A Need for Speed

by Jeremy Kahn Jul 8 2008 Is Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya simply tilting at windmills in his bid to turn India into a Formula One powerhouse? India's business tycoons have taken more than a passing interest in sports, spending millions on often-idiosyncratic efforts to win athletic glory. Mukesh Ambani does business on an absurdly large scale, from his $1 billion house in Mumbai to the biggest oil refinery on earth. Read More Vijay Mallya, center, owner of Force India F1. On a blustery June day at Britain's famed Silverstone raceway in Northamptonshire, veteran driver Giancarlo Fisichella steered his multimillion-dollar machine into a treacherous corner and skidded straight into a barrier wall. The crash during a test drive before the British Grand Prix was not just an unlucky break for Fisichella, but another blow to... [read full story]