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| Yeah, baby! I made it to the First Grand Prix of India |
Again my driver was right on time. I am digging that. I was worried that on Race Day things would be more crowded and they were but because I left early without fail I didn't really have any problems on the way in. I was there long before most people. I had time to wander a bit more and do some last minute shopping. (You can never have too many Ferrari hats apparently.) I didn't realize that The Morning Warmup was no longer a part of F1, so there wasn't a lot to do in the morning. The support races were not really high calibre, mostly tools to show off Indian talent which was not in too much abundance. One thing I did see was that in both of the races while P2 and P3 were battling through the esses leading into the final corner, P4 got a good run and blasted past both of them in Turn 16 to take 2nd! I was wondering if the F1 guys were watching that. (In retrospect, I guess not.)
The weather all three days was pretty steady. Dry and pretty hot. It wasn't really humid like it can be in Mumbai but it was in the 90s most of the time. I was not at all uncomfortable. I'm not sure if the dust in the air filtered the sun, but I was also sunblocked and insect repelled pretty thoroughly all three days and I had no problem with burning or bites. I didn't eat any of the track food as I just didn't want to spoil my weekend by eating the wrong thing. I had breakfast and dinner at the hotel and lunch was Clif Bars™ and protein bars I brought from the US. I made sure I had plenty of water. They wouldn't let me bring fluids into the track so I bought water inside the fences, which was cheap anyway, Rs15/liter, which is US30¢. This is Aquafina so next time you pay US$2.25 for that think about what Evian spells backwards. Anyway that kept me in fine shape in terms of hydration.
The Crowd Favorite: Force India
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| Michael Schumacher |
The Lights Come On!
The race was Vettel's from start to finish, but there was some good stuff as Button did his level best to stay with the young German. If Seb had made any mistake, Jenson was right there. It was a really good weekend and a really good drive from Button. He just didn't have the oomph to stay with the Red Bull. There was a good battle between Alonso and Webber for a while. Some good looks and some tight driving and strategy for both. It was good to watch but the pressure of Alonso eventually wore Webber down. Again, Alonso showed something that others don't have, in my opinion.
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| The Prancing Horse of Scuderia Ferrari Alonso at the wheel |
The Hamilton/Massa contretemps were almost predictable. I was quite surprised to hear later that Massa was penalized for turning in on Hamilton as Lewis tried exactly the maneuver that I described earlier and couldn't make it stick. It's the responsibility of the following car to avoid a collision and I think Johnny Herbert saw a little too much Union Jack on Hamilton's car to make the right call. Hamilton was over optimistic of his chances at Turn 5 and Massa went ahead and took his line. Lewis needed to brake sooner but he wanted the position too badly. I'm sure it's true that Massa took his line too late and with the thought that if he was hit it was Lewis' fault, but it hardly matters who's fault it is when you're sailing through the gravel trap. So while I think Massa's penalty was unfair, I also think he should have been more aware of the situation and done more to avoid a collision. Having said that I will say that I would have done the same and then been mad that I had to make a choice between crashing and giving way to a bully. I don't like guys who force you into that choice. Hamilton should do better. He has the talent to drive better than that. We've seen it.
Of course Massa then showed his versatility as a driver by knocking the left corner off his car on the same corner where he had knocked the right corner off on Saturday. Nice.
One of the joys of the weekend was watching Schumacher do well. While Webber made a hash of his tires and the strategies needed to overtake Alonso, The Master did it exactly right, forcing his teammate to pit first, blistering the time sheets on old tires while Rosberg was stopped and slow and then screaming out in front after his own stop. Just like old times. His run to a season-best 5th looked brilliant and the crowd really responded to it, myself included. OK, so Massa and Hamilton helped him up there but it was still great to see Michael working nearer the front.
The Chase
As for Vettel, I think we are still learning what this guy can do. He is a really good driver. We knew this when he debuted like Schumacher, impressing in a back marking car at a ridiculously young age, but a few guys have done that and not become dominant for one reason or another. I was thinking back to his win in Monza in the Toro Rosso and really, in the modern era, only Senna ever did anything like that when he almost won Monaco in a Toleman. In retrospect this is a very impressive feat indeed. Now, given the car of choice he is unbeatable, and that's not uncommon either, but he has come through some fire to do it. Running into Weber and suffering morale busting mechanical failures ultimately did not deter him. He won the 2010 Championship because he kept fighting and for most part fighting fair and he wore Weber out and he outdrove everyone else. What's clear to me is that he now knows how to drive like that even when he doesn't have to. That's why he is unbeatable.
I have been watching him since he won The Championship in Japan and he is getting even stronger with the title in the bag. I think his own personal motivation is still so strong that no-one apart from Alonso can match him. He also has been able to take concepts like "First Grand Prix in India" and make that something he wants to be his and using that to keep his drive at 10/10ths. Whatever is motivating him it is not flagging because the championship is won. I can point to many many Champions of years past that cannot say the same. So I have to say I was impressed to see Vettel drive. I think the quartet of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Button will one day be thought of as we now think of Stewart, Graham Hill, Clark and Brabham or Prost, Mansell, Senna and Piquet. It's great to have so much talent on the track at once.
And it was great to see it in person at The Buddh International Circuit. When it was all over everyone moved to the exits and it was just the same as the USA or Belgium, namely: The Biggest Traffic Jam Ever. In India this is a staggering idea. I sat crammed into a too small seat, stopped dead for 90 minutes before we all got untangled and headed in another more profitable direction. My favorite moment was when I was stuck in some place, hanging my head a bit out the window to get some air and found myself about four inches from someone else's head! He was in another bus completely! He looked at me and said, "What is going through your mind right now?" I said "Patience is a virtue, especially in India." I did find my driver after some tangled phone calls and walking a mile from where the busses all came to stop in a jam at the other end and then we tried to find a way back. I have no idea where we went on the way back. I'd never been to most of the places we travelled through. It took me four hours to return to the hotel.
Even with that somewhat difficult finish, it was as always, a terrific experience to see F1 live. It is the World Championship. These are the greatest drivers and the greatest cars in the world and quite probably the best racing venues as well. As proud as Sebastian Vettel is to be the winner of the first ever Grand Prix of India, so I am proud to have been a spectator. The first of anything can never happen twice.
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