What cost Narain seat at Spyker before takeover?

Though Narain's agent slams Spyker saying they picked Yamamoto as he could bring in more money, Narain says he opted out since he wanted to have more options open to him, reports Khurram Habib.

While Vijay Mallya's takeover of Team Spyker may work out well for India on the F-1 map, there is every reason to believe that Narain Karthikeyan could have been a part of it much before Mallya's takeover bid.

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It seems he was hard done by money games when the choice of the driver this season was made.

It should be noted that Narain was in line for the job of Spyker's driver this year along with Adrian Sutil, though eventually, Spyker announced in late July that they would be employing the Barcelona-based Sakon Yamamoto. Christian Klien was also in contention.

Though Narain's agent Mark Perkins slammed Spyker saying they preferred Yamamoto because he could bring in more money, Narain said that he opted out of the deal because he wanted to have 'more options' open to him.

He had said that Spyker offered him a good deal and his own sponsors were willing to pump in the money.

However, when Spyker were contacted by HT at Silverstone, they did hint that money played a role.

"We chose Yamamoto because he is very well aware of the circuits around the world. Secondly, we found his financial package more lucrative," said Lucy Nell, the press officer of the Spyker.

"We have great respect for Narain as he is a very competitive driver and has got the superlicence too, but we felt he wasn't the best option this year," she said.

Nell, however, refused to comment when asked about next year's plans. "We'll see."