2011 FORMULA 1 AIRTEL GRAND PRIX OF INDIA
The Track
Circuit length: 5.615km
Race length: 55 laps/309km
Top speed: 310km/h
Average speed: 205km/h
Pit straight length: 420m
Number of corners: 18
Longest section at full throttle: 14.4sec/1200m
Highest G-force: 3.5G
Downforce level: Medium-high
Brake wear: Medium-high
Full throttle: 62% of lap
Gear changes per lap: 50
Grip level: Medium-low
Gradient change: Low
Configuration: Anti-clockwise
Fuel consumption: Medium
DRS Zone:TBA
History
The Grand Prix of India will be a Formula One race held at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The first event is scheduled to take place on October 30, 2011 as the 17th race of the 2011 Formula One season. The new race track was officially homologated on September 1, 2011 by Charlie Whiting, and the inaugural race is now confirmed to have its debut in 2011.
As early as 1997, there have been plans to host an Indian Grand Prix at Calcutta. In 2003, India had only two permanent raceways, one in Chennai (Irungattukottai), and Kari Memorial Speedway in Coimbatore. At that time two 600 acres (2.4 km2) sites in the vicinity of the Bangalore airport were examined. Also, in the state Andhra Pradesh, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu reserved 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) of land near the airport at Hyderabad. Vicky Chandhok, father of Karun Chandhok, stated in an interview that "Andhra Pradesh is really pushing it like no other state! It is great to see a chief minister pushing so hard. Bangalore is a great location mainly because of the weather". In December 2003, a seven-year pre-agreement to host the GP in Hyderabad in 2007 was signed. The track was to be build near Gopanapally village, near the outskirts of Hyderabad, and consisted of 1,367 acres (5.53 km2) of land. However, in 2004 there came competition from Mumbai, to shift the track from Hyderabad to Mumbai instead. F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone expected India to host a Grand Prix within three years, aiming for locating at either Hyderabad or Mumbai. But in the end these projects never realised, possibly due to anti-tobacco legislation, and a change in government policy. Both projects then were declared 'dead' in the second half of 2004, when Mumbai's government decided "not to waste money on car fumes while there are more serious issues", and the Hyderabad location was converted to an IT park for technology companies. However sites at Mumbai were still being investigated (Gorai and Navi Mumbai). In 2005, Narain Karthikeyan was to perform in Mumbai in the Jordan F1, but the road proved to be too bumpy.
As of 2007, five locations remained in the running for hosting the Indian Grand Prix: Bangalore, the Gurgaon district in the state Haryana, a permanent track somewhere near New Delhi, a street circuit in New Delhi, as proposed by Vijay Mallya, and a site in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Following months of negotiations, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Bernie Ecclestone announced in June 2007 a provisional agreement for India to host its first Grand Prix in the 2009 F1 season. The track would be built in the Gurgaon, on recommendation by architect Hermann Tilke.
However, in September 2007 the IOA announced that the debut race would take place in 2010 on the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida. After further assessments of the timeframe involved, Bernie Ecclestone announced in September 2008 that the Indian Grand Prix has been delayed to 2011.
In October 2008, the Renault F1 team showcased their car on a tour across all sites that were previously linked to an F1 circuit in India (except Mumbai): Gurgaon, Lucknow, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Calcutta, and in November 2008 they also performed a street demonstration on Rajpath at the India Gate end, New Delhi, the car being driven by Nelson Piquet, Jr. In August 2009, the McLaren F1 team showcased their car in Lucknow. On October 11, 2009, the Red Bull F1 team gave a demonstration in Mumbai. David Coulthard drove the Red Bull F1 car across Mumbai's Bandra Worli Sealink. The Indian F1 Race will occur as the 17th round of the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The Technology
Tyres:The Indian Grand Prix will see return of hard Compounds but soft tyres will act as the prime compound at the new Buddh International Circuit. Teams will have total of 6 set of soft and 5 set of hard tyres available to plan out their strategy.
Aero:Like Korea last year, at a brand new track we expect that things like the evolution of grip will be quite significant over the weekend. This will influence the balance of the car, and you will possibly have to change the downforce level. The track has one long straight and a fairly high downforce requirement in some of the tighter corners. The track is not unlike other new circuits. There seem to be some overtaking opportunities, but the drivers need to learn where that works and how effective the DRS is. The downforce level is most likely similar to recent events.
Engine/Drivetrain: At this time of year it's relatively dry and moderately hot. Engine performance may be affected by the heat, dust and Delhi's notoriously bad pollution. Brake temperatures and wear may be affected as there is both the ambient temperature to consider and the track configuration which has a number of tight corner sections.
The Schedule
Fri 28 October 2011Practice 1 10:00 - 11:30
Practice 2 14:00 - 15:30
Sat 29 October 2011Practice 3 11:00 - 12:00
Qualifying 14:00
Sun 30 October 2011Race 15:00
All times New Delhi localOn the Internet
[url=http://formula1.com]Live Timing (Registration required)[/size][/url]
LOCAL WEATHER FORECASTA personal Delhi observation: I've been to India quite a few times over the years and have gone through New Delhi more times than I can count.
Thanks to the Commonwealth Games the public transport and road infrastructure and main roads are greatly improved. This is a good thing because Delhi can still have some pretty horrific gridlock. I was there last November and then again in February 2011. I still got caught in peak-hour gridlock which was still pretty bad getting out to the airport to come home despite all the new elevated expressways.
The circuit in Greater Noida is not near the center of town and I don't know how good the roads are to that part of greater New Delhi. Since that area is heavily industrialised I can assume that the roads are pretty well serviced.
In was intending to try and get out to the circuit for a bit of eyeballing and photography but, as usual, I ended up with a case of "Delhi Belly" (that is pretty typical of India generally for Westerners). Food hygiene is problematic in Delhi at the best of times even in five star hotels (and there are some major five star hotels between the center of Delhi and the airport). I would assume that team managers have factored all this into their plans to keep their precious assets, the drivers, safely packed in their billion dollar cotton wool existences.
Make sure you drink the bottled water guys and good luck to you all!
नमस्ते Namaskar!
Information sourced from here, there and everywhere. Enjoy!
Topic: 2011 FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF INDIA (New Delhi) 28 - 30 October (Read 821 times)
