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.
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"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.
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.
Chandhok looking forward to Le Mans
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.
