'The 2010 Good Bloke Championship'

If there were a World Championship for nice blokes then Karun Chandock would be top of the table, with team-mate Bruno Senna following in a close second.
In fact you could just about turn the current F1 drivers championship table on it`s head and that would give you the `2010 Good Bloke Championship` standings.

Whether being a nice bloke relates to how quickly you drive I very much doubt, but there is certainly some correlation to the current crop of the drivers championship leaders loosing out to the other end of the paddock in personality stakes.

I first met and started working with Karun a few years ago and have always been very impressed at what a nice guy he is. He knows everyone, and I don`t just mean to say `hello` to in the paddock, he really knows them, he knows their name, their nickname, who they work for, their wives name, where they live and their phone number. It is not unknown for Karun to telephone me during a GP weekend and ask for my help or to see if I have a specific photo of him.

Karun realises that his position in F1 is fairly non-standard. He is there because he has the raw skill to compete with the best drivers in the World, but he is also there because he is Indian and he brings some much needed cash to a struggling team at the bottom end of the grid. Karun realises this and therefore has to make the very most of every second he is fortunate enough to be an F1 driver in a super competitive job role.
Karun manages his own sponsors, he organises garage visits and arranges photoshoots. He looks after his own PR and makes sure that at each GP the media have daily news to keep the 1 billion plus Indians up to date with his latest japery.
I have been with Karun at many autograph sessions this year and he is in his element. He is after all one of the biggest F1 fans I have ever met. He mingles with the paying public, throwing promotional caps into he crowd and talking with fellow F1 fans.
It is a great shame that Karun is currently missing out on a driving role at Hispania, but he understands the situation and is aware that if he wants his F1 career to continue further he basically has to shut up and wait to see what happens.

Karun was at the Hockenheim circuit last week, attending media events and interviews. He commentated for the BBC and was the usual role model for the team knowing fully well that the minute a cheque cleared Sakon Yamamoto was going to jump into his car.

This makes the Ferrari Team Order fiasco even more irrelevant.

Karun has been forced out of his drive by HRT team orders.

He has been ordered to sit on the sidelines until HRT feel that he can have his seat back. Hopefully this will be soon. Hopefully HRT will find the funding to allow their drivers to develop the car and arrive for the 2011 season on the right foot. Hopefully this will include Karun.

So as Fernando Alonso sat uncomfortably in the FIA post race press conference, having taken a fairly hollow win, avoiding journalists questions and arrogantly stamping his place as Ferrari team leader, maybe he should have given Karun a thought.

He drove back home to the UK on Saturday and was no doubt watching the race sat on his sofa in Brakley, with a curry on his lap, wondering if F1 is all that it is cracked up to be.