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Chandhok says new teams won't be a problem in qualifying
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10 March 2010 @ 12:20 GMT - Ian de Beer Karun Chandhok will make his F1 debut for the new HRT team at this weekend's Bahrain grand prix. His new car has not turned a wheel in testing and the weekend is expected to be tough. Several people in F1 have raised concerns about the speed of the new teams, but Chandhok says he stopped reading as much as possible. "I have stopped reading the media as much as possible, but there have been a lot of comments that have come recently," he said. The Indian driver says he appreciates these concerns to some extent. "If I was in their situation then I would be concerned as well. The last thing you want in Q3, on the last lap when the circuit has cleaned up, is to get someone in your way," he said. |
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But he said he would be amazed if any of the new teams get through to Q3, which is highly unlikely to happen. But the concerns have not only been raised for qualifying.
"But first of all I would be amazed if any of the new teams get to Q3. And secondly, at the end of the day I am quite fortunate in that I have a great respect and a great sense of history in F1," he said.
"And I remember not so long ago, just look at the early 2000s, the gap between the front and the back wasn't like it is now. Then if go further back, look at 1997 for example when Jacques Villeneuve was on pole with Heinz-Harald Frentzen was alongside him, they still had the same five or six seconds gap," he said.
"So, all those guys [complaining] are only thinking of the last two or three years. But F1 is not about the last two years if you look back in history, which I do. Maybe they need reminding of that," he said.