The Buddh International Circuit, which has been criticised at some quarter in the lead up to the inaugural edition of the Indian Grand Prix on October 28 to 30, was opened for the media early in the day, and from the very onset it was evident how much had gone into making of this grandiose monument which will host some of the best drivers in the universe in ten days.
“Our blood, sweat and tears went into making this happen. When we brought in the media, we realised that we have done it. It’s still not over though. We still have a race to run but as far as infrastruture is concerned, it is all but done.
“ I thank everyone for helping us and millions of Indians realise a dream which took a long, long time to get here,” said Jaypee Associates Limited executive chairman Manoj Gaur during a press conference at the newly-built media centre.
Bumper surprise
The JPSI had kept the media off the 875 acre facility all these days, and after unveiling the track, they said that they wanted it to be a bumper surpise. It certainly was!
The grand stand runs for four hundred metres from the start-finish line -- one of the biggest in the world -- the paddocks, the pits, the team buildings, media centre, set up zones, and more importantly the track itself, looked prim and properly ready. All that is really left for JPSI to do with little over a week left is to clear up the debris from track side.
JPSI later had Red Bull Racing’s Neel Jani, who little less than a week ago drove at the Khardungla pass near Leh, blitz the state-of-the-art track in the later part of the day with one of RBR’s Formula One machines.
A little while before Jani’s show, which eventually entertained 400-odd journalists and an army of school kids, Narain Karthikeyan tried his hand at the track on board the Mercedes SLS AMG sports convertable, and seemed more than pleased with it.
“I have raced in all major tracks around the world and I rate this as one of the best,” said the Hispania Racing Team driver.
Magnificent circuit
Jani seconded Karthikeyan's view of the track.
“This is an absolutely magnificent circuit. The drivers will have a tough time getting used to the blind turns and the elevations. At the moment, there is a bit of dust on the track but when the race begins, it will be alright,” said the driver of Indian origin.
The track has 16 corners in all, but what really sets this 5.14 km track apart is turn three. An 18-metre incline is followed by a sharp right-hand turn, which cannot be seen up until the last moment, and the track immediatly drops to one of the longest straights in the world (1.2 km).
During the course of the 60-lap race, drivers are expected to finish with an average lap time of 1 minute, 27 seconds.
