Achtung F1!

                Not withstanding the colossal loss to its reputation after the infamous Dieselgate scandal, Audi (the luxury brand of Volkswagen) has (reportedly) decided to foray into the world of Formula 1 to redeem its lost respect. Taking the challenge head on, Audi is expected to partner Sauber as their engine supplier in 2022, so it'll still be a few years before we can see an Audi powered F1 car barrelling down the start finish straights on tracks across the world. Representatives from Audi's R&D team are expected to attend the upcoming meeting in Paris about the future of Formula 1 engine development and regulations.

               Talks about the VW group joining the group of elite car manufacturers and launching their own F1 team have done the rounds every now and then. But this is the first time we would see a concrete step being taken in that direction with Audi getting a first hand download of what engines would be like at the end of the next major upgrade in regulations.

               Targeting the 2022 roll out of engine regulations makes sense from a development point of view since that gives Audi the two most important commodities for engine development, time and a level playing field since all manufacturers will need to start devoting part of their development towards the 2022 regulations. The third thing they would need (and they have plenty of that already) is money. The Germans have always been known to be extremely precise with their machinery and an F1 track would be the perfect place to verify that. 

               2022 is still a long way away and a lot could change between now and then, but the prospect of new manufacturers entering Formula 1 has always raised the occasionally dwindling interest in the sport. Audi is a brand with the level of popularity matched only by the top two teams currently on the grid. All one can say is that Audi, welcome to the party (should you decide to join) and to those who are already part of the sport, Achtung!

We have waited for it, and it was legendary!

The 2017 Formula One season kicked off for the first time without the reigning world champion being a part of the driver line up since 1994 when Alain Prost, much like Nico Rosberg, retired right after winning the world championship. Coming from a financially independent (read: filthy rich) background and from a family with a decorated history in the field of Motorsport (Nico's dad had won a few races in his days as well and also owned a Formula 3 Euro Series racing team) Nico didn't really need to do much to prove to the world that racing was in his blood. A hard fought season with the then world champion and teammate Lewis Hamilton, the championship going right down to the last race and the F1 pundits indulging in all kinds of permutations and combinations to tell the less aware what each driver needed to do to secure the championship. Nico had beaten Lewis fair and square in the same car within the same team.

Cut to 2017, a new season is there to be won. Though the fights between Lewis and Nico were entertaining as ever in 2016 and 2015 (Lewis was WC in 2015), viewers were beginning to notice the lack of challenge rest of the teams were posing to Mercedes. Free practice started with Mercedes on top and the Ferraris being the best of the rest, however, Vettel managed to trump the Mercedes' in the final free practice session. The silver arrows (Lewis in particular) continued to be fastest in qualifying taking pole position but Vettel was right next to him on the front row. Drama started on the very first formation lap of the year with Nico Hulkenberg missing his spot on the starting grid making all drivers go around once again before the start.

Lack of fireworks at turn 1 was another unusual offering of the Australian GP, none of the 20 cars touching, no one even lost a front wing, let alone take someone out of the race entirely, though that happened a little later when Erisson and Magnussen get into a tangle of their own. Lewis got off to a quicker start with Vettel looking rather sluggish just about managing to keep Bottas from getting ahead. However, even after the dust had settled Vettel did not allow Lewis to pull out a big lead after the start, he was always within 2 seconds of Lewis. Lewis took the undercut trying to prevent the overcut from the Ferraris and pitted first. He admitted after the race that he simply didn't have the grip in his ultra softs to carry on. Vettel still good on his mediums ran with the window of opportunity and put in a few fast ones in the bank and came out ahead of Lewis after his own first pit stop. Lewis coming out in the middle of traffic after his own pit stop also contributed to the fact, but it was clear that Vettel's Ferrari was clearly the faster car in the day. Bottas finished third in his maiden race with Mercedes and Kimi brought his scarlet Ferrari home in a respectable 4th just missing the podium.

A few good fights further down the grid with the pink Force India's making up places with some exciting overtaking lit up the race every now and then. New car livery was also on display for a few teams, the Force India's were in pink, McLarens looked conspicuously like the Orange Arrows from the early 2000s. The Saubers also have a new Blue and Pink layout this year and the new kid on the block - Haas racing team have gone for a very uncomplicated black and red combination.

The first race is over, reliability issues that had to surface have done so, there are two drivers who have been served a grid penalty for the next race because of unscheduled engine changes. Vettel winning the first race with Lewis finishing only 10 seconds behind sets up a mouth watering contest for the rest of the year (only if this performance was not a flash in the pan for Ferrari). 

As Toto Wolf, the Mercedes team chief said right after the race, "we will come back hard", we can expect a ripper of a season ahead of us. There are still 19 more races to go, the finale is due to be held in Abu Dhabi. As is evident, the margins between the teams have gotten smaller, drivers are closer than ever (in qualifying and in the race). The host of aerodynamic (rear wings are lower, cars are now narrower) and tyre changes (rear tyres are now wider and slicks are back) have resulted in crashing lap times, this years fastest lap was almost 3 seconds faster than in 2016.

The Chinese grand prix is only 2 weeks away and the teams will now make their way across the disputed South China sea to Shanghai for the next round. The stage is set for a long and exciting season. The two traditional rivals are set to fight it out and with the margins in performance so low, every pole position and every race victory will count. The countdown to the 2017 world champion has begun.

Indian GP 2011@ BIC (Notes from the Paddock Club)

Buddh International Circuit (BIC) is located approx. 60 km east from the hustle and bustle of New Delhi in Noida (UP) with a fabulous 8 lane concrete Yamuna Expressway forming the last 12 km stretch leading up to the circuit giving you the feeling as if you are going to take off (as in an airplane) any minute. However, getting to the Yamuna Expressway proved to be quite a task thank to the huge traffic jam because of the number of cars that were all heading for BIC.



The concrete runway (it literally looks like that in the night with the reflectors illuminated) runs through a barren and dusty patch of land on either side with very heavy haze in the air. You can make out the outline of the grandstand only after you have come within 1-2 km of the circuit due to the haze though if the air would be clear, you'd be able to see the circuit from 3-4km away. There are various entry points to the circuit, each meant specifically for the stand that you have purchased your ticket to. I continued to enter through the VIP/main entry that led straight to the centre of the circuit into the paddock club above the pit lane, bang opposite the grandstand :) :)



The first (of many) breathtaking view of the circuit is when you look at the start finish straight from the paddock club [I will say paddock club a lot in this article because I was in the paddock club for the race and a) it is THE MOST happening place on the circuit as it is right above the pit lane and all the action is happening below you and b) paddock club is also the place where the who's who of everything freakin thing in the world descends to watch the race...but more on that later].



The track itself looked really awesome (and that has been corroborated over the weekend by the drivers and the teams alike). It is really huge (5.125km makes it one of the longest circuits in the calendar). It is a real driving challenge (something that the drivers admit not many circuits have offered in recent years). The biggest compliment that the circuit itself has received (in my opinion) is that the drivers rate it in the same league as Spa (Belgium) which has since long been the ultimate drivers circuit. Mr. B (Bernie Ecclestone) has admitted that until two weeks before the race he was not even sure if the race would go ahead (given the abysmal state of affairs at the track) the but the pace of work in the last 10 days had made the race possible thought there were plenty of things that showed that the track had been completed in a hurry, some improvements are still required (the unfinished ceiling on the 2nd floor of the paddock club with the concrete still visible).



We reached the circuit at 1:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, just in time for me to settle down and watch qualifying from 2-3. The weather was pleasantly warm, not at all a cause of concern for the teams or drivers or even the crowd. We went straight into the paddock on the first floor (ground floor being the pits itself and I could smell the burning rubber when the cars left the pits, so close, so close!!!) After all the years of watching the race on television, hours and hours of videos and pages after pages of reading of reports on various websites (and publishing a couple myself, check out: http://www.wheel2wheel.com/featuresdetail.asp?featureid=44) it was now time to witness the spectacle live. The Lotus was the first to leap out of the garage and we happened to be right above the Force India pits at the time (which was right next to the Lotus garage). I think it'll take a lifetime of watching races live from the paddock for me to forget the noise the car made on it's way out of the pits. These cars are SO FREAKIN LOUD!!! I realize now that what we watch on the television is a much smoother and balanced out noise that the car makes. In reality, these cars are very very loud (since that is the only area they don't have restrictions on, they have restrictions on fuel consumption, engine capacity, emission restrictions but nothing on noise) and they are very very rugged. When the drivers come down the gears either in the pits or when approaching a turn, the engine backfires just like a ill-maintained Indian two wheeler, but every single backfire sounds like a bomb blast.



Post that it was the usual, a lot of cars pouring out onto the track one after the other putting up lap times after lap times. I must admit, it is very hard to keep track of what is actually happening on the on the circuit in terms of drivers standings if you don't have access to the live telemetry that is available on F1.com. There wasn't a lot of celebrity spotting during qualifying on Saturday. And the action was quite limited since we did not have cars actually racing but lapping really quickly one after the other.



Post qualifying it was time to explore the track after the crowd (the few thousands of them who had decided to show up for the qualifying had left). We went into all the teams clubs (the boxes that the teams themselves reserve for their guests in the paddock club (so basically, the paddock club is nothing but the complete first floor of the building booked by teams for their guests and the ground floor of the building comprises of the pit garages with the pit lane in front. The point I am trying to make is that I was really so freakin close to all the action that I could look inside the cockpit and identify the smallest of buttons on the steering wheels of the cars as they were being pulled into the garage. We then moved to the top of the building above the 2nd floor which was more or less the roof of the building to get a nice look at the empty circuit and the grand stand (this was at around 5 in the evening and it was beginning to get a little dark) and the view was fantastic. The media centre (a 3 floor building with complete glass walls) looked absolutely beautiful lit up with a thousand lights. We left the circuit in anticipation of an amazing race, lots of celebrity spotting on Sunday and extremely heavy traffic back to Delhi on Saturday.



On Sunday, we made a wise decision and left a couple of hours early hoping to avoid the traffic and we just about managed to beat the traffic as we saw heavy traffic building up heading towards the track (all roads led to BIC on Sunday afternoon). The security at the track was mirroring the security at Heathrow with checks and double checks and triple checks (though lets face it, we were in India). The weather was slightly cooler, but the air around the circuit was just as hazy as on Saturday. The crowd was already beginning to build up and we went to the best place in the circuit, the paddock. The MRF series had just gotten over when we reached the track and we were busy clicking pictures of the circuit when we thought it would be a good time to take a short round of the paddock before we settled in for the race itself.



Now, they say that the best things happen when you least expect them to. We were exiting the building to go behind the pits and take a look around and Sachin Tendulkar (wearing a plain white shirt and blue jeans donning brownish shades) walked in from the very door that we were opening to leave the building. Nothing much to add, it was it an amazing experience to the legend from so close (15 inches!!) we stood with out mouths wide open, he asked my cousin standing next to me, "which is the way to the paddock" and the people waiting to received him gently gave him his pass and showed him the way. I saw God from 15 inches away, heard him speak (mera jeevan safal ho gaya). Please refer to attached pic. We decided to not go anywhere from the paddock since now the celebrities had started to pour in.



We hung around in the paddock above the pit garages facing the grand stand and saw the likes of Sehwag, Mallya, Subroto Roy, Richard Branson, Priety Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Suzzane Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan, I think I am forgetting a few, all of them roaming around in the pit lane during the pit tour before the race.



Next on the agenda was the drivers lapping the circuit in vintage cars. That was nice but not as exciting as we got a view of the drivers from about 20-30 meters away (video coming up soon). This was followed by the grid girls making their way to the pits (video coming up soon). The atmosphere around the paddock was building up, big hotshots who had paid 3.5 lakh (and upwards) to get into the paddock were beginning come in.



You could hear a lot of continuous chatter, news reporters covering every single square in of the paddock (and no there was no NDTV, no Aaj tak, no IBN and all that. The FIA has their own international media team that covers all the races all round the year). All this interspersed with the various teams firing up their cars every now and then setting up the cars to get them out on to the track. Next the cars leaped out of the pits one by one to make their way to the track, this was really really awesome and for me was one of the best parts of the entire weekend. I positioned myself at the end of the pit lane right at the exit and got to see the cars come and line up one by one at the pit lane exit and rev up the engines and making a butt load of noise and jump onto the track before taking taking their positions on the grid. It was 6-7 minutes of sheer power and deafening levels of noise (the awesomest video coming up soon). This bit of cars exiting the pits is one the most blatant display of power that these cars posses and the teams sometime also try to one up each other by getting their car out first, just watch the video and you'll know). The cars then lined up and made their way for the warm up lap. The noise levels were high, but the best was yet to come.



The cars then lined up for the start of the race and as the 5 lights went out, the Indian GP was gooooooooooooo!! All 24 made a clean start and dove down the straight like 24 rockets taking off for the heavens. Seriously, they really are that fast and loud. Watching them on TV does not actually give you an idea of the speeds that these cars achieve. Lap after lap they look like rockets speeding down the track breaking just in time for the turns. Each time you'd be inclined to think that they just to fast to be able to break in time for the turn but lap after lap the breaking distances get shorter just by inches and the cars turn in. Once the race was go, it begins to get a little dull in the paddock as the cars are now just lapping one after the other, you begin to a little used to the noise (even though it is still quite deafening), interspersed with one odd car pitting. The pit stop is quite exciting but the fact that they don't refuel any more adds a dampener to the 6 odd seconds of "organized chaos". You also have seen all the celebs by now, got yourself clicked with them (refer to the pictures) and you now just want to let them stand there and watch the race in peace. Towards the last 10 laps of the race we saw a few of the high profile guests leaving, we thought of standing near the VIP drop off area (where their phantoms, and mercedes and jaguars were dropping them when they arrived at the circuit since we knew where were standing we'd not be able to see Sachin wave the chequered flag for the race anyways). We saw Robert Vadhera , Omar Abdullah, Mayawati and a few other celebs I couldn't quite recognize leave. FYI, Mayawati presented the winners trophy.



Post that, it was time to just hang around and watch the entire spectacle/circus that is formula one wrap up and leave for the next race. Even as the prize ceremony was being carried out, behind the paddock we could see forklift after forklift (being operated by the own individual team members) had already started picking up huge crates containing every thing from machinery, equipment, car parts, tyres, food, fuel, and I don't know what else towards the loading docks ready to be transported to the next destination by Sunday night or Monday early morning. I was told that the logistics are so precise that the circuit would be wearing a deserted look by Monday afternoon with the race just having been completed on Sunday evening.



As you can see, I really have no words to explain what an amazing weekend this was.

Link for the photographs (https://picasaweb.google.com/103710697533927474654/PaddockClubBIC2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIOU-bWLpuiAew&feat=directlink)

Race With The Good Times...

2005, Narain Karthikeyan becomes the first Indian driver on the F1 grid.
2005, Team India participates in the inaugural A1GP season
2007, Team India's maiden feature race victory in A1GP.
2008, Force India F1 becomes the first Indian Formula One Team.

India has finally arrived in the world of motorsport...and how!!

We Stick Like Glue

That must be the song on Hamilton's lips right now. His 9th race in his rookie season and he has managed to stick to the podium in every single race. Sunday's british grand prix was no different. Lewis started off on pole for his first home grand prix alongside Kimi on row one. Row two was a Ferrari-McLaren affair as well with Alonso and Massa taking positions three and four respectively.

Disaster struck early for the Brazillian driver when he stalled his engine just before the start and had to start last and from the pitlane. It was a perfect start for Lewis as he fended off the flying Finn into the second corner. The pace settled down pretty much after that. A short first stint was predicted for Lewis, with his pit strategy compromised to get him on pole at Silverstone. He was indeed the first to pit from the front runners. That handed Kimi the lead of the race. Kimi was within striking distance of Hamilton until he dived into the pits and managed to get some fliers under his belt before Kimi went on for his own pitstop, which resulted him in coming out ahead of the Brit. Alonso however, had other plans in mind. He had a very short pit stop (6 seconds) and took almost half the fuel on board in a bid to get out ahead of Kimi, which he did. Kimi once again had a McLaren just ahead of him, but this time it wasn't the young Brit, it was double world champion fernando Alonso.

Alonso had a 5 second lead from Kimi when it was time for him to make his early second stop. That difference in pit strategy was what swung the advantage in Kimi's favour, once again he had a clear track aheead of him and he broke lap records in succession to not only close in on Alonso, but he opened up enough advantage to come out in front of him after his own second stop. There was no catching Kimi after the second stop as he left the spaniard down in the dust. Alonso had no answers to match the scarlet car ahead of him.

Massa in the meanwhile had a "tigerish" drive from the back of the grid. He made up 10 places in the first 10 laps. He managed to get upto 7th after the first round of pit stops was over. 5th was the best he could manage on the day. More importantly, he finished just 28 seconds adrift the race winner, which just shows the pace of the Ferrari of Massa starting from the pitlane. The podium might have looked a little different had he started off from his qualifying position.

Kimi took the second consecutive victory in this season, third for this season. Alonso finished one place ahead of his teammate Lewis who finished third. The gap between Ferrari and McLaren in the constructors championship remains unchanged as a result but Kimi has now clawed back another four points on championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Alonso maintains his second position in the leaderboard. Kimi now stand third in the championshp ahead of Massa as a result of his second consecutive victory.

The glitz and glamour was plenty at the Silverstone circuit with the likes of Beckam and Victoria, Simon Le bon, the singer from Duran Duran, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent (the dude who gave away the Wimbledon mens singles champions trophy just 3 hours later) were just some of the many celebs that were present to witness (possibly) the last British gp at Silverstone.

The next race is the European grand prix at Nurburgring on the 22nd of July.

Did someone say rookie??

Rookie:A newcomer to the professional arena;a person new to an activity or in his first year of an education or job.

Right...Lewis Hamilton, 7 races into his first season as a professional formula one driver, has not put a revolution wrong. He has not crashed his car, he has not been fined, nor has he been given any penalties for breaking any rules(so commonly done by even the exprerienced drivers) by the FIA even once. Heck...the kid hasn't even spun his car once on the track. The only time he did make a mistake was in free practice in Monaco, where he managed to crash into the barriers breaking his left front suspension. That was when it mattered the least. No penalties, no fines...it's free practice.

So lets talk about all that he has done in the season so far. He has managed to stick to the podium like glue, has finished in the top three all season long until now. He has won two grands prix back to back, the first for a 'rookie'. As a result he is now leading the world championship(WDC) with a 14 points the gap between him and second place Alonso.

Spare a thought for Alonso though, the reigning double world champion came into McLaren with the hype, and the expectations of a McLaren revival on his shoulders. Alongside him a 'rookie' (I can't believe we are still calling Lewis that) Lewis Hamilton. Damn...the guy looks like a couple of seasons old already!! What's worse is that while Alonso has managed to be on and off in terms of the pace, has had his engine changed, and managed to get a 7th as his wors finish to in the season so far, Lewis has been unbelievably consistent and managed to walk away with a trophy in each of the grand prix. His worst finish this year has been a 3rd place in Australia and a 3rd at France. phew!!

Ferrari on the other hand are facing a dynamics in the team of a totally unfamiliar kind. Traditionally they would have a #1 driver (Michael Schumacher) and a #2 driver (Barrichello, Massa) and obvoiusly, the best strategies went to the #1 driver in order to maximize the chances of a Ferrari victory. This year however, Massa after having played the role of an underdog alongside Schumacher is now pitted equally against Kimi Raikkonen. Kimi with the responsibility if filling Michael's extra large sized shoes has yet to prove to the team that he and not Massa, is the man who's going to get them the title this year. Though his season started off perfectly with a win in Australia, he had slipped off in terms of performance in the following few races, Massa managed to outqualify Kimi and was also on pole more often than Kimi. Kimi's win in France should do his confidence a world of good.

What it has also done is that it has split the championship wide open again. It looked as if McLaren would run away with the 2007 WDC with Ferrari throwing in the towel in the first half of the season itself. With the scarlet cars back to winning ways, and Lewis still managing consistent performances, it looks like a close fight to the chequered flag at the end of the season awaits us.

With almost no testing between the French gp and the british gp (both gps are on consecutive weekends) the scarlet cars definitely seem to have the upper hand. A repeat of the results from France would see the championship close up even further.

And that's the way the cookie crumbles...

On the 22nd of October 2006, the most illustrious formula one career of all time time to a spectacular end as football great Pele waved the chequered flag to end the Brazillian grand prix at Interlagos in Sao Palo. Michael Schumacher drove one of the best races of his life demonstrating that he was retiring very much at the peak of his career.
Starting from 10th on the grid after having fuel pressure problems in qualifying, Michael managed to get upto 6th in the opening few laps. He suffered a left rear tyre puncture just as he overtook Fisichella to get into 4th place in the beginning of lap 8. After having to do almost the entre lap on just three wheels Schumacher rejoined last and a heavily compromised pit strategy. From then on it was the two Ferrari's of Massa leading the race and Michael making his way up the grid trading fastest laps, creating new records all the time.
It was only a case of finishing for Alonso as he was never really under any kind of pressure to push. He finished about 30 sec behind Massa in second place. Massa went on to win the second grand prix of his life thus becoming the first Brazillian to win his home grand prix in the last 13 years. The last man to do so was Ayrton Senna back in 1993.
Schumi finished 4th after pulling off an amazing overtaking manoeuvre on Kimi on the second last lap of the race.
Schumacher was given an hounorary trophy before the start of the race in recognition of his achievements over the past decade and a half. A debutant in 1991 in Spa, Belgium and a grand prix winner at the same circuit the very next year, Michael holds a string of records that are next to impossible to match.
It would've been befitting if Schumi would've taken the chequered flag in the final race of his career and helped Ferrari atleast take home the constructors championship, but it was not to be. After all these years of domination and an amazing fightback by Ferrari in 2006 the surreal is set to happen. 2007 will start sans Schumacher Sr. It's something that sounds simply wierd and out of order, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.