THE ABU Dhabi Grand Prix is held on the picturesque Yas Marina Island in Abu Dhabi. The track runs around the famous Yas Marina hotel, which is one of the most posh hotels I have visited till date. The hotel is frequented by the celebrities who we see in maximum attendance during this GP weekend. If celebrities don’t interest you on a racing weekend, a peek in the VIP parking lot of the hotel will – probably the most amazing road cars that you can think of make their appearance too. And if cars don’t interest you, just peep into the Yas Marina Bay and you will spot the most luxurious yachts in the world there.
However, moving to the performances, the race had a bit of an anti-climax on the opening lap after pole sitter and 2011 Formula1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel suffered from an unexpected puncture in his right rear tyre and ended up retiring from the race. This was Vettel’s first retirement of the season and if statistics interest you; his last retirement was at the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, which was held more than a year ago. Till the Abu Dhabi GP, Vettel had finished in the points for 19 races on the trot, a record second only to Michael Schumacher’s performance in the early 2000s.
With Vettel retiring, the race was expected to be a tough battle between Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Webber. Barring Hamilton, the other three drivers are involved in a close fight to finish runners-up this season. Lewis Hamilton won the race eventually ahead of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, who finished second and third respectively. Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber finished 4th after attempting a radical tyre strategy towards the end of the race.
The Sahara Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta registered yet another double points finish when they brought home their VJM04 cars in P8 and P9 respectively. The team had a strong weekend in Abu Dhabi and was beaten only by the manufacturer teams. In Saturday’s qualifying, both Sahara Force India cars managed to get into Q3, ensuring a top 10 starting position on the grid.
The team split tyre strategy between their drivers with Adrian Sutil pitting twice and Paul di Resta using only one stop to finish the race. Amongst the front runners, di Resta was the only driver to run on a single tyre stop for the entire race. Let me try and explain di Resta’s strategy better; each pitstop (from pit entry to pit exit) at the Yas Marina circuit is expected to cost around 20 seconds of on-track time. This means that if you pit twice, you add 40 seconds and so on. By pitting once, di Resta saved 20 seconds of time on-track.
However, here’s the counter point. For a driver to make one stop less, he needs to stretch his set of tyres for at least 20-25% more than his competitors. Since each tyre has a shelf life, after which the performance takes a sudden dip (hence affecting lap times), tyre management is key to running such strategies. Paul di Resta did well to run this strategy and ultimately finish in 9th place. The Indian owned F1 team earned 6 valuable constructor’s championship points which should help them cement their 6th place position in the table.
The Abu Dhabi GP, while offering a mega spectacle with the paraphernalia around the circuit, often lacks the much needed wheel-to-wheel racing. This is also why the FIA on Saturday night, post-qualifying, decided to elongate the DRS zone limit by 75 metres. Some desperate measures to aid overtaking on track!
Talking of racing circuits, the Buddh International Circuit bowled a googly to many series organizers in India and Asia by announcing a circuit closure for maintenance till March 2012. This announcement came as a surprise after the calendar was approved by the FMSCI and had permissions from JPSI to go racing. The affected series included the JK Racing Asia series, Volkswagen Polo Cup and the MRF F-1600s, categories that are breeding grounds for young racing talent in the country.
Also, it has been a fortnight since the Indian Grand Prix and the Buddh International Circuit has revealed that it would take them around 4 years to break even on their investments. While I will pen a detailed column on how they could recover costs off-season, the most immediate term would see other racing series like the MotoGP, V8s, Touring Cars, etc. come to race in India and earn the BIC some much needed circuit rental fees.
However, for them to make the most of their excellent racing circuit, management will be key, after all, racing is seasonal and doesn’t necessarily fit well with India’s seasons. Since the BIC is shut till March, April and May onwards, the heat won’t allow much racing to happen. This would then be followed by the rainy seasons, which the circuit hasn’t been tested on yet. Post-monsoons, Formula1 will visit India again (in October 2012) followed by a winter season in motorsport, which sees top racing series across the world take a break. This would pretty much mean that the BIC would need to sit down and draw up their months of action and months needed for maintenance to be able to manage the 4 year target of breaking even.
