Here we are again, with another race in prospect this time jetting off to parts anew - into a land of curries, rather unusual films and a whole lot of cricket. So this will be a significant change of pace for the country that spends it's life watching a team of people bat a ball about and give England a thorough beating - not that is much of an achievement these days. Whatever cricket is anyway - it's not important as the action is of a very different sort, in the sense that there actually will be some action compared to this whole cricket nonsense, it's safe to say the blog can't do cricket, or any other sports for that matter.
But all that aside, the world of motor-racing is leaving a very dark couple of weekends behind, with the deaths of Indycar driver Dan Wheldon at the race at the Las Vegas motor speedway and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli in Sepang. The blog sends its sincerest condolences to the families of two exceptional competitors.
Hopefully this weekend we can throw the chequered flag on a more positive note, exploring a new venue with a degree of undulation and corner variation, something of a nice surprise given the other recent modern racing circuits that have joined the season. If the proposed street track in New Jersey is anything to go by originality is a rather dead concept, so on the surface India does look rather promising combining several completely different elements. Alas I've no experience of the track considering I never heard back from the creator what appeared to be the most accurate version of the layout so the rest of this report will be guessing an speculation having not seen any on track action or driven the lap. But here is the map of the place anyway.
The Track
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| credit to the FIA for the track map |
Looking at the lap it seems to fall into the same two categories that we saw in Korea, an opening section composed from long straight high speed sections linked with hairpins. The initial complex resembles a more refined version of the one in the cancelled Sakhir track in Bahrain, but what this layout has is some track undulation - something often sadly lacking from recent additions to the season. The road climbs up towards what is marked as turn three on the diagram - similar to the second corner at the A1-Ring in Austria. The back straight also undulates - dipping in the middle before rising into turn four (and yes this process isn't working out quite as well as when I had the video).
After this stage then the track heads off into the second phase of the lap where the undulation makes the layout rather interesting - apparently - based on the variety of different interpretations of the lap who really knows what's coming up in reality. I've seen versions where the 6/7 chicane resembles a watered down version of the infamous Laguna Seca corkscrew - I'd be pleased if it actually turns out that way in the real world.
Overall it looks rather entertaining in theory - and eventually I'll have a go when a version gets released for my simulator or further down the line when I acquire F1 2011 for the PS3 and even then that version will be an interpretation based on guesswork and estimations. Normally this would be the point where I'd reveal the video I'd so caring put together over many hours sweating over a lukewarm keyboard... well perhaps not. But you get the picture but alas I have none considering there is no representative version of the layout available to me. So instead I have this, or rather I have found this on YouTube showing a CGI rendering of the track with a couple of Red Bulls running round it, it's not perfect and over-dramatised but it's all you've got.
What to expect
With no previous running to go on, or any real idea on how the track is going to flow and react to the cars on track I honestly have no idea how things are going to play out. That said however I doubt the hierarchy the grid will be completely shuffled up by the new track and HRT walk away on Sunday morning with a 1-2. The usual suspects will be towards the front, which of the division one cars the new layout and the completely clean sheet all round will benefit the most is a complete unknown. On paper having a similar design to the last venture in Korea - Red Bull and McLaren will be the class of the field - even more reason for Alonso to give up once more.
Then back in the midfield it's anyone's guess - under normal circumstances this is an extremely close competition between the teams, but take them all to a new facility where they are all on an equal playing field with no previous data and information the battle will be so much more intense. With the amount of races and points running out the urgency to claim a higher rung on the championship table for the mid-grid teams increases, looking for more prize money and a better pit stall for the 2012 season. In this group of teams Renault Squadron, Force India, Torro Rosso and Sauber are all competing for to be the best of division two.
Further back on the final rows of the grid there is a little change for HRT, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo has been temporarily replaced by local driver Narain Karthekeyan who was originally in the race seat before Red Bull expanded their enterprise to five cars by buying half of the HRT squad. But whatever the changes the order at that end of the grid will remain the same Lotus will dominate the bottom trio as per normal and then Virgin Racing will be next up with HRT. Where there is a chance of some overlap.
DRS and KERs
This weekend sees the return of a dual DRS system - the first of the two zones is located on the front straight with the detection point set on the exit of the penultimate corner while being activated on the exit of the final corner. The second of the two zones is activated half way down the major back straight that links turn three and turn four. In qualifying conditions DRS will mainly come into effect in the first sector where there is only four corners and a decent quantity of straight bits between them. The rest of the the lap is composed of shorter distances between the corners and the track undulation could unsettle the car if the DRS is deployed.
Then there is the KERs system - which could come into play mainly off the exit of turn three - to cover the distance from the exit of the corner until the DRS can be activated half-way down. As we saw in Korea with Hamilton defending from Webber using the KERs to build a gap to counter the advantage that the DRS would provide. Additionally it can be used as an overtaking aid as well as a defensive mechanism - to catch a car in front before deploying the DRS to finish the pass.
Venturing into a different time zone paves the way for a whole new time to set the alarm for an Saturday morning with the activities kicking off at 8:30am - the beginning of a very long day. Considering something remarkable is on the horizon for the blog later on, the blog essentially being me will be heading off to a party, I know it's almost unheard of. But I will be in disguise, not that I'll be offering any clues here as to what this disguise will be. If there was a video a temporary blogmobile would have been a clue but it was not to be. It is one of the few times of the year the blog does socialisation but I shall not complain it should be a very enjoyable night.
So whatever the rest of you have planned - some may also be attending this event - this weekend the wait for the newest GP on the calendar is almost over and the Indian GP promises to be a rather interesting addition to the world of Formula one. Although I have no idea how much of the race I shall remember given a weekend of partying and wearing questionable outfits, so Sunday's contribution may be rather disjointed however this plays out - ready the Bombay mix race snacks for India's début race
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