The Formula 1 experience

A lot of photo sharing sites including Facebook and Google photos show reminders for “this day that year”. Old photos are one of the best stimuli to refresh old memories. Today FB showed me a photo clicked before the start of the 2013 Indian GP and Google showed me a photo clicked en route to the 2012 Indian GP.

Formula 1 is a sport I started following only around 2003. My interest in the sport grew over time and in the year 2011, Formula 1 came right to our doorstep. The Buddh International Circuit near Noida was the venue of the first ever Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix. Watching the Indian GP on TV felt great. I thought to myself that it would be great to watch the race live. As luck would have it, the next year when the sale of tickets was announced, a couple of like minded friends from work expressed interest in going for the race. The rates seemed pretty reasonable. With the accommodation and travel plan sorted, we left for the national capital in the August Kranti Rajdhani express. We were received at H Nizamuddin by another friend from work. We dumped our luggage and took the shuttle bus to the circuit. The circuit was a good 38km from the nearest metro station. As we got closer to the track, the view of the enormous grand-stand took the excitement level to a crescendo. Then we were there, the Buddh International Circuit, the venue of the 2012 Indian Grand Prix

We reached the BIC with a few hours to go before the qualifying session. We enjoyed the pre-race promotional activities which included dance, musical performances etc, without venturing too far away from the Classic stand north. We did not want to miss a moment of the action on the track. The first view from our seats was simply mind-blowing. We could see the first corner, with a fast sweeping uphill turn 2 leading right up to the slowest corner on the track, the hairpin at turn 3. Panning to the left we could see the entire main straight ending at an overtaking point at turn 4. As the clock ticked close to the start of the qualifying session, the stands started filling up. The heat under the direct sunshine didn’t deter the fans from screaming their lungs out. We could hear the V8 engines being fired up in the pit lane with each grunt triggering a raucous response in the crowds

The green signal at the end of the pit lane indicated the start of the qualifying session. The first car to head out on track was a Force India. It roared through the first two corners, almost coming to a standstill at turn 3, barely 25 metres from where we were seated. It then accelerated through the main straight shifting up to top gear, before slowing down and turning into turn 4 at the end of the straight. As the cars went by, I called my dad who had started following a bit of F1 since 2004, making him hear the roar of the engines through the phone mic. The ear plugs were used a few times to shield our ear drums from the enormous 110 dB musical noise which emanated from the V8 engines of each car. The session was glorious with a Red Bull 1-2, in spite of Mark Webber sliding wide at the hairpin right before our eyes. Satisfied with the first day which was technically the 2^nd day of the race weekend, we got some shut eye to prepare for the exciting race day

We reached the track well before the start of the race. As is the case at most GP weekends, the main race was preceded by several other smaller races which had slower cars but had a more even playing field with lot of overtaking action. We were outside the main grandstand at the start of one of these junior races. We could feel the reverberating roar of the engines as all racers revved up to start the race. We thought to ourselves, “If these cars are so loud, what would the F1 cars sound like?” Time flew by as the main race start drew closer. The drivers’ parade went by with all drivers being interviewed upon an open truck. It was great to see legends of F1 like Michael Schumacher draped with Uthariyas less than 30 yards away. We then geared up for the start of the race on a clear Sunday afternoon. The warm up lap came and went, with cars swerving on the track to warm up their tyres, warming up the vocal cords of the cheering fans in the process. We could see on the giant screen as the cars took their positions with the medical car at the back

As the famous dialogue by Steve Slater was being played out on TV, “The five Red lights illuminate”, the engine note reached a feverish pitch. The race started and the flying race cars rocketed through the first two corners and they roared up the gears as they entered the main straight after the hairpin at turn 3. Car after car went by in a single file through turn 3. This was repeated lap after lap, with the gap growing through the race. As the field spread out, there was a car flying by almost every 20 seconds, with the rest of the race action visible on the giant screen. The experience was divine for a motorhead like me. The sight of the pinnacle of automotive technology flying by, with the reverberating music of the ultimate performance engines felt like attainment of Nirvana. The race was thoroughly dominated by Sebastian Vettel. There were some epic battles behind P1 though like the one between Kimi Raikonnen and Felipe Massa which went on through the entire race.

After the race was over, we headed towards the main grand stand which was thrown open to the public. As we went up the stairs on to the stands, the sight was spellbinding. The starting grid leading to the pit garages right in front of the stands with parc ferme and the podium. It gave as our first grand prix weekend at a race track ended it kindled a dream of watching a race with the Grandstand experience.

Who knew that day that exactly 364 days from then, I would return to the same venue to experience the race from the main Grandstand, with my father. How that developed is a story for a different post