THE CACHE memory in my head tells me that Interlagos and Suzuka are the two circuits that have hosted more title deciding races in the recent past than most other circuits on the calendar. The same was true Sunday when the title challengers Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso went head to head to lay their hands on the most coveted trophy for drivers in Formula1 – the Drivers’ World Championship!
And the title deciding race was one hell of a cliff hanger for both the protagonists. Vettel made contact and spun on the opening lap only to rejoin last. However, his patient driving was aided by the chaos on track as he managed to recover ground and finish 6th to ensure that he had enough points in the bag to still remain ahead of Alonso who finished 2nd. Eventually, Vettel won the title by 3 World Championship points!
While they always say ‘May the best driver win’, in modern Formula1, they saying could be altered to say ‘May the best car win’! The RB8 has been vastly superior over the F2012 and it still is a surprise to me that Alonso was in the title fight till the very last race of the season. However, Vettel won the championship, which was a long and a hard fought one.
Enroute, he has also gone on to become the sport’s youngest ever triple World Champion and the only driver after Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher to claim three back to back world titles. And we’ll leave the rest of the statistics to a later column.
The 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix was probably also the last race for a few drivers on the current grid. Caterham driver Kovalainen looked dismal during the weekend and went on the record to say that this would well be his last ever race in Formula1. Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean, Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi are the other names that come to my mind. And of course, with HRT in trouble, this could also be the last race for Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan. Sadly, the exit of so many names would indicate that new talent has found its way onto the grid, but it currently seems that only Guttierez will make his Formula1 debut in 2013 with Sauber.
Back to Narain, his journey in Formula1 has been one helluva ride and his most loyal friends have to be the guys in TATA who have backed him since his Formula3, Jordan and now HRT days. Such partnerships are needed if more Indian talent needs to make their way into Formula1 in the years to come. Will the Coimbatore lad have yet another tryst with the sport should HRT fade away into oblivion? For Indian Motorsport and Formula1 in India, I really do hope so.
In possibly the last race of his Formula1 career, Narain managed to out-qualify Pedro de la Rosa by a comfortable margin but finished 32.3 seconds behind. However, in the Drivers’ Championship table, Narain is 24th and a spot ahead of de la Rosa.
The race was also the most exciting for Sahara Force India and their fans as Hulkenberg led the race for a considerable number of laps after overtaking Button for the lead. The German driver made the most of the mixed weather conditions to stay ahead of the pack and eventually finishing 5th to score 10 points. A half-spin followed by a crash with Hamilton and an unfortunate drive-thru penalty cost the driver and team a potential podium finish in a race where the VJM05 was probably one of the fastest cars on the circuit. Sahara Force India ended their season in 7th place with 109 points, 15 points behind Sauber. This battle will be an exciting one to follow in 2013!
As for Indian Motorsport fans, the SIDVIN Festival of Speed will be organized at the Buddh International Circuit on the 1st and 2nd of December. The Festival will see more than 90 cars across different categories in action. The organisers have confirmed the participation of the JK Racing Asia Series, MRF Challenge 2012, JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo Cup and the FMSCI National Racing Championship on that racing weekend. To me and to the motorsport fan in India, this activity is a great boost to increasing the popularity of the sport in India, especially when you don’t often see the two motorsport giants and rivals JK Tyre and MRF come together to race under the same series banner. How many of you plan to attend it?
Such initiatives are important to spread the word of racing and create a following which will then encourage local talent to take to motorsport. For JPSI, offering their track for such activities would mean a hopeful increase in ticket sales for the Indian GPs in the future.
The other initiative which I will keenly follow and share my views with you all will be MS Dhoni’s team entry into the World Superbike Championships. While he has hired former World Champions to launch a title bid in 2013, the critical part for Indian Motorsport is his desire to start two wheeler racing academies. After the Sahara Force India Formula One Team Academy to encourage Indian karting talent, this will be a good step forward for those who prefer two wheels to four!
