Interview with Peter from Auto India Sports.

So this months interview is with Peter Santamaria-Woods who along with Nikhil Pai and Darshan Chokhani runs the Formula One blog Auto India Sports and since it's the first Indian grand prix this weekend what better time to talk about Indian motorsport then now.

Enjoy.

So since three people run Auto India Sports... How did you, Nikhil and Darshan meet?

Well I am based in England where as Nikhil is based in Bangalore and Darshan lives in Calcutta. Amazingly we have never actually met each other in person! We met through interactions on the Force India facebook page - the three of us have been posting there pretty much since the page was created and we all usually have similar opinions when it comes to F1 so we decided to create the blog.


Why did you decide to focus more on the Indian side of motorsport?

Nikhil and Darshan are both Indian and I myself am half Indian so it was a logical step to focus on the Indian side of motorsport. I was the person who initially suggested the idea of a blog purely because I could not find any other comprehensive motorsport websites for India. There were some out there however updates were infrequent and some information was missing.


What has been your most successful blog post?

Our most successful blog post was a post about Nikhil's first F1 experience when he saw Lewis Hamilton in Bangalore (http://autoindiasports.blogspot.com/2011/09/sight-sound-and-smell-of-f1-car.html). That's most successful in terms of both views and comments. I was surprised as that was infact Nikhil's only ever post for the blog so far as his job is to focus on blog promotion rather than posting.
I would have thought that the exclusive interview we had with Karun Chandhok (http://autoindiasports.blogspot.com/2011/09/karun-chandhok-interview.html) would have been most successful but as long as we get the visits I'm happy!


How excited are you about the Indian GP this weekend?

It's going to be such a proud moment for over a billion people when the cars take to the track on Friday morning! I can not put into words how excited I am about this race, although having said that I did try to put it into words via our F1 preview here (http://autoindiasports.blogspot.com/2011/10/f1-weekend-preview.html).
I've been a crazy F1 fan ever since I was old enough to remember things and I want motorsport to try and challenge cricket in India as the number one sport. It will take many years, but it is possible and I know both Darshan and Nikhil share my passion.

Do you think an Indian GP will help raise awareness of motorsport in India? Is India excited about the race?

Naturally it will! Infact it has already started to raise awareness! In recent months we've seen lots of hype surrounding our drivers Karun and Narain and have also seen new Indian sponsors come into the sport (Amul at Sauber and Sahara at Force India) and a story that doesn't seem to have had much publicity because of the Indian GP hype is that Mumbai also want to build an F1-spec track so clearly things are improving in terms of awareness. This is only the tip of the iceberg though we hope!

India is very excited about the race, it's going to be a once in a lifetime experience for many Indians travelling to the race and for many others it will be an education in our great sport. These people are the ones who will become diehard fans. I hope the race organisers do something special to get more children involved as they are the fanbase of the future, the ones who can develop Indian motorsport even further.

Are you happy that Narain will drive in the Indian GP or are you looking forward to future Indian F1 drivers?

Yes to both questions! Delighted that Narain will be driving at the first Indian GP! Surprised and upset that Karun will not be taking part in the race though, considering the event probably wouldn't have happened without him and his father Vicky Chandhok so it's a great shame.

As for future Indian F1 drivers I'm sure with time we will see more and more. In my opinion the brightest young Indian talent at the moment is Parth Ghorpade who is currently racing in French F4 and was recently selected for the shootout to join the 2012 Young Driver Excellence Academy run by the FIA - we have high hopes for him!


Are pleased with Force India's performance this season or have they been disappointing?

I think Force India have been very impressive this season! One of the main question marks heading into 2011 was how would Paul Di Resta cope in single seaters after racing in DTM in 2010. Personally I had expected him to be slower than Adrian Sutil at first, closing the gap through the season. However in actual fact Di Resta was instantly on the pace of Sutil and now I think we have the two most evenly matched drivers on the grid.

The team are now sitting 6th in the championship which would be their highest ever constructors finish. Every season they have been in F1 they have improved their position and based on the current trend in two or three seasons they could be fighting for regular podiums and maybe even race wins.

So to sum that up, very pleased with this seasons performance but they need to keep pushing for the future.


And finally are you pleased with your blog success, and what are the plans for the future of Auto India sports?

I'm delighted with success of the blog so far. Our facebook "like count" is going up and up (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Auto-India-Sports/156016607805433) - probably faster than Darshan, Nikhil or myself ever expected.

The plan for Auto India Sports is to keep growing and keep informing people about Indian motorsport. We're trying to educate fans here aswell as providing news. The ultimate aim is to try turn the blog into the main place to go for everyone associated with Indian motorsport (be it fans, drivers, media or officials). It's going to take time, but I think we can do it!