Team Lotus reserve driver Karun Chandhok has rejected suggestions that he joined the team because he was promised a drive at the inaugural Indian GP.
Chandhok signed with Tony Fernandes' outfit at the beginning of the year and there has been speculation that the Indian driver will be given a race seat for his country's first GP, joining fellow local Narain Karthikeyan on the grid. Karthikeyan was replaced at HRT earlier in the year by Daniel Ricciardo but will return to the Spanish team for the Indian GP.
However, Chandhok denies that such a deal is in place and insists that his primary motivation for joining the team was to put himself in a strong position to secure a drive in 2012.
"The big picture is so much better now," he told the Hindustan Times of his role as a reserve driver.
"I am strongly involved in the development of the car and have been out there for four Fridays now. Before the end of the season, I will be driving five to six Fridays. For 2012, I am looking at a potential full-time race seat.
"[However] there's no deal [for India]. It's just another wrong perception like the belief that I paid to get into Lotus," he added.
