Formula One in India

As far as I can remember I have been a race enthusiast and a huge Formula One fan. Ayrton Senna has always been my idol and to be honest he is one of the reasons a lot of people I know, apart from me, got so hooked on to Formula One. This started way before we got the races live on TV, Star Sports, which if I remember right started in 1993. We used to get the videos of the races prior to this and for anyone who watched racing at that time, there were only two names that were ever mentioned, Senna and Alain Prost, not disrespecting Nigel Mansell's extraordinary talent. Racing between these drivers was fierce at that time, with neither driver ever giving an inch to the other.

It is hard to believe that it is actually 20 years later and the strong talk of a Formula One race on the streets of Delhi is sending chills down everyone's spines. Motorsports in India and Formula One in particular seen massive growth, especially amongst the younger audiences. After cricket and maybe football it is the most watched sport in India. Not only have the viewers increased, but through various efforts of the FMSCI, governing body of motorsports in India, drivers aspiring to be in Formula One have increased, due to the various junior categories that exist. JK Tyres have played a big role in developing drivers, including Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim.

Attending races has always been fun, greeted by the deafening sounds of the V8 engines, but having a race in India is just way beyond everyone's dream. A Formula One race in India has been talked about for the last few years with nothing come out of it. However, recently Vijay Mallya, Force India Team Owner was confident when he said that India will have a Formula One race in 2010 and no later. This statement seems the strongest ever and I think the possibility of having a race in 2010 or 2011 has a 90% possibility. The fact that India have a team on the F1 grid is a huge achievement by itself, and with Karun Chandhok knocking on the doors of Formula One, this is definitely the best time to have a race in India.

Signing a deal with Bernie Eccelstone to host a Formula One race might be a significant and huge step, but it is only the first step in many towards hosting a Formula One race. Apart from the budgets, the infrastructure requirements for a Formula One race is very demanding and the level of planning has to be at the highest levels for an event of this stature. It is imperative that people with experience in motorsports are involved with the planning of this event. A Formula One event is like no other event in the world and careful considerations have to be made while planning this.

All that said, having a Formula One race in India will be mega, and possibly the most glamorous event the country has even witnessed. And I am sure people will pour in from all over the country to witness this, now let us just hope that we have an Indian driver on the Formula one grid...

Chandhok Triumphs at Hockenheim!!

Sunday saw two exciting races at the Hockenheimring in Germany, which resulted in amazing drives by both winners. Lewis Hamilton had the machinery to power him towards his fourth win of the this year's Formula One season, while India's own Karun Chandhok soaked in tremendous pressure to win his first race of the season. He has been luckless the whole season but it was clear to see that this victory had nothing to do with luck, but rather a commanding and strategic drive to the chequered flag.

Chandhok, driving for iSport qualified a disappointing 11th, struggling to find the right balance of the car. As we have often seen this year, his qualifying pace has been up and down, while his race pace has certainly been impressive and on par with the top runners. The feature race on Saturday was no different as he brilliantly fought his way up to fifth place, closing in on team-mate Bruno Senna in fourth rather rapidly. Then all of a sudden with five laps to go there was a heavy downpour which left teams and drivers pondering whether to change to wet tyres or stick to their dry tyres. Both Chandhok and Senna decided to opt for the wets which ultimately resulted in them finishing in 8th and 4th respectively. This gave Karun pole position for the sprint race on Sunday.

Starting from Pole he had a good start but was beaten to the first corner by the quick starting Lucas Di Grassi who jumped from fourth to first. Chandhok always knew he had a strong car and took about two laps before making his move on Di Grassi. He had a great run coming out of the chicane and both drivers went side-by-side into the hairpin with Di Grassi on the inside and Chandhok on the outside. It was a perfect dummy sold by Chandhok as he cut back inside and powered out of the corner, giving him the edge for the next right hander. After that Chandhok started to pull away until Andreas Zuber, who started 11th and edged past Di Grassi for 2nd, began to climb all over the rear of the iSport car. With 20 laps remaining, it seemed like an arduous task for Chandhok to keep Zuber at bay, but he did it brilliantly, driving intelligently by not wearing out his tyres. Even though there was just a half a second between them, the only way Zuber could have gotten past was by Karun making a mistake, even a small one would have given Zuber the lead.

Chandhok went on to win with Zuber second and team-mate Senna coming in third, second time this year that they have been on the podium together, however the Indian winning this time.

Both team-mates seem to have a very strong relationship, which is hard to find in any form of racing and this can be nothing but good for the team. This is Chandhok's second win in the GP2 series, following his debut win at Spa Francorrchamps last year. He was the first Indian to make sure that the Indian National Anthem was played at a Formula One weekend last year, and followed it up again this year. Even though it is not as good as hearing it the first time, listening to the national anthem on a race weekend makes each and every one of us very proud and still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.

Chandhok would have definitely got his deserved share of praises from the Formula One paddock, but he must know that it is important to continue this form into the next race weekend. With two podiums and a victory in the last four race weekends, he should aim to finish consistently in the second half of the season.

He is easily the fastest Indian in the world right now, but what we would like to see is the fastest Indian in the world showing off his stuff in a Formula One car very very soon...Come on Karun you are the Indian F1 Force!!

Do McLaren have the Superior car now??

Lewis Hamilton's back-to-back victory at Hockenheim has clearly showed the McLaren Mercedes to be be the better car, but is it going to be like this for the rest of the season?? Ferrari's below par performances have sent shockwaves through the Maranello-based team, even going so far to question the drivers' thirst for victory. Ferrari still seem to be reeling from their disastrous British GP, over a fortnight ago. If things do continue to like this, Hamilton could wrap up the Formula One Championship before the Formula One circus reaches Suzuka, Japan.

Hamilton's first stint made people think that he had 5-6 laps fuel less than the Ferrari, but when they came in a lap or two later, it was evident that the McLaren was setting a scorching pace. It was only one McLaren that was literally flying, as Kovalainen was looking very lackluster. After the first round of stops it was obvious that Hamilton would coast to victory followed by Massa. Then with about 30 laps to go, there was a suspension failure from Timo Glock's Toyota that sent him crashing into the wall bringing out the safety car. This caused majority of the teams to stream into the pits, with only Hamilton, Piquet and Heidfeld deciding to stay out. This baffled almost all teams and viewers as McLaren chose to keep Hamilton on track. I was pretty sure that Mclaren had made a big mistake and possibly cost Hamilton victory. However he proved all of us wrong and drove an amazing last stint and was a second quicker than anyone else on track
. Hamilton's performance was on par with a Schumacher performance, but we all know how much Schumacher has achieved, can Hamilton do the same??

Hamilton breezed past Massa like he was standing still, quite a disappointing defense from a championship contender, and went to to win the German GP. Sebastian Vettel was holding of Alonso with everything he had, and this was for 9th position, I would expect Massa would do more to fight for the championship. I really believed Massa had what it took to be Champion this year, but has been very disappointing the last couple of races and with Kimi totally out of sorts this weekend, Hamilton is looking good for a maiden Championship.

Kimi might have had one of his off weekends but ruling him out of the Championship would be a big mistake. Just the way Hamilton was not seen as a serious challenger couple of races ago, Raikkonen is being seen as fading away. However, Raikkonen and Massa will hav eto work really hard if they are to be able to challenge the McLarens. Ever since the Silverstone test couple of weeks ago, the McLarens have found couple of tenths of a second over the Ferrari and will look to capitalize on it during this week's test at Jerez. They have aerodynamic updates and will definitely be using the shark fin cover, which they tried during the Hockenheim test last week. Ferrari will have to dig deep and find something to beat the McLaren, with Hamilton looking very likely to be dominant at the Hungarian GP in less than two weeks time. To me it seemed like they went the wrong way with the set-up, because your car can't get slower by a second in the space of 2-3 weeks.

The battle is going to be between Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa and right now it is too close to call, let us hope we all have the same dilemma going in to the final round of the Championship in Brazil...

The Championship Starts Here!!

Lewis Hamilton's stunning win at Silverstone, along with Ferrari's miserable weekend has just blown the 2008 Formula One Championship wide open, and this is where it all begins. Last week the talk was about Hamilton not being able to handle the pressure but he has answered his critics, and answered them in a very convincing fashion.

The race was one of the best seen in a long time and there were two standout performers in Hamilton and Barrichello who made it even better to watch. Rubens Barrichello has been struggling with the Honda for the past two seasons, with this season being no better. Actually, they seem to be languishing at the back of the field with the Force India F1 team, and turning their efforts to next year. Barrichello's decision to change to extreme wets at a crucial time seems to have been the best decision made all weekend, and it makes me wonder why not even one of the other teams tried this as most had nothing to lose. Barrichello was a whopping 10secs faster than anyone on track when he changed tyres and came from 16th to 3rd (would have been 2nd if he did not have a problem with his fuel rig). Hamilton astonishingly managed to lap in similar times to Barrichello, which made his driver even more memorable.

Massa probably had his worst Formula One or racing weekend ever, having trouble on all three days. He started off Friday practice by slamming the barriers and wrecking his car after sliding on oil which came from Alonso's car on the first session. When he was about to set off for his final qualifying lap in Q3 there was a mechanical problem which caused him to stay in the pits. On race day, he spun about 5 -6 times which took him out of contention completely. Massa will have to bounce back strongly to ensure he stays with the Championship leaders.

Raikkonen was carving his way through the field and was on the tail of Lewis Hamilton until his first pitstop, when he decided not to change his tyres. This cost him the race as the rain began to come down heavily and his tyres were in no shape to take on Hamilton. Alonso was the only other driver who decided to not change his tyres and paid the price for it. Alonso, along with Hamilton and Barrichello were the only drivers not to make a mistake during the race. Both Raikkonen and Alonso to an extent had a chance to challenge Hamilton if they had changed their tyres, which also shows why these three drivers are easily the best drivers on the grid today.

Robert Kubica could not cope with the conditions as he too slid into the gravel trap. With all rivals struggling this weekend, Hamilton gained a lot with regards to the Championship. There are three drivers tied at 48 points, namely Raikkonen, Hamilton and Massa with Kubica on 46 points and his team-mate Nick Heidfeld a further 10 points adrift. McLaren seem to have found a huge performance gain in the past few weeks and in my opinion should be the favourites going in to Hockenheim in two weeks time. Each of these drivers have made about 2-3 mistakes this year, which could end up costing them the Championship in the long run. It's hard to imagine that drivers of the calibre of Schumacher or Alonso would make these kind of mistakes, given a good car and in these circumstances. If either of these driver want to be Champion they will definitely have to step up to the plate and make fewer mistakes.

On another note, Karun Chandhok's drive to 3rd place at Silverstone was indeed a joy to watch. Silverstone is a very tough track to overtake in and Karun overtook about 5 cars on his way to third, after starting 10th. The last time I saw someone overtaking cars in this manner at the British GP was in 2002, when Barrichello started last and carved his way ended up finishing 2nd. Karun's move on Zuber when he sized him up at Priory and dived inside at Brooklands was probably the move of the whole weekend. Next is the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and this will be Karun's first trip there, but I don't see it being a problem for him. He is still looking for his first win of the season so let us hope it is here...

Silverstone Preview

This year's British Grand Prix at Silverstone has already got off to a big bang with the announcement that Donington Park will be hosting the British GP starting 2010. There has been a constant battle with the BRDC for keeping the GP but and Max have found an alternate venue for one of the most important Grand Prix's on the Formula One calendar. Being the base and home for most of the teams, a calendar without the British GP would be unheard of. Donington Park will always be associated with the Senna name for his miraculous display on the first lap at Donington Park in 1993, the last time a race was held there. Senna overtook SIX cars en route to one of his greatest victories ever.

But saying that I personally will be sad to see Silverstone go!! It is a beautiful track with some of the most challenging corners amongst all Formula One circuits today. Copse is a perfect corner to start the lap which is almost flat before coming into the twisty Maggots and Beckets complex. Stowe is the famous corner where Michael Schumacher's brakes failed in 1999 and he went crashing into the barriers injuring his legs and putting him out of commission for most of that season.

The Ferrari's are clearly the favourites coming into this race following a dominant 1-2 at Magny-Cours. Kimi Raikkonen has always gone well here, consistently finishing on the podium for the last couple of years. This year he will be more than determined to win following his disappointing second place in Magny-Cours. Felipe Massa is probably in the form of his life and is driving very smartly this year to constantly finish in the points and be the current leader in the Championship. On current form, Ferrari are looking most likely to dominate this year's British Grand Prix.

As I previously wrote Lewis Hamilton has been struggling to fight the leaders in the last couple of races due to his own faults but will be more than motivated and inspired to perform in front of his home fans this weekend. He has super quick last week during the three-day test at Silverstone and could probably be the only driver who will be able to split the Ferrari's this weekend or even pull off a surprise win. Lewis seems to be in good shape this weekend and don't be surprised if he is on pole come Saturday. His team-mate Kovalainen is due for some luck but I don't see him challenging the top three at Silverstone, even though his first win is not too far away.

Surprise package of the year, Robert Kubica and BMW hope to be back to 'normal' after their disappointing outing last time out in Magny-Cours, where they clearly seemed to be struggling. He will have to