One motorsport mogul has banknotes cast in bronze, faced heat over a £10 million (Rs 800 crore) donation to the British Labour Party and was quoted as saying, "I hate democracy. It stops you getting things done."

The other pit boss was accused in the British Parliament of defying United Nations sanctions and supplying fuel to Angola's UNITA rebels, charges he denied saying that the accused was another businessman with the same name.

Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One Management and owner of the bronzed banknotes, would upend the contents of an entire Formula 1 garage if it were even suggested that he had anything in common with Tony Teixeira, chairman of A1GP.

F1 and A1 are distant cousins. In motorsport's family tree, F1 is the aristocrat, getting all the fawning attention, finance and glamour. A1, only three seasons old, is an arriviste that has grated on the nerves of the motorsport establishment. But at this moment in time the two codes share one ambition: to manoeuvre their way into the minds and wallets of the biggest audience their sport can reach in the next decade-India.

For F1, India is an untapped oil field. For A1, it is an empty stage, where putting up the first show could pull in a huge following that could become loyal.

Late last year Ecclestone signed a deal with infrastructure major Jaypee Group and an Indian F1 Grand Prix race is planned for 2010. When the 2008 F1 season opened at Albert Park in Melbourne, the name India echoed over the growling of the waiting engines as Vijay Mallya's Force India F1 team began its campaign alongside Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

A1 is putting its foot on the floor too. In mid-April, A1GP Asia-Pacific region CEO David Clare will visit proposed sites for an Indian A1GP race targeted late in the 2008-2009 season. A1GP Team India won its first victory in China last December with Narain Karthikeyan behind the wheel. Young Indian driver Karun Chandhok, who now races in the GP2 series, was invited to test drive for the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team.

Force India is launched in Mumbai. A distant roar of engines draws closer. This race to reach India comes with the opportunity for its motorsport to capitalise, but only if the Indians stall their own insidious power struggles. Clare eyes the plan for the 2010 Indian F1 GP and says, "We'd love to get in there first. We can hold a race in a simpler, more economical manner." An F1 GP in India would cost around $300 million (Rs 1,200 crore) whereas A1GPs get their tents up for little more than $20 million (Rs 80 crore).

India's long and unsuccessful flirtation with a home F1 race means Clare's targets could be realistic. Over the last five years, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad were named Indian F1 venues. In June 2007, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief Suresh Kalmadi announced that the IOA had signed a deal with Ecclestone for a race in Delhi. The deadline for the payment of guarantee money around that deal came and went; all Kalmadi did was play host to F1 track designer Herman Tilke.

In November 2007, F1 announced it had signed a deal with JPSK Sports Private Ltd, (a Jaypee Group subsidiary) to construct an F1 track in Noida outside Delhi. The Jaypee Group have made no official comment since then, though a spokesperson said, "the letters of credit are in place and we are at a very initial stage". No site has been chosen nor has Tilke been contacted about a track design. Everything looks generously fluid when compared to the planning around this season's F1 debutantes, Singapore.

The world's most elite motor-racing code, Formula 1 mixes high-finance, high-technology and the high life.

This is the 58th year of the F1 World Championships and the 2008 season will run from March to November over 18 races.

The cost of staging an F1 race is in the region of $300m; hosts' rights fees start at $16m.

Team budgets per season vary from Force India's $120m up to Ferrari's estimated $400m-500m.

It cost Bahrain $150m to build their F1 Grand Prix circuit while Shanghai spent $450m.

The F1 circuit is a glamouratti magnet wherever it goes and gives team owners like Mallya unprecedented global mileage.

Setting out its stall in this zone where the fan seeks proximity to the manic men in their magnificent machines is A1GP. Clare insists, "We can't be compared to F1, we're in a different market. A1GP is relevant to markets where F1 is still seen as too elitist." A1GP reaches out to the same set of racing fans using a very different sales pitch. It calls itself 'the World Cup of motorsport' and the bait is nationality, accessibility and affordability. As of the 2008-2009 season, legendary Italian automotive giants Ferrari will be supplying the race cars to A1GP for six years, a development which will give the series much higher street cred.

Clare says in a few years time the Indian A1GP team should be "all" Indian including engineers and mechanics. Force India F1's closest identification with India though is through its name and marketing blitz at home. Mallya's ambition-to get a Force India car on the podium during the 2010 Indian GP- does not necessarily include an Indian driver. This season Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and German Adrian Sutil are steering the Force India car, the modestly-named VJM-1. Mallya had explained, "Experience and ability to assist the engineering team was a necessary requisite for our drivers. No Indian driver fits the bill."

Narain KarthikeyanPre-season talks between Indian firm Spice Energy and struggling Japanese F1 team Super Aguri, however, broke down over the very issue. Spice Energy made an Indian driver a precondition to buying out Super Aguri. "No argument against having an Indian driver would satisfy us," said Sehgal.

Either way, for Chandhok this is the best time to be a young Indian driver. "My dream has been to drive and be successful in F1. The fact that we have a team in F1 and a race imminent, makes it seem more achievable."

Chandhok says Indian motorsport needs it all: a home GP, an Indian team in F1, more national events at the junior entry level. "We used to be oddball. Now people want to know about our motorsport. They ask Narain and me when India's going to have an F1 race."

The cost of staging an A1GP race is no more than $20m. The operational budget of an A1GP team starts at $5m a year.

Courtesy: India Today, April 07, 2008