Opinion Staying with the formula
The Indian Grand Prix was just another F1 race,and thats a good thing
When the Formula 1 circus first rolled into town a year ago,the fanfare surrounding Indias entry into the echelon of motorsport was deafening nearly as loud as an 18,000 rpm V8 engine. The sport had its fans in the country,sure,but what most found exciting was the razzle-dazzle of F1,the fast cars and the glamorous women thronging the pit lane. What followed was a frenzied rush to be part of this elite,exalted world with its millionaire drivers and billionaire owners.
This time round,though,some of the novelty had worn off. The reality of F1 minimal overtaking,a certain predictability to the final result barring an act of god had punctured the romanticised vision of champagne-swilling bad boys who got into these lean,mean and dangerous machines and risked life and limb for sport. Yes,F1 is still a dangerous sport but it is also a multi-billion dollar enterprise,and in this day and age the James Hunt archetype a cigar-chomping and perhaps overweight playboy wouldnt make it past the lower formulae. The drivers today,from defending world champion and current leader Sebastian Vettel to his more controversial rival Lewis Hamilton,are as mindful of the script as other professional athletes. Many have bemoaned the corporatisation of F1 after current promoter Bernie Ecclestone rearranged the commercial rights to F1,convincing team owners to collectively negotiate for their share of the money through a constructors association in 1978. But had F1 not kept pace with the times,it would hardly be interested in exploring new markets (there is enough resistance to moving the sport out of its native territory,Europe) and it would never have come to India.
So here we are,then,at the second,considerably more muted edition of the Indian Grand Prix and though the noise surrounding the race has lessened,the outcome was the same: Vettel won the race in dominant fashion and eked out a minor lead at the top of the standings. He was hunted home by a superb Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari,who mitigated what could have been a terrible weekend from the championship perspective by finishing second. There was an exciting race behind Vettel Alonso even overtook Webber and Button on track to claim second and that encapsulated the joys and frustrations of F1.
Lets be honest: the on-track drama in F1 can leave a lot to be desired,despite frequent rule-changes to make overtaking easier. To the casual observer,F1 is a maddeningly elliptical sport where unseen factors drive the result and the aim is to be the fastest guy to go round in a circle x times. It lacks the immediate urgency of football or the identifiable skill of cricket. Success in F1 depends mostly on the car,and if the cars a dud,the best driver in the world cant get it to win races,let alone titles. Then there are the tyres,and pit strategy plays an important role in determining winners and losers,but the telemetry teams rely on to make those calls is closely guarded and probably undecipherable to anyone without technical training. No wonder it is so much more difficult to settle whos the best scores when it comes to F1 drivers; all such discussions are subjective,but in,say,tennis,it would be hard for a non-troll to argue that Roger Federer is not an all-time great and yet,thats exactly what many serious F1 fans say about Michael Schumacher. So for the F1 newbie,watching the Indian GP would have confirmed many of the worst criticisms levelled at the sport that the result is pre-ordained (Vettel won from pole) and that there is little overtaking on track.
But for the non-casual fan,F1 is a delight. There are so many factors to consider,and the sports governing body,the FIA,keeps it interesting by changing the rules and technical regulations every few years to save costs or slow the cars down. The vagueness of the rulebook means race stewards decide outcomes of qualifying sessions and races rather frequently,and the outsize egos of the drivers (and the teams) produce entertaining off-track scuffles regularly. Theres even the occasional cheating and espionage scandal to liven things up. No stranger to controversy,Schumacher found himself under investigation by the stewards post-race for having ignored blue flags,which are waved at a lapped car to indicate the driver should move over and let a faster car through. Even before the race,Ferrari courted hostile headlines by visibly indicating support for the Italian marines,under arrest for allegedly shooting dead two Indian fishermen,on its cars. For all that F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport,the trackside politicking and wrangling is at least as integral to the sport as the smell of motor oil.
And so,a topsy-turvy season has now settled into a two-man contest reminiscent of the late 1990s,when the best driver on the grid gamely took his Ferrari to a down-to-the-wire contest against a dominant car. The nemesis for Schumacher then and Alonso now,though,was not Mika Hakkinen or Vettel,but one Adrian Newey chief technical officer at Red Bull Racing and architect of McLarens championship winning cars. As the Indian GP demonstrated,in F1,the cars the thing.
yamini.lohia@expressindia.com
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