Karun Chandhok on how to make a career in Formula One racing

“I could answer that one, but the hardest one for me to try and explain to children is why we don’t have a (F1) race in India anymore, because it’s so difficult to explain to them how politics and governments work," he adds. The Indian F1 Grand Prix was held in Noida from 2011-2013 before a number of administrative and taxation issues led to its cancellation.

Chandhok is only the second—and, so far, last—Indian (after Narain Karthikeyan) to race in Formula One when he drove for Hispania Racing and Team Lotus in 2010 and 2011. Now a commentator, television presenter and columnist, the catalyst for this book, he says, came to him from a post on X.

Chandhok had posted something about F1 tyres when a follower commented that the post was too complicated for a child to understand. Chandhok replied saying that his five-year-old son could understand it, but the exchange made him realise that his children had the advantage of a father with first-hand experience in race cars while others did not.

“I can spend time explaining to them (his boys are now six and three) while I watch races with them. But there must be lots of children whose parents don’t have that luxury. I thought of taking on that role of trying to answer the kids’ questions. That was the inspiration for the book."

Chandhok says he wanted to teach children how the cars and racetracks are made, who the drivers are and how they got into F1, because the single biggest question he gets from children is how do I become a Formula One driver? “There’s a wave of kids who have come into F1 because of the Netflix show, Drive to Survive, but they don’t know who Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna is," Chandok says. “I’ve written a little about each of those people, stories from the past, big moments that have happened in the sport. I wanted to cover a breadth of topics to give kids the next level understanding."

Drive To Victory, with its large text print, easy language and unsophisticated sketches (by Max Rambaldi), is an introduction to Formula One racing for children from ages 7-15, which Chandhok realises is a large range of varying reading interests and attention spans. The book is therefore racy, with short chapters and interesting trivia, like former racer Nico Rosberg owning an ice cream shop in Ibiza or the 11,000 parts in an F1 car that are uniquely designed just for that car.

The 41-year-old first-time author ensured every chapter is between 250 to 400 words. He included little trump or stack cards with snappy information. Most of the research for the book came from material that Chandhok already had, from years of being in the profession. He took 72 flights last year, he says, travelling for the races, and used that time to write. His challenge was to write the book for children, not adults and therefore choosing words, language and tone accordingly.

Since a lot of the drivers written about in the book are also his friends or were contemporaries, he knew their backstories. Chandhok grew up racing alongside the likes of Lewis Hamilton in Formula 3 and Formula 2, with Max Verstappen in Formula 3 and Charles Leclerc since the age of 14.

“I want the book to inspire kids to get into the sport, in whichever way they want," he adds. “Everyone wants to be a Lewis; everyone wants to be a racing driver. But guess what? You can still work at Formula One and be an engineer, be in marketing, a mechanic or an accountant… there are so many different things you can do within F1."

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