FORMULA 1 RACE AT NOIDA. 30TH OCTOBER, 2011
Till 2010, India had only two permanent car raceways, one in Chennai (Irungattukottai), and Kari Memorial Speedway in Coimbatore.
Since 2003 efforts were being made to have raceways at Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. All were given up for one reason or the other. Finally in 2007 Bernie Ecclestone the FIA chief announced that, it was decided to construct one circuit at Noida near Delhi. This was to be named as BUDH INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT and the race first scheduled for 2008 was postponed to 2011. The Indian F1 Race will occur as the 17th round of the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The track called Buddh International Circuit is in Greater Noida, 44 km from Delhi. The circuit, designed by F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke, is 5.141 kilometers (3.194 miles) long. The track is spread across an area of 875 acres. The initial seating capacity is speculated to be around 150,000. However there are plans to increase the seating capacity to 200,000 later on. The sprawling circuit is a part of Jaypee Green Sports city and will also be used for hosting one or more rounds of Moto GP championships in the year 2012. The 10-year contract for the race has been given to the Indian construction company Jaiprakash Associates.
An excellent express way connecting Delhi to Budh international Circuit was ready. Paid parking in two tiers was arranged near the circuit. Free parking space was available in Knowledge City, which is about 8 kms. from the venue. Free shuttle services were arranged for visitors from Knowledge city to the Venue.
Knowledge City gets its name from the large number of educational institutions in the area. Gautam Budh University and Golgotia University are two of the largest. Golgotia university sent 800 students and faculty as volunteers to work on the programme.
The huge scale of construction becomes apparent once you near the venue. The complex is a huge civil engineering structure, at one stage 6500 personnel and a vast fleet of earth moving equipment were working.
Five 747-400F jets were flown into Delhi with the 24 F1 cars onboard. The total weight of the air-cargo was 600 tonnes. Another 900 tonnes of cargo, including 30,000 Litres of high octane petrol was shipped in via sea.
Around the track there are fifteen stands, the Main Grand stand being the most valued and accommodating 20000 people (Rs. 35,000 per head). There are two picnic stands, where visitors enjoy sitting in small tents and the atmosphere is that of a picnic.(see photo)
The track in all has 16 largely medium speed corners where F1 cars lap at an average speed of 210 km/h. At 1060 metres, the circuit's main straight is among the longest in Formula One and lets cars reach 320 km/h making it one of the fastest tracks in the world. The expected F1 car lap time is 1 minute 27 seconds.
The pit lane is over 600 metres in length. The pits were exactly opposite the Main Grand Stand. The pit is the place the cars are attended to during the race. A perfectly synchronized, millimeter perfect, choreographed Pit stop is team work at its best. The precisely timed pit stop is vital if a team’s racing strategy is to be successful. The pit crew consists of nearly 20 people. It takes about 20 seconds from the time the driver enters the pit lane and he rejoins the main track. However the time the car is stationary is just 3 seconds some times. Just imagine all four wheels being changed and minor defects in the car rectified in 3 seconds. It is to be seen to believe. We were lucky to watch this as we were just opposite the pit lane.
Practice runs were made on Friday 28th October and qualifying races were held on Saturday, the 29th October to decide the grid positions. Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time and took pole position.
Michael Schumacher was impeded on his final lap by India’s Narain Karthikeyan, who later received a five-place penalty for the infringement. Twenty four cars qualified for the race and Karikeyan was in 17th position after the penalty.
The main race is of 60 laps totaling to 308.22 Kms.
On 30 October 2011, the first F1 Grand Prix was held at the circuit.
Initially, two support races called the Delhi Champonship with MRF of 1600 cc cars and JK Racing India series of 10 laps each were also held. These races gave us an idea as to what the actual Formula 1 will be.
Before the Main race, a minute's silence was held in memory of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli, who died in accidents over the previous two weekends.
A group of girls carrying flags of all 24 participating cars came on to the track and stood in respective grid positions based on the qualifying times of the drivers. The cars took off one by one from the pits, made one lap and stood in their respective grid positions.
The race was flagged off by Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.
On the main straight, which is parallel to the Main Grand Stand (between points 16 and 1 on the track drawing), the cars reach nearly 300 kmph and in spite of wearing ear plugs the noise is deafening. The cars speed past you before you notice it. At the curves the speed is reduced suddenly to nearly 100kmph. The strain on the engine is terrific, which you can judge from the noise of braking. We had an excellent view of the main straight and two curves at the end. It was an exciting experience to see the handling of the cars and maneuvering especially when they try to overtake each other.
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull led from the pole position and comfortably won the event, his 11th of the season. He also had the fastest lap of the race on his last lap. Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes finished second and Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari finished third.
The only Indian F1 driver Narain Kartikeyan of HRT F1 finished 17th position. The only Indian F1 Team Sahara Force India driver Adrian Sutil finished at 9th position. Five cars had to retire due to mishaps and engine problems.
Stalls were put up in the area outside the galleries, for food and race merchandise. Since no food or water was permitted in the galleries, they were absolutely clean. The race merchandise were unbelievably costly, a Red Bull T –shirt was costing around Rs.6000.
While everything was perfect and went off like clockwork, the organizers did not think of the problems of traffic once the show is over. Before the event started vehicles/public started coming to the venue from 9 am. The crowd was thus distributed from then on till 3 pm., when the actual race started. However once the show was over tens of thousands of people and cars and buses tried to get out of the place simultaneously, causing huge traffic hold ups. We were stuck in a shuttle bus for more than an hour. Luckily temperature was rather low and people tolerated it. I hope before the next event this issue would be taken care of.
Watching the first Formula 1 race in India was a memorable experience.
Till 2010, India had only two permanent car raceways, one in Chennai (Irungattukottai), and Kari Memorial Speedway in Coimbatore.
Since 2003 efforts were being made to have raceways at Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. All were given up for one reason or the other. Finally in 2007 Bernie Ecclestone the FIA chief announced that, it was decided to construct one circuit at Noida near Delhi. This was to be named as BUDH INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT and the race first scheduled for 2008 was postponed to 2011. The Indian F1 Race will occur as the 17th round of the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The track called Buddh International Circuit is in Greater Noida, 44 km from Delhi. The circuit, designed by F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke, is 5.141 kilometers (3.194 miles) long. The track is spread across an area of 875 acres. The initial seating capacity is speculated to be around 150,000. However there are plans to increase the seating capacity to 200,000 later on. The sprawling circuit is a part of Jaypee Green Sports city and will also be used for hosting one or more rounds of Moto GP championships in the year 2012. The 10-year contract for the race has been given to the Indian construction company Jaiprakash Associates.
An excellent express way connecting Delhi to Budh international Circuit was ready. Paid parking in two tiers was arranged near the circuit. Free parking space was available in Knowledge City, which is about 8 kms. from the venue. Free shuttle services were arranged for visitors from Knowledge city to the Venue.
Knowledge City gets its name from the large number of educational institutions in the area. Gautam Budh University and Golgotia University are two of the largest. Golgotia university sent 800 students and faculty as volunteers to work on the programme.
The huge scale of construction becomes apparent once you near the venue. The complex is a huge civil engineering structure, at one stage 6500 personnel and a vast fleet of earth moving equipment were working.
Five 747-400F jets were flown into Delhi with the 24 F1 cars onboard. The total weight of the air-cargo was 600 tonnes. Another 900 tonnes of cargo, including 30,000 Litres of high octane petrol was shipped in via sea.
Around the track there are fifteen stands, the Main Grand stand being the most valued and accommodating 20000 people (Rs. 35,000 per head). There are two picnic stands, where visitors enjoy sitting in small tents and the atmosphere is that of a picnic.(see photo)
The track in all has 16 largely medium speed corners where F1 cars lap at an average speed of 210 km/h. At 1060 metres, the circuit's main straight is among the longest in Formula One and lets cars reach 320 km/h making it one of the fastest tracks in the world. The expected F1 car lap time is 1 minute 27 seconds.
The pit lane is over 600 metres in length. The pits were exactly opposite the Main Grand Stand. The pit is the place the cars are attended to during the race. A perfectly synchronized, millimeter perfect, choreographed Pit stop is team work at its best. The precisely timed pit stop is vital if a team’s racing strategy is to be successful. The pit crew consists of nearly 20 people. It takes about 20 seconds from the time the driver enters the pit lane and he rejoins the main track. However the time the car is stationary is just 3 seconds some times. Just imagine all four wheels being changed and minor defects in the car rectified in 3 seconds. It is to be seen to believe. We were lucky to watch this as we were just opposite the pit lane.
Practice runs were made on Friday 28th October and qualifying races were held on Saturday, the 29th October to decide the grid positions. Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time and took pole position.
Michael Schumacher was impeded on his final lap by India’s Narain Karthikeyan, who later received a five-place penalty for the infringement. Twenty four cars qualified for the race and Karikeyan was in 17th position after the penalty.
The main race is of 60 laps totaling to 308.22 Kms.
On 30 October 2011, the first F1 Grand Prix was held at the circuit.
Initially, two support races called the Delhi Champonship with MRF of 1600 cc cars and JK Racing India series of 10 laps each were also held. These races gave us an idea as to what the actual Formula 1 will be.
Before the Main race, a minute's silence was held in memory of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli, who died in accidents over the previous two weekends.
A group of girls carrying flags of all 24 participating cars came on to the track and stood in respective grid positions based on the qualifying times of the drivers. The cars took off one by one from the pits, made one lap and stood in their respective grid positions.
The race was flagged off by Indian cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.
On the main straight, which is parallel to the Main Grand Stand (between points 16 and 1 on the track drawing), the cars reach nearly 300 kmph and in spite of wearing ear plugs the noise is deafening. The cars speed past you before you notice it. At the curves the speed is reduced suddenly to nearly 100kmph. The strain on the engine is terrific, which you can judge from the noise of braking. We had an excellent view of the main straight and two curves at the end. It was an exciting experience to see the handling of the cars and maneuvering especially when they try to overtake each other.
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull led from the pole position and comfortably won the event, his 11th of the season. He also had the fastest lap of the race on his last lap. Jenson Button of McLaren-Mercedes finished second and Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari finished third.
The only Indian F1 driver Narain Kartikeyan of HRT F1 finished 17th position. The only Indian F1 Team Sahara Force India driver Adrian Sutil finished at 9th position. Five cars had to retire due to mishaps and engine problems.
Stalls were put up in the area outside the galleries, for food and race merchandise. Since no food or water was permitted in the galleries, they were absolutely clean. The race merchandise were unbelievably costly, a Red Bull T –shirt was costing around Rs.6000.
While everything was perfect and went off like clockwork, the organizers did not think of the problems of traffic once the show is over. Before the event started vehicles/public started coming to the venue from 9 am. The crowd was thus distributed from then on till 3 pm., when the actual race started. However once the show was over tens of thousands of people and cars and buses tried to get out of the place simultaneously, causing huge traffic hold ups. We were stuck in a shuttle bus for more than an hour. Luckily temperature was rather low and people tolerated it. I hope before the next event this issue would be taken care of.
Watching the first Formula 1 race in India was a memorable experience.
