The inaugural race last year was well received by the paddock as the welcome was so warm and the circuit was a very good challenge.
The Buddh International Circuit hosts the second Indian Grand Prix this weekend. It’s a track with lots of gradient and a good mix of corners. Parts of this mix are some long very quick corners which put the drivers under severe lateral G. And we know how drivers love lateral G.
The inaugural race last year was well received by the paddock as the welcome was so warm and the circuit was a very good challenge. Last year was more relaxed but this year the championship is heating up nicely and the pressure will really be starting to show.
It’s realistically a two-horse race now with Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso neck to neck at the head of the leaderboard. However, the momentum is definitely with Vettel as he in his Red Bull has won the last three races on the trot.
Red Bull’s car is the quickest in the field at the moment and their driver is in the zone. Can Alonso change this around and stop the Red Bull charge? It’s really going to depend if Ferrari have got on top of their wind tunnel correlation problems.
They have said this week that they found why the updates they brought to the last two races were not producing the results they needed. If this is true, and their math adds up, we can expect a nice step in competitiveness from them. Alonso is driving well and if the car is in the ball park, we will enjoy a classic race between him and Vettel.
McLaren are pretty much out of the drivers’ championship and after having lost ground to Red Bull in the constructors at the last race, they will be determined to have a good race here. Their car looks good actually but for whatever reasons, the team, including the drivers, has not extracted the most from it recently. It will be interesting to see how they go this weekend.
Tyre wear is quite bad here, so drivers will need to be on top of what’s happening with the wear during the practice. With Pirelli bringing the soft and hard tyre, we should see quite a few variations in strategy, with it all getting close towards the end of the race. Well, at least we should see some three and one-stoppers whereas in Korea, the drivers two-stopped.
—The writer is an F1 expert with Star Sports
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