F1 fever: Buzz or business?

The F1 fever has gripped the whole nation, and on CNBC-TV18's special show Ross Brawn, team principal of Mecedes GP Petronas and Joy Bhattacharya, chief executive officer of KKR share their take on all the buzz, both in the pit lane and the boardrooms.

"One shouldn't look at Formula 1 as just a sport. It is about big powerful machines and it has a feel of its own. You can be a car lover and may not be into sport, but you might like big cars," says Bhattacharya. Nevertheless, on the huge business side of this pricey sport, he believes that the investments in Formula 1, however huge, they will deliver overtime. Meanwhile, D Shivakumar, managing director of Nokia India believes that in the last 10 years the concept of brand, consumer and his passion has changed. And, he feels that F1 is new pulse for today's young consumer in India, who follows EPL, NBA much more than he follows other games. Globally, the total sports sponsorship market is about USD 40 billion. Shivakumar expects India to be USD 4 billion market for sports sponsorship."If you want to be a USD 4 billion market for sports sponsorship it won't be cricket alone. It will be things like Formula 1, soccer, basketball," he said. Below is the edited transcript of their interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan. For the complete show watch the accompanying videos. Q: People come out to watch gladiatorr, heroes, legends of the sport. Does the fact that we have an Indian team and have atleast two Indian drivers help? Does that make a big difference? Brawn: It helps a great deal. We see that sometimes with countries which don