“Would love to see more Indians given an opportunity to work in the sport” – Former Indian F1 driver Karun Chandhok calls for more diversity in motorsports.
Karun Chandhok, one of only two Indians to have made it to Formula 1, has commended the steps taken by Lewis Hamilton and Formula One Management to improve diversity in the sport. On the current grid, we have Sergio Perez from Mexico and Yuki Tsunoda from Japan.
Chandhok, a Sky F1 pundit, hopes the representation of ethnic minorities increases in the management and technical roles too.
“I’m not really interested in talking about the past (about that incident) – the key is to talk about the future. We need to understand and learn why more people from non-white haven’t been able to get involved in the sport and Formula 1 plus Lewis via his Hamilton Commission are doing some very important research to understand that.
“Formula 1 at the moment has really taken up the cause of improving diversity within the sport.
“Historically, this is a sport where over 90% of the people involved have been white and therefore as one of the few people from a minority ethnic background, I’m very encouraged to see that F1 as a sport and the teams as participants are taking steps to change that balance.
“While drivers are of course the most high profile and someone like Lewis has been very vocal about the topic, the reality is that the drivers are a small number of people when compared to engineers, mechanics, commercial and marketing people, TV pundits and journalists, marshals and officials, etc that make up the sport.
Personally, of course, I would love to see more Indians given an opportunity to work in the sport in any of these roles.
“From my personal perspective, I’ve been in regular touch with Yath Gangakumaran and Ellie Norman at Formula 1 who are leading their Diversity and Inclusion program and I have also been invited onto the EDI working group for Motorsport UK, who are the FIA’s ASN for the UK where we are looking at programs to attract people from a more diverse background into the sport.”
