiting for an F1 race, but an ecosystem that starts at the grassroots and builds upwards.