Should Force India sign Karun Chandhok?

Force India is currently placed sixth on the constructor's championship, just above the Williams F1 team. However, there is a mini-crisis building up.

PROBLEMS

Firstly, a few of their important technical personnel are set to join rival team Lotus F1 in the next season

The team's main sponsors, Kingfisher airlines are currently undergoing financial loss.

Their closest rival, Williams F1, are threatening to overtake them in the championship points, with the English team's latest technical upgrades on the car (blown diffuser) working well.

DRIVERS

Team's lead driver, Adrian Sutil, has been looking for a drive in a top team, and currently the rumours of him joining the Renault F1 team seems pretty strong, as Renault has still not confirmed their second driver.

If this happens, Force India would lose a good driver, who has improved with every outing with this Indian outfit. Sutil is currently 9th in the driver's championship, one above the legendary Michael Schumacher.

It's second driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi on the other hand has not had a great season so far, and is currently 14th, behind Vitaly Petrov of Renault (13) and Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber (12).

Here is a comparision of their performance so far.

Though it could be said Liuzzi has been unlucky in one or two races where he got involved in crashes with no fault of his, he has been inconsistent and lacked pace on the whole, as his qualifying figures reflects.

In modern F1, with tracks offering little overtaking opportunities, qualifying position matters a lot, and Liuzzi is struggling on this aspect.

In this scenario, with techical team leaving, paucity of funds, lead driver rumored to move, while second driver not performing, Vijay Mallya's hands seems currently full.

KARUN CHANDHOK

Karun Chandhok is someone who has been on Mallya's mind since quite some time, but he has been hesistant so far to go by emotions.

Chandhok's performance too has been inconsistent in his pre-formula one (GP2) days, which has been prime reason Mallya didn't consider him.

However, since his debut this season in formula one, he has proved that he can be solid behind the four wheels of formula one car.

He has consistently done better than his team-mate, Bruno Senna, in team HRT, that has won praises from all quarters.

This should instill confidence in Mallya to consider him for driving next season, along with other possibility of Paul Di Reta.

Paul Di Resta has been impressive in his outing with Force, during a few practice session, and is also currently having a great time at DTM racing series.

However, in comparision to Di Resta, Karun would not only be just a driver for Force, but his presence in an Indian outfit in F1 would attract good sponsors, which would provide a financial breather to Mallya.

If, Sutil leaves, the best option for Force would be Chandhok and Di Resta, but if not, it would be only one of these two.

Considering the advantage that Chadhok has viz., being a current F1 driver and possibility of bringing good sponsorship money, choosing Chandhok looks a better bet for the team in the long run.