F1 - Good – and will be great

Sunday, 30 October 2011 13:00

So, what do we think of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in the Buddh circuit, New Delhi?

It was interesting. It wasn't an exciting sixty laps - new race: same old winner in Sebastian Vettel, in the foremost of the Red Bull cars.

Let's get it over with: pole position, the win - he was never headed - and fastest lap, Sebastian Vettel was incomparable. The only moment that came close to a wobble was when he ran wide in the pit lane entry as he pitted on lap 42. But it was a good stop, and he had a clean run into turn 1 to keep Jenson Button safely behind.

Colourful umbrellas in the crowd glowed through the heat/dust haze, and that haze perhaps gave us our biggest clue as to why the new race was only OK, despite the drivers raving about the fast flow of corners and changes of direction. The racing line showed on the tarmac as if it had been drawn there by a race driving instructor, black against the grey, making going offline carry a heavy penalty in lack of grip.

We had a double DRS zone and wide corner entries, which gave us a quota of overtaking but, understandably, at a circuit not only brand new but completed so recently, Pirelli were cautious in their tyre selection, bringing the hard tyre as the prime, for the first time for a while, cheating us of high degradation. The lower the degradation, the less opportunity there is for the risky, intriguing strategies based on undercut that have introduced unpredictability into the races, and rewarded the drivers who look after their rubber.

Jenson Button was able to drive his McLaren to a fine second place. He impresses me more every outing. Having qualified fifth but inherited fourth after teammate Lewis Hamilton's three-place grid drop penalty, Jenson flew past Fernando Alonso's Ferrari into the first corner to take third and was able to nip past Mark Webber's Red Bull by turn four. Never seriously threatened by Mark Webber reclaiming his spot, Jenson didn't allow Sebastian Vettel to do his customary disappearing-into-the-distance act. Jenson got the result to consolidate his second place in the drivers' championship.

I almost feel like congratulating Lewis Hamilton for getting into a collision with Felipe Massa - but not being the one to be penalised. Lewis's McLaren was well up alongside Felipe Massa's Ferrari at turn 5, lap 24, when they came together and, from the movement of Massa's head, Massa had looked in his mirrors and had the opportunity to see that Lewis was there. So why didn't he give him space? The stewards obviously didn't think Felipe would have an acceptable answer to that, and awarded him a drive-through penalty.

Lewis lost out in terms of a forced pitstop after rejoining with his front wing dragging over the ground in a shower of sparks. In the McLaren garage, Rowan Atkinson's agonised facial gymnastics said it all. Rubber of a different kind.

Felipe Massa didn't learn from his suspension-busting encounter with the savage orange kerbs in qualifying, and trashed the other side on lap 34, ending his race.

Fernando Alonso was impressive, as he so often is, for Ferrari, passing Mark Webber in the second round of pitstops, which must have been mega-frustrating for Webber. Why did Mark Webber slither down the field? He was in the same car as the guy sailing serenely along at the front. It's obvious, in interviews, that he's still up for Formula 1, but in the races I feel as if he's lost edge and he was only able to chase Alonso to the flag, which gave us three world champions on the podium.

I was pleased that Narain Karthikeyan got a drive in his brand new home grand prix for HRT, and to see him finish the race. He beat his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, Pity we couldn't have seen Karun Chandhok in a seat, too.

What do you think we need to make the Indian Grand Prix an edge-of-the-seat experience, next year? The drivers had a lot to say in praise of the challenging circuit, wide corner entries and exciting combinations, so the potential must be high. Softer tyres? Cleaner tarmac? Shouldn't take much, should it?

The drivers love it, so we want to, too. By Sue Moorcroft

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