INDIAN form was at its very best in Shanghai during the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. Narain Karthikeyan was closer to his Italian team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi all weekend and the Force India Formula One Team’s new updates worked wonders in qualifying.
However, Karun Chandhok sat out Friday’s Free Practice 1 session and was replaced by Luiz Raza. Chandhok is rumoured to return to the cockpit when the F1 circus visits Turkey in three weeks time.
Narain Karthikeyan finished his first Formula1 Grand Prix in about 6 years as he brought his HRT F111 to the chequered flag. While finishing the race should be Narain’s primary objective, the secondary would obviously be to beat his team-mate. The opening two rounds of the season saw a considerable distance between Narain and Tonio, which Narain managed to close in Shanghai.
Narain qualified 24th and last, but that doesn’t seem too bad if you were to know that Tonio qualified 23rd and only 2 tenths ahead of Narain. The HRT team that didn’t manage to qualify for the 2011 Australian Grand Prix were well within the 107% target laptime for Shanghai. Narain was 2 full seconds faster than the elimination laptime target, giving a clear indication that HRT and Narain are building pace and momentum as F1 nears its European leg.
The HRT F-111 is still around 7 seconds off Red Bull’s pace, but only half a second off Virgin Racing. Post-race, the team’s official press release quoted Narain, “We met our main objective today which was none other than to finish the race. I don’t think the Virgin’s are that far ahead of us which is good for future races. After having completed our target today we now have to improve the car and try and attack from Turkey onwards. With the new updates and parts we will be a lot more competitive for the next race. Nothing is easy in Formula 1 but we can definitely compete with our closest rivals soon.”
The Force India Formula One Team started the weekend in Shanghai on a positive note. They announced the launch of the Force India Formula One Team Academy in Bengaluru, a hunt for India’s next Formula1 driver. The team also brought some wing updates to Shanghai, which seemed to work as both FIF1 drivers almost made it to Q3 of qualifying.
Paul di Resta registered a Q2 laptime which saw him go faster than his German team-mate Adrian Sutil by 16 thousands of a second. This also happened to be the Scot’s first career participation in the Q3 segment of qualifying. The Indian F1 team’s aero updates seemed to work as they were consistently quicker than the Saubers, Williams and even beat a Mercedes and Renault in qualifying!
Come Race Day, the Force India cars opted for the conservative two-stop strategy, which slowed down their race pace and eventually cost them a place in the top 10. Paul di Resta’s opening three races of his debut season have been very impressive and he has matched and beaten Adrian Sutil on sheer pace. The Force India team and fans would be happy that both drivers are pushing each other to the limit, which is in-turn working for the team in the F1 Constructor’s Championship. (Force India are now tied 7th with Toro Rosso with 4 points)
The Force India Formula One team are one of the few privateer teams that have had little trouble with their KERS system. Red Bull and Williams suffered KERS issues all weekend, whereas the KERS and DRS system allowed the FIF1 team drivers to register the 3rd and 4th fastest speeds in the ‘speed trap’ in Shanghai.
The fastest were the Lotus Renault GP cars rocketing at over 320kmph!
The Turkish Grand Prix is three weeks away, which gives the teams and drivers much breathing space. Most teams have announced updates for the race in Istanbul, which also includes HRT and Force India. I am hoping that the updates perform as planned and we see Narain beating Tonio Liuzzi. As for Force India, anything less than a double points finish won’t excite their Indian F1 fans!
