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You would say it is more about nuts and bolts, about nano fittings in a futuristic vehicle, about technology which constantly loves to emerge from the lab of the unknown and a tool to satiate an engineer’s zen for unrequired complications. In this sense, the Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix is a sport more alien than the machine men Hollywood throws at unsuspecting Indians every now and then.
Perhaps, that’s the reason why when a Sebastian Vettel walks past you in the Pit area, you fail to put face to the name of the reigning F1 champion. Even more so, when it comes to an all-time legend like Jackie Stewart who stands out more for his red and black check pants and a matching cap, than for being the 70s Flying Scotman with an endearing track record.
Not so, however, for Michael Schumacher who has many more Indian fans than those of all the other racers put together, be it the Buttons or the Hamiltons, or even our very own Narain Karthikeyan, for that matter.
Under the circumstances, it seems stranger than fiction that these speedsters have actually stepped out from the front covers of niche racing magazines more popular in Europe than the subcontinent, and the champagne baths on television, to be spotted taking a walk on an Indian track, measuring up and marveling at the fastest, riskiest, broadest, most curvaceous, and dusty, racing haven in a nation they knew more for snake charmers, the Taj Mahal and, perhaps, cricket.
In this context, it was heartening to spot the Mallyas and the Gaurs, the Chandoks and the Hamiltons, all rubbing shoulders at what is billed by most celebrity racers as a marvellous track built with a surprising lack of glitches, and a stretch full of unprecedented challenges, a place where excitement and danger will get a new meaning.
Indeed, the activity at the sprawling 875 acres Buddh International Circuit this Thursday gives organisers and the 12 teams in contention hope that they have a nation of one billion plus noticing them and their machines. This means business, big time business, as Schumacher pointed out and Williams seconded. It also means that India gains stature in the world’s most glamorous sport wherein danger is as intense as fate is unavoidable, speed as killing as the roar of the engine is defeaning.
But how Indian really is this maiden Indian Grand Prix? The saffron, white and green colours splashing the dressed up circuit would lead you to believe it is overwhelmingly so, as would the presence of two Indian principals in a clutch of 12 teams. But on the track and inside the cars, and that’s where it really matters, there’s only one Indian driver — a fact singularly unIndian.
While Karthikeyan, retained by his HRT team principal to race on the Big Sunday, says “it will be surreal for me to take the home ground,” Karun Chandok of Team Lotus will only get to do practice racing and, show the media around. But, then, if business is the main dynamics of this sport, it would have been naive for Chandok’s team to go with national sentiment when its regular drivers in Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli could get them that leap into the top 10 league which will give them the $30 million FIA revenue pie for future operations.
But all these peripheral considerations look like pygmies if the quantum of machinery is considered. Each team carrying at least 30 tonnes of equipment, more than 90,000 burly tyres lined up outside of the garages, the fraction of a millimetre screws that are being tightened on to the steers, the 56 degree Celcius that the driver needs to brave in the cockpit, the constant instructions about a 1,000 things from his race engineer and, last but not the least, the dizzying element of danger that can turn fatal faster than a 320 km an hour finish to the podium — that’s what makes this sport more deadly than scuba diving and yet more scintillating than a 250 km an hour vertical drop on one of Disneyland’s most exhilarating swings. And that’s what India will look out for this Sunday when the racers will swish past the one lakh spectators to navigate that blindest ever alley on Bend No 3, or overtake on a deceptively broader curve or go up and down on untried elevations, relying only on their Indian track simulators that have been the sole familiarity window with this new and smart ground under their more soft than hard tyres.
Perhaps, that’s the reason why when a Sebastian Vettel walks past you in the Pit area, you fail to put face to the name of the reigning F1 champion. Even more so, when it comes to an all-time legend like Jackie Stewart who stands out more for his red and black check pants and a matching cap, than for being the 70s Flying Scotman with an endearing track record.
Not so, however, for Michael Schumacher who has many more Indian fans than those of all the other racers put together, be it the Buttons or the Hamiltons, or even our very own Narain Karthikeyan, for that matter.
Under the circumstances, it seems stranger than fiction that these speedsters have actually stepped out from the front covers of niche racing magazines more popular in Europe than the subcontinent, and the champagne baths on television, to be spotted taking a walk on an Indian track, measuring up and marveling at the fastest, riskiest, broadest, most curvaceous, and dusty, racing haven in a nation they knew more for snake charmers, the Taj Mahal and, perhaps, cricket.
In this context, it was heartening to spot the Mallyas and the Gaurs, the Chandoks and the Hamiltons, all rubbing shoulders at what is billed by most celebrity racers as a marvellous track built with a surprising lack of glitches, and a stretch full of unprecedented challenges, a place where excitement and danger will get a new meaning.
Indeed, the activity at the sprawling 875 acres Buddh International Circuit this Thursday gives organisers and the 12 teams in contention hope that they have a nation of one billion plus noticing them and their machines. This means business, big time business, as Schumacher pointed out and Williams seconded. It also means that India gains stature in the world’s most glamorous sport wherein danger is as intense as fate is unavoidable, speed as killing as the roar of the engine is defeaning.
But how Indian really is this maiden Indian Grand Prix? The saffron, white and green colours splashing the dressed up circuit would lead you to believe it is overwhelmingly so, as would the presence of two Indian principals in a clutch of 12 teams. But on the track and inside the cars, and that’s where it really matters, there’s only one Indian driver — a fact singularly unIndian.
While Karthikeyan, retained by his HRT team principal to race on the Big Sunday, says “it will be surreal for me to take the home ground,” Karun Chandok of Team Lotus will only get to do practice racing and, show the media around. But, then, if business is the main dynamics of this sport, it would have been naive for Chandok’s team to go with national sentiment when its regular drivers in Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli could get them that leap into the top 10 league which will give them the $30 million FIA revenue pie for future operations.
But all these peripheral considerations look like pygmies if the quantum of machinery is considered. Each team carrying at least 30 tonnes of equipment, more than 90,000 burly tyres lined up outside of the garages, the fraction of a millimetre screws that are being tightened on to the steers, the 56 degree Celcius that the driver needs to brave in the cockpit, the constant instructions about a 1,000 things from his race engineer and, last but not the least, the dizzying element of danger that can turn fatal faster than a 320 km an hour finish to the podium — that’s what makes this sport more deadly than scuba diving and yet more scintillating than a 250 km an hour vertical drop on one of Disneyland’s most exhilarating swings. And that’s what India will look out for this Sunday when the racers will swish past the one lakh spectators to navigate that blindest ever alley on Bend No 3, or overtake on a deceptively broader curve or go up and down on untried elevations, relying only on their Indian track simulators that have been the sole familiarity window with this new and smart ground under their more soft than hard tyres.
