10.11.11

There would have to be a very good reason for missing the annual FOC hillclimbers’ prizegiving dinner. So why miss it for a mere GP? Two reasons, my son has been popping over to India for work and organised his latest visit for this weekend and the inaugural Indian GP sounded like a one-off.

My theory is that anyone interested in the race has either watched it on TV or read all about it already and knows only too well what happened, so I thought I'd write about my experience of the trip.

As one would expect, I took my FOC reporting responsibilities seriously and went out to ask some street families what they thought.  These were whole families living in makeshift tents on the side of the main road just down from our 5 star hotel in Noida. The kids were charming once I explained what I wanted, OK some were in persistent begging mode, but once we got through that we could talk sensibly and several spoke some English. One lad made stuff to sell at traffic lights from rubbish, and was proud to be called an artist. There was a little schooling for them from charities, a toothbrush was displayed as a prized possession, cooking was done with the use of rearranged paving slabs.

It was a desperate scene, but it felt like a community. In that harsh environment people still looked after each other and were able to have a laugh and joke. And it was safe, I've felt far more threatened in parts of London. I paid them for the photos I had taken and they were ridiculously proud they would be published on some daft English web site they would never see.

When it comes to jobs, the Indians do seem to employ four people where one would do, it’s someone's job at the car park to take your ticket for you and put it in the machine next to your car window. The GP was no different, with thousands employed even if just for a weekend; its influence will be far longer with all the ancillary work and services.

Quite a few people had heard of F1, as it's always referred to, but only in the last few days it seems, once it became known some cricket stars were going! In that short time there was a pride being shown at hosting the GP. For those who knew there was an Indian team and an Indian driver even more so. The Grand Prix brought a lot to India. This is a land of huge development and growth anyway but the route to the Buddr circuit is now lined with building work bringing jobs both in the construction and use of the finished products. It’s an incredible and still growing economy; despite that unemployment is about 10%.

Getting to the track was an issue. My son’s plans to hitch a helicopter ride fell foul of his companies rule about having a limited number of senior people flying at the same time and by then the car park tickets had sold out. There was a fairly strict 8 kilometre exclusion zone so for Friday practice I thought I would try the public park and ride scheme. Here they had commandeered every school bus that has ever been built and was still vaguely running; one even had rather nice art deco light surrounds, none of the lights worked, but what style!

The Indian habit of squeezing excessive numbers of people onto transport was something not to be missed, so when I couldn’t get into the shuttle bus I hung out the doorway, with others even further out than me. It was exhilarating to say the least.

However one day of that was enough excitement and I arranged something better once I found there was a state cab company allowed to drop passengers quite near the track. Here I should mention the taxi experience, these aren’t the best cabs, the seat covers on the rear had also covered the seat belt fixings, but fortunately the traffic wasn’t that fast, it was just furious. Rules of the road are more guidelines, well vague suggestions actually. Why stick to three lanes when you can get six going if you use the hard shoulder and verges? The driving is extremely close and tremendously skilled. You look ahead, unlike Massa there is no need to look behind and many drivers even fold in their wing mirrors to negotiate smaller gaps. The concentration shown enables the drivers to spot and cope with anything from whole families with possessions suddenly appearing in the middle lane of the expressway, unlit auto rickshaws pulling out in the dark, made worse by the constant Delhi smog. The overriding principle is keep moving ... whatever that takes. If it means going round a roundabout the wrong way or the wrong way up a busy main road, that’s no problem. And people don’t get cross, its all accepted. The constant use of the horn is merely an advisory note of caution when overtaking, not any anger.

It was a good job we had efficient transport as the jams did build up with a good sized crowd for practice and big by anyone’s standards for Saturday. Very few Indians had been to a GP before, some had followed F1 on TV but for most it was to be a whole new experience. There were many making it a family day outing, keen to cheer heartily for Force India, Karthikeyan, Schumacher and Ferrari in that order. There was a lot of excitement when Massa went off in the last minute, but we felt the shunt looked minor and took the chance to duck out of the circuit early to find, in all the bustle, our booked taxi ready and waiting. The cost of this averaged 800 rupees, a little more than a tenner for over an hours drive! With petrol at a pound a litre I couldn’t see how this worked financially.

Following what was happening on track was made easier by the circuit design. Many of the stands had good viewing due to their elevated positions above the banked track.  Our seats had a TV screen in front and a view from the end of the back straight right around to the pit lane entrance, that’s nearly all the corners and included just about all of the action. The smog (well I think it must be a mixture of pollution and dust) was incredible; the dust gets in everywhere whatever you do to try and keep it at bay. The amount kicked up by anyone off line was huge and visibly took ages to clear from the track. This seemed to lead to some rather slippery moments for drivers.

As for the race, my son hasn’t given up on Lewis yet, and blamed my mate Massa (well I met him once at Snetterton when we awarded him honorary Anglian Area Group membership) for the coming together in front of us, rightly it appears from what we heard afterwards. It looked a big shunt and surprised us they could continue with minimal repairs. Of course Lewis's position was terminally compromised and he spent the rest of the race going round alone like the Billy-no-mates he appears to be at the moment. The crowd however thought he was great value for money! Other highlights were Petrov’s beautifully recovered tank slapper and Buemi’s Toro Rosso lunching its Ferrari engine.  I was amazed the track wasn’t covered in oil from that, but I think the large fire must have got most of it (don’t think you saw that on TV). It didn’t seem to cause a problem and track clearing was very efficient.

I'm a Button fan, and I joined in the excitement firstly when Webber was getting closer up the back straight; the speed they both came at that right hander was incredible. Similarly, when Jenson was getting closer to Vettel, but in honesty the guy was just playing with him. All Vettel had to do was put in another couple of quick laps to extend his unassailable lead again.

Corner 15 was in front of us and looked tricky. I was amazed at just how early they managed to get the power on after the apex, but it was taken very differently by the drivers. Vettel and Schumacher seemed slower in and on the power earlier. Others like Hamilton faster and less controlled.

By the end a great many more Indians had learnt what F1 was about and had entered into the spirit by making team apparel purchases at the somewhat sparse and frankly unexciting F1 village. On Saturday I was wearing our hillclimber’s 25th anniversary shirt thinking about the do at home. This attracted the attention of the presenter for Star Sports (the main Asian sports TV channel) who asked for an interview and my views of the circuit, as well as a bit about our Championship, I think he thought we were much bigger than we are, but I didn't disabuse him of that!

Was it worth travelling over 8,000 miles to see this inaugural grand prix? Absolutely! The dust comes off with a visit to the steam room and shower. I have just had some of the best food I have ever eaten, watched a great race at a great track and had a whole bunch of new experiences. The people I met were friendly, cultured, knowledgeable, hard working, interesting, keen to share their lives, talk about India, racing, the British, corruption, cricket of course and anything else. OK there are issues still, and I believe the class system unfortunately helps maintain the ridiculous wealth gap without the civil unrest you would see elsewhere with such inequality. They still need to sort the pot holes and pollution, but, as the world’s second fastest growing economy, the money coming in is clearly making a difference and it will only get better.

Click here for FIA lap chart.

Stefano Domenicali: “The result of this grand prix could be described as bitter sweet. On the one hand, there is the satisfaction of seeing Fernando on the podium, which given our current situation in this last run of races, represents our most realistic target. Once again, the Spaniard drove a great race, fighting lap after lap to bring home another trophy to add to his collection. On the other hand, there’s disappointment for what happened to Felipe, who could have got a good finish. As regards the incident with Hamilton, as usual Ferrari respects the decision of the Stewards, even if, in this case, we have a different view to theirs. Finally, let me say that seeing a Ferrari on the podium at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix was very pleasing, given what this market could represent in the near future.”

Fernando Alonso: “It’s nice to jump on the podium for India’s debut in Formula 1 and I’m pleased to have a new trophy to take home. However, today was a special day, full of contrasting emotions. In fact, the satisfaction at getting a podium finish cannot cancel out the sadness which has been with us for several days, because of the deaths of two of our colleagues, two special people – Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli.

Felipe Massa: “There’s not much to say at the end of a weekend like this. I am really unhappy that I was not able to finish a race in which I showed I had the pace to fight for the podium. As for the collision with Hamilton, I can only say I do not share the opinion of the Stewards who inflicted the punishment. I simply stayed on the ideal line, braking on the limit and staying on the part of the track that was rubbered in. What else could I do? It’s the umpteenth time that Hamilton runs into me this year and it seems it’s some sort of fatal attraction…In the past, I tried to talk to him but he did not seem to be interested in doing so."