The Indian Grand Prix is about an year away and the organisers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure a successful culmination of the event. The event is scheduled to be held at a venue in the NCR region in one of the several townships being developed by the Jaypee Group. The subsidiary JPSK sports will be handling the construction and other issues related to the Indian Grand Prix.

Mark Hughes who is heading the operation for the JPSK group was quoted as saying :

"We are looking at the range of tickets for the high end of cricket games, the international test matches, the IPL games,"

"We are looking at the ticketing for the Commonwealth Games and we are also looking at the other races and trying to find a balance.

"There will be a reasonably affordable general admission and there will probably be about 25,000 general tickets. I’d like to think that we can make it affordable in the same way that Malaysia did – Malaysia have a very good, affordable entry ticket price."

"We will have things like built-in underground scanners, so when a car drives in every vehicle will get scanned,"

"At the same time, we will look at how we integrate that with the CCTV systems.

"We will have a reasonably sophisticated ticketing system that will be very difficult to forge. There will be a turnstile system at every entrance, every ticket will be electronic. Security will be ramped up, it has to be." he added

I will be hoping to get some paddock passes for the event , lets see if I can put my resourcefulness to the best use.

Meanwhile Indian racer Narain Karthikeyan (1st Indian ever to race in formula one) confirmed his desire to race in the 1st ever edition of the Indian Grand Prix. On being conferred the Padmashree he replied to questions about whether he would like to participate in the Indian Grand Prix, he replied that he would race if he gets a good team.

The Indian Grand Prix has always had a heavy backing from people like Bernie Ecclestone and Vijay Mallya. The sports ministry had tried to play spoilsport last year by refusing to recognise formula one as a sport and granting tax relief with respect to equipment imported for the same. The huge influx of tourists for the event though is expected to change things. The race organisers peg the turnout for the race at more than 1 lakh spectators, most of them from outside the country. Such a huge influx of foreign tourists and revenue will surely make the Government recognise the Indian Grand Prix as an event of National Importance.

“We fully expect the race to go ahead next October” Mark Hughes said.

“The circuit is part of a sports city being constructed 35 kilometres outside the Indian capital on a 2,800 acre site with areas set aside for the Formula One track and a 100,000-seater international cricket stadium,” Hughes added.

“Jaypee Group head Jaiprakash Gaur is passionate about sport and he has a dream to develop Indian youngsters with talent and prospects to progress,” Hughes added. “The sports hub is part of that dream.”

“We expect to complete construction by July 2011 and once the FIA has given its approval we can finalise training for marshals, track officials and medical staff in time for an October race.”

Meanwhile as most of you might be aware Karun Chandhok became the second ever Indian to race in the formula one championship. He is racing for the HRT F1 team (Campos meta).

The cat is out of the bag, the Jaypee group which is constructing the track for the much awaited formula one Indian Grand Prix. You can see the formula one track within the circuit and also the formula one track individually. I couldn’t find the image of the track online anymore so took it from one of the  Indian motorcar forums.

Very Tilke-ish track with a long hairpin. Seems like the 2011 Indian Grand Prix is set after all !

Images are probably properties of the Jaypee group.

To celebrate the opening of the new Bandra Worli sea link, Red Bull roped in David Coulthard to zoom across the track. The speed limit of the sea link is 30 mph, however it was raised to 60 mph specially for the formula one event. However since formula one cars dont have speedometers , David wasnt aware of his speeds while driving.

Anyway, after the whole event was done, authorities started to take note of the violations, The organisers will most probably not be refunded the 20,000 pound deposit.

Satish Gavai, managing director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, said: ‘I have asked my officers to submit a report on the event.

‘Action will be considered only after it is established that the vehicle went beyond permissible speed limits on the sea link.’

David Coulthard on his end apologised,

David Coulthard said: ‘I was trying to judge what 60mph would be but I have no speedometer on the car.

‘I spent my career driving over 200, so I am sorry if I went over the speed limit.’

We as Indian citizens are used to the Government making one lame decision after another, but their latest ruling on formula one is surely going to leave a lot of fans angry and confused. In a blow to India’s and Indians’s dream to host a formula one event, the Indian sports ministry (full of bureaucrats BTW) refused to give the status of a sport to Formula One.

The sports ministry refused to extend duty waivers and customs waivers that are usually extended to sporting events. So equipment to import formula one track material will not get any special waivers. A major Indian newspaper reported the sports ministry as saying :

“It(formula one) would have no impact on the development of sports in the country" 

"F1 is not purely sports. It is entertainment and this venture is a commercial initiative."

However JPSK the group that is constructing the F1 track said that its totally committed to ensure that the formula one race goes ahead in India. And we too are with them !

“The Fastest Indian in The World” Narain Karthikeyan opened a new chapter in his distinguished International Motorsports career last weekend, by finishing 6^th in his first Le Mans Series race for the Kolles Audi Team, driving the Audi R10 TDi LMP1 Sportscar. The 5.5 liter V12, turbo-diesel powered car is one of the most successful sportscars in the history of the championship, winning the Le Mans 24-hour classic for the past three years.

Narain added another couple of ‘firsts’ to the innumerable ‘firsts’ in his career CV, becoming the first Indian driver to enter the Le Mans Series, and the first to score championship points, that too in his debut race.

The 1,000 km Endurance race held at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Belgium was the venue of the second round of the 2009 Le Mans Series (LMS), where Narain started his summer season of racing in 2009. With its mixture of long straights, fast corners and varying gradients, the circuit ranks as one of the most technically challenging circuits in the world, and is a firm favourite with teams and drivers alike. Narain has good memories of this track, as it was the venue of a great battle between himself & Jacques Villeneuve during his 2005 Formula 1 campaign.

Due to the 1,000 km long endurance nature of the races (a Formula 1 race is only 305 km long), Narain shared driving duties with two other drivers, Briton Andrew Meyrick & Dutchman Charles Zwolsman. Narain undertook the driving duties during qualifying on Saturday and qualified the car 9^th on the grid, ahead of the teams’ second car driven by Christian Albers.

As per championship regulations, the qualifying driver can either start the race, or finish the race, and Narain chose the latter, thus doing the 3^rd & final stint during Sunday’s race. He took over the car at 5:15 pm local time, approximately 4 hours 25 minutes after the race had started, and drove the last 1 hour 25 minutes of the race. He crossed the finish line in 6^th position, 2 laps ahead of the teams sister car which finished in 7^th position.

“The progress is very nice…I’m absolutely, absolutely confident that the track  will be completed”

Samir Gaur, managing director of India’s JPSK Sports Pvt Ltd was quoted as saying.

“The track will be ready in 2011.”

The JPSK group is a subsidary of Jaiprakash Associates who own a large number of Industries and Educational Institutes in India. The track will be built at Greater Noida which is a satellite town on the outskirts of Delhi. Its connected to Delhi via an expressway.

Racing isnt just formula one you know, The A1GP or the worldcup of motorsport is also a world famous racing series with Team India as one of the participants. The cars in A1GP are all the same, so its up to the drivers and the team to tweak the cars and get the best performance. The drivers are forced to push the cars to their limit without actually incurring the wrath of their respective insurance companies for totaling their cars.

The formula one Indian Grand Prix may very well have a rival in the A1GP’s Indian Grand Prix, there were rumours of a track being selected near Rajasthan. Anyway some A1GP Team India statistics with a pretty photo of Team India wonderboy Narain Karthikeyan and his tricolour helmet :

A1 Team India Statistics

A1GP standings
2005/06 24th
2006/07 16th
2007/08 10th
2008/09 15th

Drivers Caps
Karun Chandhok – 3
Armaan Ebrahim  – 22
Narain Karthikeyan – 36
Parthiva Sureshwaren – 4

A1GP statistics
Races started 65
Wins 2
Points 82
Pole positions 1
Podium places 2
Top 10s 22
Raced laps 1537
Raced km 6259
Races led 4
Led laps 36
Led km 142

The A1GP team India has had limited success in the various seasons but with 2 wins and 82 points in total its definitely a team to watch out for in the A1GP format of racing.

Responding to the question coolly, Bernie said that ofcourse the plan was on and that is the reason why an agreement had been inked with the organisers of the Indian Grand Prix. The question was asked amid conflicting reports on the current status of the Indian Grand Prix.

The formula one Indian Grand Prix was first scheduled to be held in 2010. It was then postponed to 2011 . Bernie attributed the delay to prior contracts but the popular press opinion had been that it was due to the laziness of the Indian Grand Prix organisers.

Further justifying the formula one Indian Grand Prix , Bernie Ecclestone had the following to say :

“It’s a large, large country with a big population and it’s good for the sponsors, good for the car manufacturers and its good for everyone involved in Formula One to be in their country,” 

“I doubt in India anything will be a rival to cricket, but let’s see.”

Bernie Ecclestone said.