Karun Chandhok on his nightmare year at Lotus: 'I fell out of love with F1'

At the centre of the action was Gascoyne, the design genius who had begun in F1 at McLaren, helped Jordan win races, aided Renault on its way to championships before moving over to Toyota’s ultimately unsuccessful gargantuan grand prix effort. He was now running the show at Team Lotus, trying to push it up F1’s slippery slope.

“Mike Gascoyne had his sort of favourite people around him,” Chandhok says. “He’s a very powerful character and was quite a force of nature in that team. It was very much the ‘Mike Show’ – when he said something, everyone just bowed their heads. I almost got the impression Tony was kind of afraid of him almost – he would just sort of defer to anything Mike said really, which was a little bit odd.

“I got on with him personally but not professionally. I don’t think he really respected me.”

If things got off on the wrong foot between Chandhok and Gascoyne, any chance of improving relations through on-track progress was stymied by the elements and then some.

“First of all I was supposed to test the car in Jerez, then Mike called me the night before and said, ‘Sorry, I need to put the Angolan guy – Ricardo Teixeira – in the car.

“Mike was trying to do some deal of Angola with [sponsor] Sonongal, but the money never arrived, the whole thing was just a mess.”

Still, Chandhok had his FP1 sessions to look forward to – first up was the season opener in Australia. He was raring to go, but his debut Lotus outing didn’t last very long.

“I hadn’t driven the car by the time we got to Melbourne, I’d never tried the Pirelli tires,” he says. “And then I shunted it, which was my own mistake.”

Coming out of Turn 3 on a cold Albert Park track well outside the Pirelli operating window, a slight application of the throttle sent Chandhok straight in the barriers. His debut with Lotus had lasted barely three corners.

“From that point onwards, I always felt like I was being treated as a bit of a spare part by the management,” he says in resignation.

Trying to make up off-track for his on-track transgression, Chandhok headed into the Hingham base, but felt he might as well have been part of a rival team.

“I made an effort to go to the factory and speak to the engineers, but nobody really wanted to talk me,” says Chandhok. “Mike put this sort of barrier up, he didn’t really want to engage with me.”

Matters weren’t helped by further difficulties in the precious little track the Chennai native was afforded.

“I remember arriving at the Dorint Hotel on the Wednesday at the Nürburgring, and I bumped into Jarno at reception. He had literally just been told that he wasn’t driving that weekend! It was all quite badly managed.”

Luckily the Italian didn’t hold it against him.

“To be fair, Jarno’s a lovely guy. He’s said, ‘Look, I know it’s nothing to do with you. It’s a team decision. It’s not your fault.’ He was very good to me.”

In the German GP FP1 Chandhok could put some laps on the car and finally got going – but now stopping, not starting, was his latest problem.

“Annoyingly, they use a very different kind of brake material compared to anything I’d experienced before [Carbone Industrie]. And I just kept locking up the fronts, and flat-spotted two-or three sets of tyres, which basically ruined the Friday.”

Not helping was the atmosphere in the garage.

“It was always tricky, because I don’t think Mike wanted me there – he didn’t agree with Jarno being left out,” Chandhok says. “All the engineers are professionals, they just get on with their job. Everyone did their professional best for the weekend. But it was never ‘Oh, let’s give this lad a big push, because we want him to do well – he might get a couple more races.’ I think they did what they had to do as a box ticking exercise.”

Still, Chandhok qualified a reasonable 20th out of 23 cars. Pre-race, he was informed by the man who signed him that the pressure was off.

“Tony said to me: ‘Whatever happens today, don’t worry, it doesn’t affect the other two races – we’re all signed up, so just enjoy it.’ Those are the exact words he used on the grid!”

Chandhok’s reasonable starting slot would prove to be the high point however. His first F1 race in over 12 months didn’t exactly go to plan.

“I actually remember I got a very good start,” he says. “I made a couple of places, got alongside [team-mate] Heikki Kovalainen at Turn 4, then I thought I’d give him a bit more room because, ultimately, I was happy to sit behind him.”

This turned out to be Chandhok’s downfall. Going towards the wet line at the drizzly ‘Ring, he got stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo’s HRT. The Lotus sub decided to put his foot down and…

“I spun off and that obviously cost me a whole bunch of track position, we had to change the nose. To be honest, I don’t think I did a great job. That was final nail in the coffin for me with people like Mike.

“In hindsight, it was probably a mistake – I shouldn’t have done that race. I wasn’t ready. But I’d already started to get wind that they were they were going to break the contract, basically.”

The Indian went forlornly back to his FP1 role in a last gasp bid to save his home race appearance, and from there things on-track improved. Finally managing to get some laps in, Chandhok could see the improvements.

“It was a shame – in Monza I was as quick as the other car in all the corners,” he comments. “Then we got to Suzuka, my first ever time there, and I was as quick as Jarno all the way around the lap apart from Turn 1. With just a bit more running, I started to get up to speed. I just needed mileage.”