Indian GP: the race preview
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2012 INDIAN GRAND PRIX 26-28 OCTOBER 2 |
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India plays host for the 17th round of the 2012 Formula One World Championship with teams arriving in New Delhi and making their way to Greater Noida and the impressive Buddh International Circuit. With only three races to follow, India marks the beginning of the endgame in the race for Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship glory. The debut of the Indian Grand Prix was perhaps the highlight of the 2011 season. Buddh proved to a fast, flowing and highly demanding race track, complete with memorable corners and several good overtaking opportunities. This was supplemented by an excited and knowledgeable crowd who replicated the general high level of enthusiasm with which the Indian public greeted Formula One. Replacing last year’s great leap into the unknown, F1’s second visit to Buddh is heralded by keen anticipation from those drivers who raced here last season. The high-speed turns proved an instant hit, and having had a year to mature the surface is likely to deliver even more grip this time around Ð though potentially at the cost of greater tyre wear. Kimi RŠikkšnen and Lewis Hamilton, respectively third and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship are quoted as having all-but written off their title aspirations for this year, in effect making the 2012 Drivers’ Championship a two-horse race between Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso. With a clean sweep of three victories from the recent races in Singapore, Japan and South Korea, momentum is clearly with Vettel, who now leads Alonso by six points. Alonso, however, has stayed in the hunt all year despite having his chances of a third world championship dismissed by many even before the season began. With 100 points still on the table, he won’t be conceding anything just yet. |
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Indian GP Fast Facts |
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► This will be the second Indian Grand Prix. The race joined the calendar in 2011. ► Sebastian Vettel’s victory in the 2011 race was his F1 grand chelem, including, as it did, pole position, fastest lap and victory after leading every lap of the race. Vettel repeated the feat in Japan earlier this month. ► India is the first country to have its inaugural grand prix won by the reigning World Champion since Michael Schumacher managed the feat in 2004 at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit. Since then F1 has gone to Shanghai, Istanbul, Valencia, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Korea without the man with the number one on his car standing on top of the podium. |
► India was Vettel’s ninth and final victory of the 2011 season. He had wrapped up the 2011 Championship two races earlier in Japan. Vettel did not suffer a lack of motivation in the following races, taking pole position in the final two rounds – however a puncture in Abu Dhabi led to his only retirement of the season in the next race, while at the season finale in Brazil, an early gearbox problem meant he had to settle for second behind team-mate Mark Webber. ► Webber finished second in Korea, following Vettel over the line to make it the first 1-2 finish for any team in 2012. Red Bull Racing achieved it three times in 2011 but 2010 is the last time any other team managed the feat. During that season RBR finished 1-2 four times, McLaren three times and Ferrari twice. ► Vettel has been leading grands prix for 145 consecutive laps. He inherited the lead from Lewis Hamilton midway through the Singapore Grand Prix and was in first place from lights to flag in both Japan and Korea. He has some way to go before matching the 305 consecutive laps led by Alberto Ascari during the 1952 season. |
► Buddh International Circuit features several challenging changes of elevation – none of which are entirely natural. Some four million cubic tonnes of earth were bulldozed into place during circuit construction. |
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Indian GP Race Stewards Biographies |
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GERD ENNSER MEMBER OF THE DMSB’s EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR AUTOMOBILE SPORT, FORMULA ONE AND DTM STEWARD |
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| Dr Gerd Ennser has successfully combined his formal education in law with his passion for motor racing. While still active as a racing driver he began helping out with the management of his local motor sport club and since 2006 has been a permanent steward at every round of Germany’s DTM championship. Since 2010 he has also been a Formula One steward. Dr Ennser, who has worked as a judge, a prosecutor and in the legal department of an automotive-industry company, has also acted as a member of the steering committee of German motor sport body, the DMSB, since spring 2010, where he is responsible for automobile sport. In addition, Dr Ennser is a board member of the South Bavaria Section of ADAC, Germany’s biggest auto club. | ||
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STEVE STRINGWELL PERMANENT CHAIRMAN STEWARD FOR PORSCHE SUPERCUP, WORLD SERIES BY RENAULT 3.5 SERIES, BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP |
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| Englishman Steve Stringwell brings a wealth of experience to the F1 stewarding panel. He began marshalling in 1967 before spending 15 years rallying. Since 1986 he has held a series of posts within the UK’s Motor Sports Association, first as a steward, then chairman of the MSA’s national court and latterly as chairman of the MSA’s Judicial Advisory Panel. Stringwell serves as permanent chairman steward for the Porsche Supercup, World Series by Renault 3.5 and BTCC. He has been chairman of support race stewards at the British Grand Prix since 2005 and was appointed steward to his first F1 race last year when he officiated in Australia. At home in Yorkshire he is a Justice of the Peace and magistrate in the city of Leeds. | ||
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ALAN JONES 1980 FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPION |
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| Alan Jones makes his third appearance in the stewards’ room, having made his debut at the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, and returned in 2011 to adjudicate at Suzuka. Best known as the 1980 Formula One World Champion, the Australian raced far and wide, competing everywhere from Can-Am and F5000 to Le Mans and Australian Touring Cars. In his F1 career Jones won 12 grands prix, took six pole positions and set 13 fastest laps. While usually associated with the Williams team, Jones’ first grand prix victory came at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix while racing for Shadow. | ||
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Indian GP Championship Standings (Drivers) |
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Indian GP Championship Standings (Constructors) |
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Indian GP |
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THURSDAY |
15.00 10.00-11.30 14.00-15.30 16.00 11.00-12.00 14.00-15.00 13.30 15.00-17.00 |
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