After issuing a show cause notice for their recent ‘comments' in the media, motor sport's national body FMSCI has let off former F1 star Narain Karthikeyan and his NK Racing team drivers Parthiva Sureshwaran and Ashwin Sundar with a warning.
In a release on Friday, the FMSCI explained that since the drivers had told its panel that none of the statements reported in the press, during last month's MRF International Challenge in Chennai, were made by them, it has decided to drop the proceedings against them.
The parties have also sent a communication, said to have been issued to the two newspapers, denying that they had made the statements reported, it said “However, a stern warning is issued to be more careful in future to make sure that such events are not committed in the future,” said the FMSCI statement.
No mention of FIA
Surprisingly, there was no mention of the world body FIA's opinion or recommendations on the issue in the FMSCI note. After hearing the drivers, the FMSCI had said a few days ago that it was sending the matter to the FIA for its recommendations.
“I am glad that it has not snowballed into a major controversy. It took some time for the retraction but what we all must be happy about is that it has ended in a very positive note,” Mr. Rajan Syal, the FMSCI Chief Executive, told The Hindu on Friday.
He felt the young drivers must now learn to react and correct themselves as quickly as possible to the situation.
“They must have learnt it by now. But, let's forget the negatives and be happy that our drivers are in Formula One, NASCAR and Formula Two. Thanks to their participation, India is truly going up in motor sports.”
Meanwhile K.D. Madan, the FMSCI President, said the federation had made a lot of compromises to put the issue to rest. “After a series of discussions and keeping in mind the interests of the drivers, we decided to let them off with a first-time warning. The drivers must understand that the FMSCI cannot be treated as a piece of dirt. We want to make that very clear to them. I am sure they would have not have expected a decision such as this from the federation. “They definitely would have expected something more serious. We could have reprimanded them in a much stronger fashion but, at the end, we wanted to be fair to our drivers,” he added.
Mr. Madan said the FMSCI had referred the matter to the FIA after hearing the drivers.
“Dr. (Vijay) Mallya (the FMSCI Chairman) did speak to the FIA president. He was told to settle the issue amicably and close the matter for good. They all know that these boys are good as gold when they go outside,” said Mr. Madan.
Narain was quite pleased with the decision. “I am glad that it is all behind us now. I can now move forward with the real business of racing.”
