Future tense at Buddh circuit

With no race next year, doubts loom over the return of action after third edition.

The one truth that permeates the Formula One set-up is the fleeting nature of the ‘circus’.

 Many circuits have been part of the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ trend since the first Grand Prix in history, but no one anticipated that the Buddh International Circuit would ever find itself on this list of potentially ‘endangered’ tracks.

The circuit was unveiled amidst much fanfare in 2011 and has since drawn criticism and praise in equal measure. But barring Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who has had a problem with practically every circuit he has driven on, no other driver has had serious complaints.
Two successful races later, it looked like the BIC was going to be part of one of Formula One’s long-term contract circuits. One could not have been more wrong.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone stoked a fire earlier this year when he hinted at the possibility of the Indian Grand Prix missing out on action in 2014. A couple of weeks later he released this statement: “We think it is best not to have a race (in India) in 2014 and have one in 2015. We will have to club India with the four rounds in the Asia Pacific region.”

 Organisers Jaypee Sports International (JPSI) were in the dark about the whole matter but when it did become clear that the Briton was removing the race from the calendar, the blow had been delivered.

Perhaps, like he and many others insist, it has to do with the fact that the 2015 calendar will feature the race in March. Running the race in October in 2014 and then moving the camp westwards before returning to India within a span of five months does seem like an implausible option given the current dynamics of the sport.

 Ecclestone did also mention that the ‘bureaucracy’ he witnessed in India was appalling. It would be very naive to leave that out as another potential cause for its ouster from the calendar. The Sports Ministry maintains that Formula One is not a sport and as a result of which it falls in the ‘entertainment’ category as per the taxation laws in India. The kind of money that Formula One and the BIC shell out in the form of tax for one race is mind-boggling.

To add to that, custom officials have failed to understand the significance and the nature of the sport that relies heavily on transporting large contents across nations. The cargo clearance procedures are tedious to say the least.

All of these factors and the arrival of newer, ‘trouble-free’ circuits such as Sochi and New Jersey would have weighed heavily against BIC when the decision was taken during a meeting in September.

If Ecclestone and the others are to be believed, then missing out on a year of racing should not be an issue, but in the world of Formula One things are forgotten just as quickly as the previous weekend.

 “If it doesn’t come back in 2015, it may never come back. That is my concern. Once you lose a race it can be gone forever,” Vicky Chandhok, Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India President, remarked ahead of the race weekend.

 The rumour in and around the paddock is that the race will never see the light of day again, and obviously the FIA (international motor sport body) has good reason to not have a race in India where it seems like they are being blackballed.

 Formula One has run races in 69 circuits since Silverstone in 1950 and they will barely feel the pinch of losing out on one race be it India or Korea. The Indian motorsport fraternity, however, can ill-afford to lose out on the one race that has boosted the profile of the sport in the country.

It is ironic that little over three years ago, it seemed like Formula One would never arrive on Indian shores. Little over three years since, it seems like it may never return. It’s all very fleeting indeed.