KEY POINTS:
Calcutta-born billionaire Dr Vijay Mallya has made it his life goal to be bigger, louder and more flamboyant than the next man. He owns everything from airlines to stud farms, but one suspects that his new toy, the Force India Formula One team, has just become his proudest
possession of all.
Wealthy businessmen have come into motorsport before and found it an expensive and unrewarding mistress. In a world where the likes of Ferrari and McLaren spend £200million per season, you need to invest the GDP of a medium-sized country just to keep up, let alone overhaul the hefty gap that separates the best teams from those at the back of the grid.
As a man who put money into Benetton's F1 operation, as well as the financial black hole that is Toyota, Mallya should have no illusions about the cut-throat nature of F1 racing. Yet his targets - in terms of money and performance - sound distinctly ambitious. "After the excellent testing times we have had, I feel confident that my goal of a podium finish at the Indian Grand Prix of 2010 is realistic," he said yesterday, as he prepared to launch his team's livery.
"I also believe that F1 can be profitable if we can stimulate this country's interest in motorsport. There are 500 million people in India under the age of 25, many of them benefiting from our country's economic boom.
"They want to mark themselves out from the crowd, to buy a pair of Hugo Boss jeans rather than a domestic brand. We are all clamouring for glamour in one form or another, whether we admit it or not. And Formula One is the high point of glamour in sport, something that can ignite the passion and pride of this country."
With his diamond-studded gold bracelet bearing the initials 'VJM', and a silver-grey goatee trimmed to the last stray hair, Mallya is the embodiment of India's new corporate class: self-confident, independently wealthy and fully prepared to challenge the old orthodoxies. It is men like this who have shocked the motor industry by selling new cars for under £1300. It is men like this who are offering the world's cricketers more money to play 20-over games than they can possibly make from five-day tests.
Admittedly, many of these grand schemes still remain unproven. But their very existence shows what a dynamic player India has become.
As it happens, Mallya bought one of the eight franchises in cricket's new Indian Premier League last month, paying around £55million for a 10-year lease. As chairman of the United Breweries Group, he finds it convenient to own sports teams, because shirt sponsorship is the only legal way to advertise alcohol in India.
But his interest in motorsport extends far beyond simple economics. In the 1970s, he became involved in a racing club run by British expats, driving everything from a Triumph Herald to an early Porsche 911 and finally a Grand Prix car built by Morris Nunn's Ensign team.
Mallya was a regular winner at private race days and his eyes glint as he imagines himself at the wheel again.
"I love speed. Some people like to play golf but I find it too slow and boring. Racing has that extra bit of thrill and excitement, living a bit dangerously."
Some might argue that by taking on and rebranding the ailing Spyker team, which would have finished dead last in the 2007 constructors' championship were it not for McLaren's disqualification, Mallya is living dangerously indeed.
But he replies that the same team was a regular fixture in the top five when it was run by Eddie Jordan, and would have continued as such but for three years of under-investment.
"The people are the same, and the factory is the same," Mallya argues. "And when all the new rules come into force [in 2009], I want to bring in some of India's huge expertise in research and development. People think of India as a country steeped in history, with all its archaeological monuments and so on; it is time they saw our modern face."
