Formula One 2011 Airtel Grand Prix of India

astrosdude91

astrosdude91

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astrosdude91
So here we are, race seventeen of 19 on the 2011 Formula One season. This race brings us to unfamiliar territory. Nobody on the grid has any experience at the Buddh International Circuit, so experience wise it's a level playing field. Both championships are already wrapped up. With Sebastian Vettel taking his second Driver's crown, and Red Bull Racing taking the Constructor's. So it's now a contest for second place. Who will take victory here in New Delhi?

Round XVII of the 2011 Formula One season is...

The Airtel Grand Prix of India

From the Buddh International Circuit in New Delhi, India

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First laps with Red Bull Racing test driver Neel Jani:


Number of laps: 60
Circuit Length: 5.127km
Race Distance: To be determined
Lap Record: To be determined​


2011 Driver's Championship standings after 16 rounds (Top ten only):
1. Sebastian Vettel (RBR-Renault) - 349
2. Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) - 222
3. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) - 212
4. Mark Webber (RBR-Renault) - 209
5. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) - 196
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) - 98
7. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) - 67
8. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) - 60
9. Vitaly Petrov (Renault) - 36
10. Nick Heidfeld (Renault) - 34

2011 Constructor's Championship standings after 16 rounds (Top five only):
1. Red Bull Racing - 558
2. Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes - 418
3. Ferrari - 310
4. Mercedes - 127
5. Lotus Renault - 72

Weather information:

Expect bright and sunny skies all weekend long. Highs in the low 30's, lows in the high teens.
 
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I'm looking forward to this. Hopefully Red Bull decide to sit back a bit, as they have both titles, and let everyone else fight it out for the win.
 
I'm sooo looking forward to this :D

Now for some first bits, Pirelli has decided that they're not going to take risk because obviously they know nothing much about the circuit yet. So the tyre choices for this weekend are Soft and Hard compound tyres... So what makes this weekend going to be exciting? Well, speculations are going around from Narain Karthikeyan that the difference in lap time is going to be huge, about an excess of 2 seconds!

EDIT:

And I belive some has already know this, Liuzzi will not be racing this weekend in favour of Narain Karthikeyan. A delight for the Indian fans I suppose..
 
I like the back half of the circuit. It's very busy, and there's no particularly slow corners. There's also a lot of undulations, so the drivers are going to have to pay a lot of attention. With the Pirelli tyres wearing out and fuel levels dropping, I think a lot of the information that the drivers have at the start of the race - particuarly about cornering speeds and racing lines - will change dramatically by the end of the race. Plus, while a lot of the corners will need high downforce levels, the first half of the circuit demands lower downforce, so the second half will be even trickier. I would not want to have another driver putting pressure on me.
 
What ^^ he said. :) Yes, I think this will be a very entertaining race. I am very much looking forward to it.
 
Of course, I am llikely to be proven very wrong, very quickly.

It's a bit like the Korean Grand Prix - the circuit is designed to that each sector tests one aspect of car and driver (the first sector is for top speed and braking, the second is for downforce and driver commitment, and the third is for setup), with the obvious intention being to bait drivers into playing to their cars' strengths and setting the car up for two of the three sectors in the hopes that the advantage gained in two sectors will offset the disadvantage in the third. But then the DRS came along and negated the concept - drivers could set the cars up for sectors two and three, and then use the DRS to overcome the problems in sector one.
 
Is it the dry season in India as the air and track seemed quite dusty?

Will be an interesting race as no one has any real hard data on the track.
 
Will there be a silence before the race for the past week?
Also it looks like its going to be a great race.
 
Agreed, Chandhok is such a great ambassador for the sport. Just a thoroughly likeable man. Big shame that he's not racing.
 
Chandhok driving means Trulli or Kovalainen don't...I'd rather see Trulli and Kovy drive to be honest. Chandhok's a nice guy and all but he hasn't really shown he deserves a race seat, especially after the Nurburgring.
 
Ardius
Chandhok driving means Trulli or Kovalainen don't...I'd rather see Trulli and Kovy drive to be honest. Chandhok's a nice guy and all but he hasn't really shown he deserves a race seat, especially after the Nurburgring.
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Agree with this 100%.



spy.
 
Hearing that there will be 2 drs zones, one on the start/finish straight and one on the long run into turn 4. No confirmation yet though.
 
Ardius
Chandhok driving means Trulli or Kovalainen don't...I'd rather see Trulli and Kovy drive to be honest. Chandhok's a nice guy and all but he hasn't really shown he deserves a race seat, especially after the Nurburgring.
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I agree with you mate. And in fact, the fans of Team Lotus never liked him being in one of those car. They started bashing him for wasting a seat at Team Lotus and bla bla bla which is just so disrespectful of him...

I feel for him, obviously because he's been hunting for a race seat for a long time. If I'm honest, I'll just let him drive if I was Tony because you know, he has a lot of things to show. It's not my power anyway but just a shame...
 
I'm really looking forward to this, it looks like a great track.

I expect Red Bull to walk away with it here though, and I do believe that Mclaren with struggle in the race (Though will probably be on pole in Qualy).

It's interesting that there seems to have been a role reversal for Red Bull and Mclaren; Mclaren are now the fastest in Qualy but not in the race, earlier in the season this was the other way around. Also, we have seen for a number of races now that Mclaren are better on high downforce circuits whereas Red Bull have a straightline speed advantage, which is also in contrast to what we saw last year and at the beginning of this year.

Very interesting... but this circuit is very much like Korea and I don't expect anyone but Red Bull to win, though I think it may be a Mclaren front row lockout in qualifying.
 
Looking forwards to this GP as it may be the last one I see this year(hopefully the 🤬 fest doesn't extent to next season).

(Damn you DirecTV and Fox!!!!!!)
 
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Is it me, or does that sound not fit the car at all :dunce:

I know that that's a V10 under the chassis, but I'm so used to hearing V8's on cars from 2009 onwards.

Anyways, the track looks awesome! Love those elevation changes, and looking forward to the race :)
 
zedextreme8177
Is it me, or does that sound not fit the car at all :dunce:
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Haha, you're not the only one mate. I've seen the car blast through in KL before and yes, it sounded really weird and... Simply strange. Perhaps got used to the V8 :lol:

So it seems like the Indian Cricket player, Sachin Tendulkar is going to wave the chequered flag at the end of the Indian GP.
 
Which will be the biggest cheer of the day. Indian's will go mental when he comes out. Try and watch it if you can, you may get some idea of just how big Sachin is in India if you don't know about cricket. It's impressive.
 
Not even weekend yet, the drivers and teams have started giving a mixed reactions. Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen all had issues getting into the country and out of all, Timo Glock is the one who doesn't seem to be happy at all with the immigration authorities.

To Indian fans though, there are still 40k tickets available up for grabs and believed to be in a discounted price.
 
PeterJB
Should be V12s really.
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It would be great if they were using V12s, but from a purist point of view, I would like to see more engine competition. For example, in 1994, five teams used V8 engines, including Benetton. Eight teams used V10 engines, including Williams. Ferrari alone used a V12 engine.

I wouldn't mind seeing F1 going back to this kind of engine competition, but I doubt it will ever go back to it.
 
Problem is V10's have more low end torque so there's only one way to go.
 
InvincibleM5
Not even weekend yet, the drivers and teams have started giving a mixed reactions. Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen all had issues getting into the country and out of all, Timo Glock is the one who doesn't seem to be happy at all with the immigration authorities.

To Indian fans though, there are still 40k tickets available up for grabs and believed to be in a discounted price.
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The Indians are desperate to get Karun into Kovalainen's car!

The tickets don't sell for most races in asia, at China and Korea they filled the stands with the army to make it look full.
 
Justin
Looking forwards to this GP as it may be the last one I see this year(hopefully the 🤬 fest doesn't extent to next season).

(Damn you DirecTV and Fox!!!!!!)
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If DirecTV drops FOX before the end of the season just PM me. I will give you instructions on how to excess BBC coverage through their website. Or if you like I can give you the instructions now. Just let me know.
 
GOTMAXPOWER
The tickets don't sell for most races in asia, at China and Korea they filled the stands with the army to make it look full.
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I'm guessing the main factor is interest and ticket price.

Formula One interest in Malaysia is growing very well, I mean it's starting to see developments from years ago. However, the ticket price is still a massive issue because to get a grandstand ticket, I could buy a new laptop! Most of the seats in Sepang especially around the tower (at the last hairpin) were bought by Petronas and they just gave the ticket to whoever that's lucky. That way, they could fill up the tower because for years, that is the place where it gets pretty empty.

I'd like to see the tickets sell well in Asia, much like tickets getting sold out at Silverstone and Monza etc. They also need interest from the fans, otherwise it's not happening.

EDIT: I just seen a picture of the start/finish straight being cleaned. I have to say, it looks impressive!
 
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