F1 2010: An Indian in Bahrain

1. RETURN OF THE NATIVE

Twelve teams, 19 races, an Indian-owned team and an Indian driver who’s ready for the challenge. All this and more, as the first race of the season kicks off in Bahrain tomorrow. Vaishali Dinakaran on why you should be watching.

Tell me if he stalls the engine at the start,” said the 15-year-old, walking down to the Copse corner at Silverstone to watch the Formula One test session. Once the session was done, he plodded back to the pits, the question still playing on his mind. “Did he?” he asked again. When the answer came back negative, he looked somewhat annoyed.

 

The year was 2001, the lad in question, Karun Chandhok, and the person he was watching test an F1 car was Narain Karthikeyan.

Another time, during a karting race, Karun and Narain were locked in battle against one another. The outcome? They took each other out of the race rather cheerfully. What does this illustrate, other than the healthy camaraderie between India’s first ever F1 driver and its current one? The steely determination that characterises their ascent into F1. “It’s been a long winter, but we’ve got here at the end,” says Chandhok. He refers to the mammoth task that it is, to actually land a F1 seat; a task that extends beyond talent, into a different world.

And so, on March 14, 2010, while most F1 fans will be glued to their TV sets, Chandhok will don his balaclava and helmet, and climb into the cockpit of an F1 car for his first ever F1 Grand Prix. Being a rookie in F1 is hard enough, but adding to the challenges of the new Hispania Team is the fact that they haven’t been able to test their car yet. This means that the team’s only on-track time prior to the race at Bahrain will be during the qualifying and free practice sessions at the Sakhir track, making every lap they complete during the race that much more special.

“The first race will be quite a challenge, as we haven’t done any testing. Bahrain itself will be our testing ground, where we’ll be looking to establish reliability and performance,” says Chandhok. But he believes this has a plus point — there is less pressure because there are less expectations. “No one is expecting any miracles of us,” he says. Nonetheless, Hispania Racing aims to be the best of the new crop by mid-season, and then they plan to take the challenge to teams like Toro Rosso.

Since the deal with Hispania was signed less than two weeks before the first race of the season, Chandhok hasn’t had much time to familiarise himself with the team and engineers. But there’s one friendly face around — Bruno Senna, who will partner Chandhok at Hispania, was his team-mate in GP2 as well, when the two raced for iSport in 2008.

In terms of fitness, Chandhok’s on it already. He knew there was a chance he’d be racing in F1 this year, and has been training hard from October last year, cycling and building up the strength of his neck muscles in order to cope with the g-forces of F1. “Of course, the first few races will be tough and physically demanding, but these are the cards I’ve been dealt and I plan to make the best of them,” says Chandhok.

“What if you’re being lapped by Michael Schumacher?” we ask.

“It doesn’t make a difference who I’m racing, but I don’t like being lapped whether it’s a Schumacher, an Alonso, or even the likes of Liuzzi.”

Unfortunately, a ‘hydraulic system failure’ meant Karun could not run on track in the practice sessions. Hopefully he’ll be ready for qualifying.

2. THE KING IS BACK

No, he isn’t the Red Baron any more, but that isn’t the point. Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver in the sport with seven world championship titles to his name, is making a return to F1 with the Mercedes GP team. Why is he coming back after a three-year hiatus? As Schumacher himself said in an exclusive interview with Business Standard Motoring (March 2010), “My motivation was the lust to drive which has been awakened suddenly.” Heading the Mercedes GP outfit is Schumacher’s old partner in crime — Ross Brawn. You can be sure, the two mean business!

3. DRIVER SHUFFLE

With Schumi at Mercedes, what’s become of his former Ferrari team? The Scuderia are shaping up quite nicely. To begin with, the team’s F10 seems to be the car to beat. And what’s more, Fernando Alonso — the man who ended Schumacher’s dominance of F1 — is now piloting one of those cars. Alonso is partnering Felipe Massa, who is still smarting from having lost the championship to Lewis Hamilton in 2008. After sitting out most of last year’s season following his crash at Hungary, Massa will be raring to go.

The McLaren team now has a fairly potent combination — 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton and 2009 world champion Jenson Button. Button will certainly want to prove that he doesn’t need Brawn to win a world championship. On the flip side though, the pressure of having to partner Lewis could well break Button. This is something that even Fernando Alonso wasn’t able to handle back in 2007. The stage is set for some interesting battles.

4. MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

They might have started out as backmarkers, but Vijay Mallya’s Force India have certainly grown from their first race. Take Giancarlo Fisichella’s fine pole position and second place at last year’s Belgian Grand Prix. Over the course of two years, Force India have managed to make their mark, and have converted themselves into a respectable midfield outfit. Their goal is to win the Indian Grand Prix in 2011, but that’s next year. This year, they’ll want to race hard, score points and rack up a few more podiums. As we go to press, Adrian Sutil has just clocked the fastest time at the first practice session in Bahrain.

5. GAME CHANGERS

It’s goodbye to refuelling. For the 2010 season, F1 cars will come equipped with bigger fuel tanks, so they can carry enough fuel to last the full race distance. Pitstops haven’t been done away with entirely — drivers still need to pit to change tyres. There’s also the new points system. Instead of the winner taking home 10 points, first place now gets 25 points, second place gets 18, third 15, with the next seven getting 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1, respectively. This time the top 10 drivers score points, instead of the top eight. With a grid of 24 cars fighting for points, this should add more spice to the mix.

6. NEW BLOOD

So how come the grid is so full all of a sudden? There are three new teams taking part — Hispania Racing, Virgin Racing and Lotus F1. It’s not just the battles at the front of the pack that will be exciting; the new teams at the back of the field will be fighting to establish supremacy as well. Never has the battle of the underdogs been so exciting.