"I want Formula 1 back in my country" - Ravi Shastri talks about how India is a viable market for F1 (Exclusive)
Ravi Shastri believes that India needs to host a Formula 1 race again. Speaking to Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview at the Belgium GP, the former cricketer claimed that Formula 1 needs to capitalize on India's growing young audience.
Shastri suggested that the younger generation has strong technical understanding of the sport as a result of the amount of information and data available to them. He revealed that his teen daughter was a massive fan of the sport as well.
Having followed the sport for more than four decades, Ravi Shastri believes F1 is underestimating the Indian youth and their growing interest in the sport in recent years. When asked how F1 could tap into the mass following in India, Ravi Shastri said:
“My daughter 15 and a half pushing 16. And my country has 1.4 billion people, 70 percent of them are below 30, that’s your fanbase that you’ve got to catch.
"So my daughter is 15 and half and knows everything about Formula 1, will give me a lesson or two or three. And you can imagine how quickly how the young generation is following the sport. It’s time to capitalize, I want Formula 1 back in my country. I know there was only one event that took place, has to come back.”
He added:
“You need a fanbase, you need mass audience, you’ve got it, dig deeper and push the barriers. You’ll get it, it’s there. It’s there for you to find it, it's there looking at you, 15-16 year olds. You don’t get other sports being followed by 15-16 year olds.
"But when you see 15 and 16 year olds following a sport as sophisticated as Formula 1, it tells you what that generation is about. They are the techie generation, they want timings, they want all the gimmicks, the data that comes with the sport."
Asked if the young Indian generation followed F1 as thoroughly as a fan like him who has watched it for four decades, Ravi Shastri said:
“Absolutely. Three decades below me also, they won't have a clue as to what this young generation understands.”
Ravi Shastri reckons cricket can learn a lot from F1 and vice versa
Ravi Shastri believes that cricket can learn a lot from F1 in terms of fitness, discipline and the physical elements involved in the sport. When asked what cricket's takeaway from F1 could be, Ravi Shastri replied:
“Discipline, then focus, it's different training. Like I said it gets the physical element, you know like boxing. You take a decision a split second late it could be dangerous for you. It could be costly not just with your bank balance but with your life too. So you know it's that element that keeps a guy on guard, keeps him on his toes, doesn’t allow him to relax one bit, plus there’s competition.
"In sport at times, in teams sport you can take things for granted because other guys might do the job for you on a given day when you’re not hot. Here you’ve got to be hot all the time or it ain’t happening.”
Asked further if the individualistic nature of the sport had lessons for cricket, Ravi Shastri said:
“Yes. It has a lot to teach, each sport teaches the other. From team sport you learn a lot, individuals learn a lot. Individual sport teaches team sport a lot.”
The former India cricket team head coach is the second ex-cricketer to visit an F1 race in the 2023 season. Yuvraj Singh earlier visited the Monaco GP as an ambassador for Puma Motorsport.
Shastri visited the iconic old-school circuit of Spa Francorchamps amidst his summer break from commentating on The Hundred cricket tournament.