Motorcar diaries

Mar 5 Friday: Parma,Italy
Factory trip
Flew down to Parma in Italy and spent the day visiting the Dallara factory where our car has been manufactured. And after what has been my seventh flight in the last nine days,I’m just really glad to be back home in Brackley,finally getting to sleep in my own bed.

Mar 6 Saturday: Brackley,England
normal things
This was an easy day after a long time that I just spent at home,doing normal things for a change. The idea is to focus before the next week begins. My brother Suhail has been working on my official website and we’re trying really hard to get it up and running very soon,pushing to get it ready before the first race.

Mar 7 Sunday: Silverstone,Eng
bags are packed
After lunch at my favourite Thai restaurant in Banbury,I spent the afternoon filming a feature for an Indian news channel at Silverstone. There have been so many messages on my Twitter page from so many people from within India and Indians around the world,all the support is great. I had a pre-race tune-up with my chiropractor Liz Linford and the rest of the day I just packed my bags and readied myself to fly out to Bahrain. I’m planning to do some reading on the plane and be totally relaxed.

Mar 8 Monday: London-Manama
hurt locker & more
I took the flight to Manama from Heathrow in the morning and met the iSport (International) guys at the airport,who will be in Bahrain for the GP2 Asia Series. I watched The Hurt Locker on the plane and I think Kathryn Bigelow deserves all the praise she’s getting,it’s a great movie.

Mar 9 Tuesday: Manama,Bahrain
team mate,buddy
I settled in in my hotel and had dinner with Bruno. It’s great to have a friend with you on the team,I’ve known him and his family for a long time and I am sure we’ll both be mature enough to deal with the pressures this season. The two of us had a great working relationship with each other and the engineers at iSport,so I think we can carry that on this year.

Mar 10 Wednesday: Manama
f1 passes!
It was an early start to the day,spending about an hour and a half in the gym. I’ve been training really hard since the winter,and my body is at its fittest right now. After a breakfast with Bruno,we went to the circuit and got our F1 passes!
It was a fairly busy day,meeting up with the motorsport specialist media. There are a lot of journalists who I already know from before,but there were also some new faces. Most of them were just coming up to congratulate and wish me good luck and it felt great to be recognised by the international media. We spent the whole day at the circuit,meeting up our engineers. There are a lot of new names to remember! Oh,and the caterers here are superb,they’ve been feeding us really well.

Mar 11 Thursday: Manama
it’s a sign
In the morning we had the official drivers’ photoshoot and I met a lot of the other drivers,(Jarno) Trulli,(Fernando) Alonso and the Force India guys Adrian (Sutil) and Toni (Vitantonio Liuzzi). Then we rechecked my seat,the steering wheel,and then there were the FIA medical tests to be done.
I also took a walk at the track,where I met Jenson (Button) and was introduced to him. We chatted a bit about his championship last year and he was curious about us and the car since we haven’t had pre-season testing at all.
The best part of the day,however,was when the mechanics called me out to the front. They had opened the pitlanes for the public for the first time for the week and there was a huge crowd of Indian people there who had just come out for the race to cheer for me. I spent more than 45 minutes just signing autographs and taking pictures with them. I signed money,people’s arms,it was just fabulous.

Mar 12 Friday: Manama
starting trouble
It turned out to be a really difficult first day in F1 for me. My machine was still being completed when the first practice session started,with the wiring loom having arrived only on Thursday morning and then later,we couldn’t get the clutch and gearbox to work. I couldn’t get on to the track at all. It was such a shame for the mechanics,as they had worked all night.
This was not the debut I was hoping for,but this is the way it is and we will do our best for the weekend. Tomorrow is going to be really tough as we have just one practice session before we head into qualifying. It was some sort of an electronic or hydraulic issue. Bruno did manage 20 laps,though,and he gave us some inputs,so there were positives.

Chandhok gets his first drive,Vettel takes pole

Manama: Karun Chandhok finally managed to make his debut for HRT,after missing all three practice sessions,qualifying last alongside Brazilian team mate Bruno Senna as Germany’s Sebastian Vettel put returning compatriot Michael Schumacher in the shade with pole position for Red Bull at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Schumacher,the seven times champion returning at the age of 41 after a three-year absence,qualified seventh for Mercedes.

Britain’s world champion Jenson Button will be alongside the former Ferrari ace in eighth place after just sneaking his McLaren into the final phase of qualifying. Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa,returning for his first race since his serious head injury last July,qualified second with new Spanish team mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso one place behind. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton,the fourth world champion on the starting grid,starts fourth.

Vettel,who came into Formula One with the nickname ‘Baby Schumi’ the year after Schumacher retired in 2006,finished overall runner-up last season while his Renault-powered team won the last three races of 2009. “It’s a big surprise,” said the 22-year-old,who had mechanical problems in practice on Friday. “In winter testing,no one really knew where everyone was. Of course it was clear that four teams were pretty strong. Tomorrow is going to be a long race,the first of 19,and it’s not going to be a sprint. It will be an endurance event.”

He congratulated Massa,a double winner in Bahrain in the past,for his strong comeback from life-threatening injuries sustained in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix last year. “Big respect for what he has achieved,” he said. “First race,he’s back and bang,bang,bang. It’s good to have him back.”

Massa returned the compliment with a grin: “It’s just fantastic to hear that. I want to be in your place but I’m happy for you,” he replied.

Towards the back,Virgin Racing were the best of the new teams with Timo Glock qualifying 19th. Lotus pair Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen were 20th and 21st while HRT filled the back row.

(Reuters)

Rule changes

No re-fuelling: The most key change that might bring out clever new strategies. Cars will have to last the race on the fuel they started on and they have been modified to increase the capacity of the fuel tank. But with the car getting heavier,looking after tyres and brake pads in the opening laps will be difficult

Tyre changes: The width of the front tyres has been narrowed from 270mm to 245mm with the idea of decreasing the amount of front-end grip and making them slightly more unpredictable. Teams will also have to start the race with the tyres on which they qualified

New points system: Instead of the top eight 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 format,this year the top ten will be rewarded,with the new break-up reading 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1

No KERS: KERS has been scrapped for the season because of poor uptake and pressure to cut costs,though is it not banned in the regulations

Qualifying: To accommodate the extra teams,seven cars will drop out of the first qualifying session,seven from the second and as in 2009,10 cars will fight for pole in the third. The third session will be run in low-fuel configuration

Third driver: Teams will also be allowed to run their third drivers on Fridays,provided they use the engine and tyres allocated to the nominated race driver of the relevant car

Aabha rathee on five things to watch out for over the coming season

Second coming
Having flirted with his fans’ briefly stoked anticipation last year and then deciding not to take the seat at Ferrari temporarily emptied by Felipe Massa’s accident,Michael Schumacher decided to make a full fledged return starting 2010. Racing for Mercedes GP,though,will mean that the seven-time world champion will be driving a Fomula One car other than Ferrari for the first time since 1995. There are also a few other new things to contend with for the 91-time race champion,with drastic rule changes to a new world order in the championship. At 41,though,Schumacher insists that he is ready and as fit as ever. “I feel like a child looking forward to Christmas,” he said in the run-up to Bahrain. “When I retired from racing in 2006,my batteries were simply empty. Now they are totally recharged and I am ready for the challenge.”

British brotherhood
At the official press meet in Bahrain on Friday,the two McLaren team mates “giggled like teenagers”,according to a news report. Conspiracy theorists,however,have had a field day ever since Briton Button,last season’s champion with debutants Brawn,decided to move to the long-time team of countryman and 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso,after all,hadn’t exactly had a dream run while Hamilton’s team mate at the team in 2007. Ever since his move in November last year,though,Button has been busy making it clear that he feels completely at home. “Change is difficult but also exciting. I didn’t know what to expect after seven years with the same team. But there is a great atmosphere here at McLaren,” he said recently. The in-house battle between the two most recent world champions,however,will be one to watch out for.

The Legend of Senna
If there is a surname that moves more Formula One watchers than Schumacher,it is Senna. Young Bruno,then,will have the bright lights following him as he makes his debut on the stage that his late uncle Ayrton dominated in the early 1990s and where he died tragically while racing. What makes it even tougher for the young Brazilian is the utter inexperience of his debutant team HRT,who only managed a last-gasp entrance onto the grid for the season after too many starting troubles. HRT have not had any pre-season testing at all either,and Senna,who will pair former GP2 team mate and another F1 rookie,Karun Chandhok,has his task cut out. “At the end of the day we’re here and it’s a great achievement to be here already,” Senna said. “What these guys (team engineers) are doing now is what should have been done in the workshop months ago,and everything should be ready.”
No one can doubt the pedigree however,and he makes no attempt to shy away from the Senna legacy either,wearing a modified version of his uncle’s helmet.

The Force lives on?
Force India dealt with the bane of instant stardom last season,losing Giancarlo Fisichella,who had got the team a pole position and a second-place finish at Belgium in August after 29 races without a point,to Ferrari. However,Adrian Sutil,who had been luckless despite some good performances though the season,took over the mantle pretty fast,getting points again in the following race at the Italian GP after finishing just off the podium. There has been much work in the off-season on the new car and the VJM03 has already earned itself some good press. “This is a beautiful car,probably one of the best cars they’ve ever made,and I mean that in terms of the previous history of Jordan,Midland and Spyker. If it goes as well as it’s made then they’ll spring a few surprises,” Eddie Jordan said. They have a new gearbox supplier and the first splash was made by Sutil on the opening day of the 2010 season,topping the charts in the first practice session in Bahrain. Sutil spent some time with good friend Hamilton in the off-season,playing computer games,but the German will hope to get into some real skirmishes with the McLaren driver in the coming months.

New challenges
A debutant team walked off with the title in the last season,but Brawn’s success story won’t be so easy to emulate for the three new teams this season — Virgin Racing,Lotus F1 and HRT. Lotus have a legacy and a strong line-up to rely on in drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli,but a none-too-impressive car might have them struggle.
Virgin,with Timo Glock and brand new driver Lucas di Grassi,and HRT,with two fresh faces in Senna and Chandhok and shockingly little preparation time,have an even tougher battle on hand. There are also five complete greenhorns di Grassi (Virgin),Vitaly Petrov (Renault),Nico Hulkenberg (Williams) and Senna and Chandhok (both HRT) handling the steering wheels,apart from BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi,who took Timo Glock’s spot in Toyota for the last two races in 2009.