The love of Formula1 : From Schumi to Force India

I still remember the times when my love for Formula 1 began. I used to watch these races on the Tv with my grandfather. Having no knowledge of Ferraris or Mercedez, all that mattered for me was the colour. So if the top 2 racers are red and yellow, i would take the one leading and my grandpa would take the one coming second. Supposedly after some laps if my racer was overtaken i would abruptly change my driver to his. He would taunt me that i was cheating and then readily change over, always ready to come 2nd to see me come 1st.... Love u Nanaji.... (More on this on another post of mine)


Then came the time when every 2nd Sunday i would wait for the race to begin. And it was to see one man, Michael Schumacher, the legend. Many of them came and many of them left... Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinan, Juan pablo Montoya, David Coulthard. His rivalry with Mika Hakkinan, those last lap engine blow ups, the last lap overtaking....The McLaren vs Ferrari rivalry was great. Montoya was the most aggressive F1 driver i have ever seen... His overtaking manouvres were just fabulous. His teaming up with Ralf Schumacher took BMW Williams to its greatest days.

Slowly Hakkinan left, Montoya went back to Nascar, Ralf lost that zing in him, Coulthard lost the top places to new drivers. Schumi continued his great run winning 7 driver titles.... 5 of them on the trot. There was this season where he seemed to break all the records winning 9 races on the run and reaching the podium on, i think, all occasions.

The last year of Schumi's career was a disappointment by his standards. That was when a completely new brigade came up. Alonso and Raikkonen were ready to take over the mantle. Schumi left and Ferrari was with a new driver line up of Massa and Raikkonen. Alonso had gone on to become the youngest drivers champion in F1's history.



Around the time Schumi left my love for F1 moved from the front row of the grid to the last rows. The fastest and first Indian on the F1 calender had arrived, Narain Karthikeyan...
After a year of struggle with his yellow Jordon he too disappeared from the scene. A year later Schumi also left. Formula1 for me took a back seat.

In the mean time Hamilton arrived with a storm and with it came another man who would change the scene of F1 in India, Vijay Mallya. The previous Jordon went from Jordon to Spykar to Midland to our very own Force India. The car that Karthekiyan once drove was finally Indian.

The car that we see below was the original Force India. Then 30 races later came the turnaround.
Brawn GP had shaken the F1 world. They in their first season are on the course to win both driver and constructor titles. Then in the Belgium GP, Giancarlo Fisichella drove the Force India to its first pole position and subsequantly to its first podium. He immediately jumped to Ferrari but Force India continued its great run in the Italian Grand Prix with Sutil coming 4th. Next week is the Singapore night race and see who can beat the Force India this time around.


In this mean time F1 is going through its worst crisis, with allegations of Renault having fixed last year's Singapore Gp. The man who created Schumi and Alonso, Briatore is now gone. Lets see how this crisis ends.

My love for F1 runs beyond the race track. The only game i love playing on my laptop is the F12002 i have. Even though the drivers and cars are old and outdated i prefer it to Counter Strike and Need for Speed any day. Crashes, Pit stops, cutting tracks, jumping starts are all the things that thrill me... Almost know all the tracks by heart now... The favourite...undoubtedly Monaco....

I am not be a tech freak, dont have too much knowledge about the technical details of the cars and may be bad at records and stuff but the best compliment i got about my craze for F1 was from my bro a few years ago.... In the movie Iqbal there is the song about fulfilling your dreams and everything is achievable with the protagonist doing anything to make it to the Indian Cricket Team. My brother one day out of the blue commented, " whenever i hear this song, all i can picturize is my younger brother zooming lap after lap in that red ferrari" It was never on a serious note but a great way to make me feel great... Me and my ferrari...

Formula 1 is planning to enter India soon and the love for F1 will surely take me to the tracks and hope so someday, my dream of watching a Grand Prix will come true... Who knows Schumi might just be back and on the podium that day.....
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