INDIA in F1

Tag: Harish Samtani

  • F1 gets its mojo back… No, it’s not about Verstappen winning again! Samtani on British GP

    F1 gets its mojo back… No, it’s not about Verstappen winning again! Samtani on British GP

    HIGH OCTANE
    –– By Harish Samtani

    Silverstone (UK) 10 July 2023: What on earth happened here?!! Well, two things. One very predictable aspect was in the form of seeing Max Verstappen on the top step. The other that has rocked the F1 stage like none other is the resurgence of the iconic McLaren that was all but consigned to the dustbin of F1 folklore. And, maybe, an important Number 3. Two British drivers on the podium! Just when we thought that the sun had finally set on the British Empire with Hamilton seemingly struggling with his form.

    It’s good! No. Wait. It’s great! There is finally a hum of activity as F1 gets its mojo back. We were annoyed and tired with the foregone results, thus far in 2023. Whilst it would take nothing short of a miracle or a tragedy, heaven forbid, to knock Verstappen off the perch, the very idea that 2024 maybe the renaissance of motor-racing is truly exciting for petrol heads across all ages, and nationalities.

    I was one of the doubters about Max’s abilities but grudgingly have to admit that regardless of how many world titles he wins he will be remembered as a great. No flukes, no superior engineering and that silly lady called ‘Luck’ can bring about his uncanny ability to win or pole vault like he has done in the very recent past. Whilst he was prone to errors early in his career, he seems to have tripped and fallen into a vat of wisdom of late! Does lineage matter? His dad Jos Verstappen was a talent as well in his heydays. Perhaps, the Apple didn’t fall far from the tree after all. Red Bull Honda may have contributed largely to his success with a reliable and quick car, the fact that Sergio Chico Perez – no slouch by any means – is struggling to make ends meet. Victim of circumstances is he? Nah! Max has become the driver people love to hate but I suspect I see the middle finger sticking out of his driving glove!

    The era may not be conducive anymore for him to pull off seven titles such as Hamilton has achieved due to ever-changing tech regulations etc., but his astounding and clinical performances and the ensuing demolition of the fabled Ferraris and Mercedes, who meanwhile must be winging with the fact that it’s a Honda powered weapon that is giving them the blushes!

    While it is early days to welcome the two young boy wonders into the big league, for the 23-year young Lando Norris and the 22-year Aussie Oscar Piastri this result buoys them immensely for sure. The result in Silverstone may even be a one-hit wonder for McLaren but the gauntlet has been thrown and the other teams have to perform or perish before they become innocent victims in the crossfire. Back to the drawing board it is.

    Welcome back to the real F1 as we knew it over a decade ago. After Max led the charge of the young brigade in a Honda-powered car, and with McLaren refusing to say die, is it ‘out with the old, in with the new’ time? Only time will tell!

  • Between NASCAR, Indy500 and F1, America is wetting its whistle: Harish Samtani explores

    Between NASCAR, Indy500 and F1, America is wetting its whistle: Harish Samtani explores

    By Harish Samtani

    Miami (USA), 10 May 2023: America, a land of NASCAR and Indy 500 is wetting its whistle in a technically complicated form of racing known as Formula 1 in the rest of the world.

    Same yet different!

    Technically F1 is as similar to the open-wheel racing in USA as chalk is to cheese!

    With two engine makers as backbones of the event, there are 2-gear shifts.

    All turning left and it’s minus 5G forces (or thereabouts) stressing neck muscles, the Indy 500 has a unique type of driver.

    But the adoration levels are sky high here! F1 drivers have a limited fan following in comparison for sure.

    Currently, matters are made worse for F1 since there are no characters left. Only one worth mentioning is Fernando Alonso. His stock in USA soared with the unfounded rumour that he is dating Taylor Swift an icon and that too with more wealth and fame than all f1 drivers combined.

    Former Indian racing and rally legend Harish Samtani, a columnist now, at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. INDIAinF1 image

    She sings while F1 drivers are constantly facing the music!

    Meanwhile, Red Bull should be commended for the vice like grip it’s taken on the championship but f1 fans call it plain boring.

    That’s rather unfair since they have gotten to where  are with a lot of hard work and relentless effort.

    People have forgotten the times when Lewis Hamilton brought F1 to its knees with his ruthless command of the sport. Unfair and brutal racism ensued as a result. It’s obvious that F1 is a Caucasian sport from the obvious lack of coloured personnel in the pit garages.

    This aspect needs to be addressed for sure. Can a successful Mexican driver be deemed as non-Caucasian? I don’t know – you tell me. With the FOM increasing its commercial footprint to non-European and American countries something has to give.

    And soon. Making it inclusive is the need of the hour. That would actually help it gain a momentum and a larger fan base. This isn’t rocket science! F1 venues in Europe will have to find ways to make it a family friendly affair and not just for the petrol-heads. That era has passed. Let’s make it fun, competitive and inclusive.

    A lack of any one of the 3  would make it struggle.  F1 has all the other ingredients to power it ahead to a bright future, for the next decade ahead at least! Technology is going thru a sea change and once we are driven by electric eventually one wonders what lies ahead. For now let’s just deal with its current ‘problems!

  • Monaco GP separates men from boys… but Oh boy, what a win!

    Monaco GP separates men from boys… but Oh boy, what a win!

     

    Daniel Ricciardo celebrating his win at the Monaco GP. Photo: Red Bull Racing

    Monaco, 27 May 2018: The Monaco GP is as extreme as it’s brutal. Hot-footing it for 78 laps while avoiding the ever-welcoming walls on this unique circuit does separate the men from the boys but in this case, the boy won! And in great style too.

    To soak in the pressure from the likes of Vettel and Hamilton is not for the weak-hearted. However, the ever-smiling assassin, Ricciardo, had the comfort of leading the race from the get-go knowing very well that to catch him was one thing but to overtake was another story, all together.

    Vettel and Hammy were not losing much sleep over his victory as they had racked up valuable points where it mattered since Ricciardo was not their title contender for the time being. Redbull’s pace is for real, however, and as the circus moves to more-traditional circuits such as Canada, the wheat shall be separated from the chaff! By and large, F1 is having the best season ever with so many drivers and teams in contention.

    Kimi and Bottas played the role of mere spectators at the Mecca of F1 and all they could do was go round and round the mulberry bush just hoping for a safety car to show up! When it actually did it was only a virtual safety car a few laps before the checkered flag that didn’t threaten the proceedings much. The winner, however, had to go through many anxious moments throughout the race as his car had a myriad of technical issues that threatened his otherwise perfect weekend. He, of course, had a far-better weekend than his teammate, Max Verstappen, who has become a famous trouble magnet! He simply has to take one step back to go two forward. His eagerness is his downfall. Currently a maverick but hopefully soon a champion!

    Force India had yet another day to cheer as Esteban Ocon, the cool youngster put his Mercedes powered VJM11 chassis into the sixth slot. He is no fluke and a lot can be expected of him as the season progresses. Against all odds, team FI is punching considerably above its weight.

    Monaco would, meanwhile, do well to create more over-overtaking room, otherwise, it may border on boring eventually! Qualifying results should not resemble race results! It’s wildly popular as is expensive and that suits the F1 characteristic. Advantage – partying and the wildlife!

    Anyway, the 20-car train does look spectacular to the uninitiated and for some die-hards, it does increase the adrenaline. Whatever works I guess.

    Two weeks later at Montreal, the real story may be told but then having seen the lopsided results thus far, for me to hazard a guess to spot winners will be rather foolish!

    2018 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix – Race Results:
    1 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-
    2 Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari 7.336
    3 Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes 17.013
    4 Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari 18.127
    5 Valtteri Bottas  Mercedes 18.822
    6 Esteban Ocon  Force India 23.667
    7 Pierre Gasly  Toro Rosso 24.331
    8 Nico Hulkenberg  Renault 24.839
    9 Max Verstappen  Red Bull Racing 25.317
    10 Carlos Sainz  Renault 1’09.013
    11 Marcus Ericsson  Sauber 1’09.864
    12 Sergio Perez  Force India 1’10.461
    13 Kevin Magnussen  Haas 1’14.823
    14 Stoffel Vandoorne  McLaren 1 lap
    15 Romain Grosjean  Haas 1 lap
    16 Sergey Sirotkin  Williams 1 lap
    17 Lance Stroll  Williams 2 laps
    Charles Leclerc  Sauber 8 laps
    Brendon Hartley  Toro Rosso 8 laps
    Fernando Alonso  McLaren 26 laps.

  • The smiling assassin Shanghais the leader in China to set up thrilling scenario!

    By Harish Samtani

    Shanghai, April 15: Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian driver for Red Bull, just tossed a spanner in the works of Ferrari and Mercedes with a superlative performance in the third chapter of the 2018 Formula 1 calendar.

    His team did very well to pull him back from the precipice of the cliff and just a gasp away from qualifying last. Red Bull mechanics should pat themselves by shoehorning an engine in last minute and send him on his way. And also for alertness on their race engineers who brought him and Max Verstappen in and put them on soft tyres right away when the safety car interrupted the proceedings while the rest mostly were on a slower medium compound that was meant to last the distance.

    Ricciardo returned the favour in style by bringing home the trophy. A catastrophe converted to a trophy in just under 24 hours may make a bad pun, but you get my drift.

    The racing itself must have brought tears of joy to any F1 fan regardless of their heroes. A safety car on lap 30 created by the coming together of Gasly and Hartley led to the exciting situation that followed, but who cares as to how. Just bring it on!

    Daniel Ricciardo exults after winning the trophy. Photo: FIA

    Meanwhile, if one were to pretend that all this did not happen, Ferrari had only themselves to blame for throwing away a win by bringing in Vettel too late into the box for his one tyre change. This only goes to show that human beings have their silly moments regularly!

    While Hamilton is not having the best days in his racing life momentarily, he also seems to have become a little mellow. Good for him but not so for his F1 career! His teammate Bottas, on the contrary, may not be the most-spectacular driver on the grid but he may be doing something right, just by staying out of trouble. It’s early days yet and picking up valuable points in these stages is going to serve him at the fag end of the championship.

    With three teams now in the fray, every point is worth its weight in gold. DNFs will play an important role in the F1 version of snakes and ladders. With the scramble up, the middle and down the grid, stress will tell and the ultimate winner will be not only being a result of a champion driver but a calm professional team to boot. This year has the potential of turning into one of the finest battles in recent times. Is this the perfect time of entry for Liberty, the new owners of F1? Probably yes.

    The quality competition was expected of course but not with such aggression by a few players who are giving the stewards a massive headache and tough decisions to make. When Verstappen collided with Vettel in the 43rd lap, he, in my opinion, got away cheap by getting just a 10-sec penalty.

    Anyway excitement, however, contrived by such incidents serve a larger purpose and The Show will, and must go on!

     

  • Formula One running out of fresh ideas to breathe life back into racing

    Yay, it’s 2019 and we are going to get to witness F1 in its new avatar! Idiot! It’s still 2018, I had to remind myself and I wanted to crawl back into bed and continue watching Stranger things on Netflix! Anyway, being a petrol head too, zapped on the telly to watch F1 qualifying in Melbourne today and saw even more Stranger things!
    A new fangled helmet covering a helmet?!!! Hmmm …..From the 70s era to now, the men and racing drivers have become boys in more ways than one! Men crashed and burnt alive during events that were more gladiatorial than it being a sport about ambitious drivers in fast cars. Then, as F1 evolved and Eccelstone, the creator of this magnum opus brought in 30 and 40 million and more as salaries for drivers, the current crop wanted to live a lot longer to enjoy this wealth!
    The changes made in the 70s and 80s simply had to be done because the bloodshed was way too much and turning fans away. But this wussifying the sport by adding further fortification is the giddy limit.
    The two examples of accidental death and disability can be understood from the unfortunate incidents of the two legends – Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Ayrton had crashed a wall at close to 200kmph and a simple bolt ejected from the damaged front suspension like a bullet and went through his visor that opened up just that half inch. The result was the same as that of a bullet wound. He died on the spot. Schumi is fighting a losing battle after an innocent skiing accident. Just a day out with the family. Both heroes and both with absolutely no reason to be in that situation.
    So, if F1 thinks that they can save lives randomly and take away the no guts, no glory somewhat, should rethink.
    The qualifying today at the Australian GP did prove that the top four teams will remain there. A Ferrari win will improve the telly viewership substantially. In any case, the results of the first few races will not have too much bearing on the championship.
    With limited testing time in hand, teams will need to sort out their machines under competitive duress. The racing really begins once the circus moves to the traditional racing circuits in Europe.