THE CHINESE Grand Prix was much awaited. The last concluded GP in Malaysia was three weeks ago and fans were waiting in anticipation for the action to resume. However, in the build-up to the race in China, Bahrain somewhere stole China’s thunder. Due to much deliberation, confusion and lack of decision, the Bahrain Grand Prix hogged headlines as Formula1 entered China. However, Formula1 finally decided that it would race in Bahrain amidst the civil unrest in the country.
It has been revealed that the decision to race in Bahrain was unanimous and that the FIA, FOM and all participating teams agreed to go racing there. I always believe that such decisions should always be left in the able hands of the FIA as they are the governing body for motorsport globally. The decision to go to Bahrain or not can be debated, what I was slightly surprised to see was that there was lack of a decision making process (or authority) as teams, Ecclestone and the FIA scrambled over each other to see who blinked first.
However, as a Formula1 fan, I am glad that we will have a 20 race calendar in 2012! The one thing that did annoy me was Martin Whitmarsh’s comment where he equated Bahrain’s civil unrest problems with India’s road safety issues and that if Formula1 could race in India, they for sure could race in Bahrain! The Formula1 fan must know that Mclaren’s co-owners are Bahraini nationals in the form of Mumtalakat Holding Company and hence I would expect them to be the most pro-Bahrain team on the grid.
Moving away from Bahrain, the Chinese GP saw a few firsts for Formula1’s future talent. Mercedes’ Rosberg secured his first career pole on Saturday and converted that to his first career victory on Sunday. Rosberg’s win came on his 111st start in Formula1. Lotus’ Grosjean also scored his first Formula1 points by finishing 6th. This was also his first race finish this season! With three races concluded, the most interesting statistic is that all teams and drivers barring the newcomer teams (Caterham, Marussia and HRT) and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa have scored points this season.
Sticking to a newcomer team, HRT did seem to make progress in qualifying as both drivers Karthikeyan and de la Rosa easily qualified inside the 107% target time. However, Karthikeyan qualified 24th and last again, six tenths behind his team-mate. In the race, while Karthikeyan finished ahead of Caterham’s struggling Kovalianen, he finished a lap down on his team-mate. If completing yet another race distance was HRT and Karthikeyan’s target, then it surely was ‘target achieved’.
Sahara Force India, who scored points in Australia and Malaysia, were unable to do so in China. In fact, in the team’s five years of participation in Formula1, they haven’t yet scored a point in a Chinese Grand Prix. While the team will have to wait out another year to change this statistic, one must know that racing in the mid-field was just so competitive that Paul Di Resta, who finished 12th in the race, was only 8 seconds off 7th place and 22 seconds off second place. We haven’t witnessed such close quarter racing in the mid-field teams since a long time and this is possibly the best time to get your non-Formula1 friends watch a GP and get hooked to the sport.
The other special mention from yesterday’s race should be Kimi Raikkonen. The former World Champion who is making a comeback to the sport this year with Lotus F1 team was at the receiving end of a Pirelli tyre that went over the cliff and dropped off suddenly. Raikkonen, who was 2nd in the race at one stage, suffered from massive tyre wear and slipped off to 12th position and out of the points in the span of a single lap!
Closer to home, JPSI announced the sale of tickets to the 2012 Indian Grand Prix last week. I think this is a great move for the promoters, who get extra time to sell their close to 100,000 seats and for fans, who can now plan their Formula1 weekend in October better. The other good news for fans of course is that tickets to this year’s race will be cheaper than last year.
JPSI’s move outside Formula1 is not known yet but is widely anticipated. The organisers need to host other series and races in order to recover their massive investments. The organisers have revealed that they are in talks with major international motorsport series and expect to host at least 4 events annually going further. I would expect the likes of the MotoGP to follow Formula1 to India sooner rather than later!
And sticking to Indian Motorsport, Mahindra Racing deserves a special applause after their scintillating performance in the Italian Championship last weekend. The team also debuted in the Moto3 class of the MotoGP and while their debut wasn’t much to write about, I do expect the team to progress up the grid and create ripples across motorsport news in India.
