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.

GENTLEMEN...REV UP YOUR ENGINES!!

Testing is over,the show begins now.The new Formula One season is set to provide the most exciting racing in years.Can the dream pairing of Raikkonen and Montoya finally stop the invincible Schumacher??Can Jenson Button finally bring BAR their first Grand Prix victory? Red Bull Racing make their Formula One debut in the experienced hands of David Coulthard, while Jordan bring the first ever Indian driver to the sport,Narain Karthikeyan.It all adds up to a thrilling championship in prospect.


Ferrari-262 points
2004 position: 1st
Drivers: Michael Schumacher(148), Rubens Barrichello(114)
Major revisions to the aerodynamic regulations, designed to slow the cars by cutting downforce, have prompted some radical and impressive responses from the likes of Renault and McLaren, whose all-new cars have set the pace in pre-season testing. In contrast, Ferrari’s F2004 M, effectively last year’s car with a revised aero package, has been keeping a relatively low profile in the timesheets.Ferrari plan to use the F2004 M for the first four races before introducing their 2005 car at the Spanish Grand Prix in May. By then they will have had ample opportunity to assess the effectiveness of their rivals’ 2005 solutions. Whether they are competitive in the meantime remains to be seen, though of course, you underestimate Ferrari at your peril.Any weakness in their aero package would provide only a small chink in their otherwise bullet-proof armour.Then there is the team’s continuity – one of their biggest assets. Schumacher and Barrichello remain a formidable driver pairing and they are backed up by that technical dream team, including the likes of Brawn, Byrne and Martinelli.
Schumacher maintains he is as hungry as ever, despite his seven world titles, but could that hunger start to wane if he finds himself under pressure in 2005?

BAR(119)
2004 position: 2nd
Drivers: Jenson Button(85), Takuma Sato(34)
BAR ended 2004 on a massive high, seeing off Renault to finish second in the constructors’ championship.Will the changes to the regulations affect their momentum?On the plus side they are the only team apart from Ferrari to field an unchanged driver line-up – and a very good one at that. In 2004 Jenson Button proved his worth as a potential champion, not only in terms of pace, but also consistency and racecraft – assets that may be more valuable than ever this year if nursing tyres and engines turns out to be key in winning races under the revised regulations.

Renault(105)
2004 position: 3rd
Drivers: Fernando Alonso(59), Giancarlo Fisichella(22)
Flavio Briatore’s team have a lot to live up to in 2005. They may have run out of steam somewhat towards the end of last year, but in pre-season testing they have shone, with the R25 proving consistently fast and reliable.It is not only Renault’s car that is impressive. So too is their driver pairing of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella. Both men have a Grand Prix victory to their name and both have a lot to prove.

Williams(88)
2004 position: 4th
Drivers: Mark Webber(7), Nick Heidfeld(3)
Williams’ media coverage over the winter was dominated by their hunt for a suitable team mate for Mark Webber. After the final showdown Nick Heidfeld got the nod over Antonio Pizzonia.. The move to Williams was meant to bring him the chance to win. Whether the FW27 is a potential race winner is unclear.

After a poor start to 2004 Williams gathered pace in the latter half of the season, with Montoya winning the final round in Brazil, though carrying that momentum into 2005 with its revised rules may be difficult. The team don’t have the level of continuity enjoyed by some of their rivals. Their drivers, though highly rated, are new and, as yet, not proven race winners. By their own admission, Williams are unlikely to be winning races early in the season. The drivers have suggested the FW27 is struggling for downforce as well as rear-end stability and Head has confessed to the British press that switching wind-tunnel facilities during its design process has not helped. One thing the team should be able to count on is BMW, whose V10s are usually among the best on the grid.

McLaren(69)
2004 position: 5th
Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen(45), Juan Pablo Montoya(58)
There is a real buzz surrounding McLaren going into the new season. For starters there is their driver line-up – arguably the most exciting the sport has seen since the team brought together Prost and Senna back in the 1980s. Finland’s ‘Iceman’ and a fiery Colombian may seem a strange combination on the surface, but already Ron Dennis reports that Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya are getting on like a house on fire.Of the two, Raikkonen should have the edge initially. He is more familiar with the team and is historically less prone to mistakes than his team mate. However, Montoya is looking sharper than ever heading to Melbourne thanks to an intensive training programme that has seen him shed several kilos over the winter. As always at McLaren there will be no team orders, though Dennis will not want to see any repeat of the run-ins witnessed between Montoya and Ralf Schumacher at Williams. Whether they are in contention for that title will depend on the Adrian Newey-designed MP4-20. Its predecessor caused Ferrari a few problems last year and the team appear to have maintained that momentum with the new machine.


Sauber(34)
2004 position: 6th
Drivers: Jacques Villeneuve(NA), Felipe Massa(12)
Peter Sauber’s team had a solid, if unspectacular, year of steady progress in 2004. Sixth in the final standings, there were never likely to challenge McLaren for fifth, but were in a different class to the Jaguar team behind them.The transition to French rubber on the new C24 looks to have gone smoothly so far, though there will be still be plenty to learn over a race weekend. Arguably less smooth has been the arrival of Jacques Villeneuve. After a somewhat rusty return with Renault in the closing races if 2004, the former champion is about to embark on his first full season of Formula One racing since leaving BAR in 2003.

Red Bull(NA)
2004 position: NA
Drivers: David Coulthard(24), Christian Klien(3)
The Austrian-owned newcomers(RED BULL) could be one of the surprises of 2005. The team they bought at the end of last year, Jaguar, hardly set the world alight in 2004, but their R5 machine, from which Red Bull’s RB01 is evolved, did show hints of potential – it qualified on the front row in Malaysia and third in Japan.Red Bull may seem a big step down for Coulthard after McLaren, but the Scot will relish the challenge of being lead driver with a new, up and coming team. And after the highly corporate atmosphere of his former employers, he should enjoy being ‘let off the leash’ - he has already been seen casually sporting a stubbly, almost ‘Villeneuvesque’ look at test sessions. Red Bull will be counting on Coulthard to take young team mates Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi under his wing.

Toyota(9)
2004 position: 8th
Drivers: Jarno Trulli(46), Ralf Schumacher(24)
The Toyota team will have few excuses to hide behind if they don’t succeed in 2005. With a huge budget, the first car designed entirely under superstar technical director Mike Gascoyne, and arguably their best driver line-up to date, the bosses in Japan are understandably demanding podium finishes as a minimum requirement. However, Formula One racing is a notoriously tough nut to crack – witness how long it took BAR – and in only their fourth year Toyota still have long way to go if last season’s performance – nine points and eighth in the standings – is anything to go by.From its track outings so far, drawing conclusions on that potential is difficult. Both Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher have been subdued in their comments, though both reported positive progress with the latest aero package.


Jordan(5)
2004 position: 9th
Drivers: Narain Karthikeyan(NA), Tiago Monteiro(NA)
Following Eddie Jordan’s sale of the team, 2005 will be their final season under his famous name before they become Midland. As such, it will be very much a year of transition and already much has changed.Jordan’s driver selection has also prompted much debate. Whereas Red Bull’s new management chose the experienced Coulthard to lead the team, Midland have opted to go with new talent rather than look to former drivers such as Timo Glock or Robert Doornbos. Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro are the names in question. As India’s first Formula One driver, the former should guarantee the team plenty of media coverage. Both he and Portuguese team mate Monteiro have graduated from the Nissan World Series, where both raced for Carlin. Monteiro was 2004 Rookie of the Year, but both he and Karthikeyan have completed only limited Formula One test mileage. More experienced is third driver Robert Doornbos, who carried out Friday duties for the team at several races last year.

So much new blood could bring problems, though one should remember that behind the scenes at Jordan there remain plenty of staff with no end of Formula One experience, including winning Grands Prix. Midland’s long-term plans for the team should become clearer as the season evolves.

Minardi(1)
2004 position: 10th
Drivers: Christijan Albers(NA), Patrick Friesacher(NA)
Minardi may be at the back end of grid, but sometimes it seems they get as much media attention as Ferrari at the front. Outspoken team boss Paul Stoddart has a lot to do with it, especially since he began his much-publicised war of words with FIA President Max Mosley. Stoddart intends to start the 2005 season with last year’s Minardi, which will of course not meet the new regulations. The men due to be in the cockpit of the PS04B until the new car arrives for San Marino are Dutchman Christijan Albers and Austrian Patrick Friesacher, another two Formula One rookies.Stoddart has talked of a major step forward with the PS05, due to debut at Imola in April. It is expected to be the team’s first all-new chassis since 2002 and should be a far more integrated package than its predecessor, having been designed with its Cosworth V10 engine specifically in mind. In fact, there is an air of quiet confidence in the Minardi camp and with so many changes going on at Jordan moving off the bottom of the table may not be entirely out of the question.