Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok says that his last few days in Formula E were uneasy as he did not see eye-to-eye with Mahindra Racing team principal Dilbagh Gill, adding that a "blame game" began as the outfit wasn't performing as expected.
Only in its second season, Formula E is a form of auto racing which uses electric-powered cars. Mahindra Racing is the only Indian team taking part in the series.
"It was just the way things were playing out with Dilbagh. We just weren't seeing eye to eye. In the first season we started off well. I finished fifth and sixth and we were competitive but from there it kept going downhill. We went into a little bit of blame game. It wasn't enjoyable towards the end," Chandhok, only the second Indian to get a Formula 1 drive after Narain Karthikeyan, told IANS in an interview.
"I just did not need it as it was just too much. It was starting to get a bit too political and stressful with him so I preferred to walk away still being friends. I still have a good relationship with everybody at Mahindra. I left on good terms and preferred to leave on my own accord," added the Nissan GT Academy mentor.
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Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld has replaced Chandhok for the second season of the Formula E championship that will run from October 24, 2015, to July 3, 2016.
Now that he is out of electric racing series, the ex-Formula 1 racer will this year once again go back to France.
"This year I would like to get back to sports car racing at Le Mans which is a very, very special race. Nissan unfortunately withdrew from LMP1 so LMP2 is the next best option. I have done it now for the last four years and it is just awesome. It is such a cool race to do so looking forward to doing it again among some other sports car stuff," said the 32-year-old.
A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of race car used in Le Mans. While not as fast as open-wheel Formula 1 cars, LMPs are the fastest closed-wheel racing cars. Le Mans has held sports car endurance race annually since 1923.
Apart from racing, expert commentary will keep the Chennai resident a busy man throughout 2016.
"I will be doing a lot of that. This year I will probably do 19 Formula 1 weekends; that is a lot of travel. I enjoy doing work for a lot of different channels in a lot of different roles. There is probably not as much racing as I would have ideally liked but I am flat out. It looks like I will do over a 100 flights this year! My wife is not very happy at the moment," Chandhok said.
(Sandip Sikdar can be contacted at sandip.s@ians.in)