WTF Happened To The Indian Grand Prix?

[Music] another year done and another world champion had been crowned for the fourth time fourth time in a row in fact Sebastian vettle was champion of the world utter domination Almost Boring to those not overly infatuated with Red Bull merchandise and you couldn't help but think that perhaps we were witnessing one of the most iconic moments in the whole history of Formula 1 for more than one reason but unbeknown to all of us two things would end at this very moment Sebastian fedel Championship run as he would never win a world title again and Formula 1 would never turn up to this racetrack again in fact they would never race in this country again but if you look back on it now you'd have to ask how the hell didn't this work with Formula 1 always looking to push forward with their plans for world domination you would think that they would stop at nothing to make the sport popular in a country with 1.4 billion people but here we are 10 years later talking about what could have been but instead what was a Monumental failure so what the happened to the Indian Grand Prix the Motorsports scene in India isn't particularly huge toward the end of the 1990s the country had only one permanent Racetrack and no driver from that Nation had ever reached Formula 1 despite the somewhat be resume plans for a Formula 1 race in India can be traced back to the late 1990s when a race was proposed for the city of Kolkata however nothing ever came with these plans there were also plans for a race near Bangalore airport but they didn't like these ideas much either and was chucked in the bin the intent was there though and in late 2003 a pre-agreement was signed which would bring the Indian Grand Prix to life with a race in Hydro bad slated for 2007 and a contract which would last for 7 years the track was to be built on the outskirts of the city and were given plenty of land to play with to make it happen to secure this contract they had to convince F1 supro Bernie Eon that they were the right City for the Grand Prix they did manage to ward off a bit from Mumbai until 2004 where they decided nah you know what we want this race and there ain't you could do to stop us they pushed hard to get the Grand Prix to come to Mumbai ultimately this was all music to Bernie eon's ears to have cities around the country clamoring like soccer Ms and a Black Friday M sale to secure rights to the Grand Prix he was seeing dollar signs and in his land that's all he really cared about he proclaimed that whether it be hydrat or Mumbai but most likely Mumbai there will be a race in India come 2008 and so when 2008 came about the Indian Grand Prix would be held nowhere both bids had fallen through the cracks the proposed site for the track and hydro bad was instead converted into a Haven for the IT industry and mumbai's government came to the conclusion that they'd rather not waste their money on car fumes while there were more serious issues within their city limits and you got to say they kind of did have a point eventually more cities began launching bits for the race all around India and while this is all very nice what would be really good at this point is an actual agreement de deal in place to say we will race here on this dat you've also got to remember that by this time theine kakan became the first Indian to race in Formula 1 and while his reputation wasn't entirely sunshine and rainbows India now actually had National representation on the grid and karun chandok had backing from the red bll Junior Team rising up through the ranks of Motorsport alongside some other National prospects not to mention too that force India were about to break into the fry so India technically had their own Formula 1 team now too in June 2007 we got yet another provisional agreement for the Indian Grand Prix this time it was planned to be built in gurug gram however not even 2 months later those plans were scrapped well at least for that City it was decided that the track would instead be built and Greer NOA in the North Indian state of utar Pradesh and by this time plans had firmed up enough for Bernie to save with confidence that the Indian Grand Prix would take place in 2010 however a year later he delayed it to 2011 it did seem that this whole thing was some kind of Perpetual merry-go round complete with political Gaga that had the potential to throw away a golden opportunity for everyone involved but then again anywhere you go in the world you are going to have people in power that just can't see the big picture or perhaps that's just us F1 fans being so naive okay so the the racetrack we've already established where exactly the track was going but it's more interesting to know what it was actually a part of it was set within the confin of the JP Sports City a planned city that was built to accommodate a local populace who couldn't stand to be more than a 5 minute walk away from their local Stadium this place was set to have housing units Leisure facilities an international cricket stadium a field hockey facility a golf course an equestrian center a year and a giant ass racetrack that can play host to Formula 1 built by the JP Sports Group the circuit was initially slated to be named rather imaginatively as the JP International circuit now a brand new Formula 1 track being built in the late 2000s this was a job for motor Racing's favorite curly head Gob Herman tilk it was built with an emphasis on speed and aimed to make this track one of the fastest on the entire calendar a growing tendency for anyone making an F1 track over the last two decades and even to this day but while it's easy to knock her and tilk your tracks and describe them as emotionless ribbons of tarmac with less character than a Belgian soap opera and this full-on speed gasm from the people involved was getting a little bit tired the elevation changes as well as the great passing opportunities of the first sector coupled with the hectic nature of the second one meant that this thing wasn't that bad on paper at least as we headed into 2009 the F1 teams began to demonstrate their cars on the streets of India you've got a market to 1.4 billion people might as well hit the ground running but of course while those demonstrations went off without a hitch over in JP land things weren't going very smoothly construction of the track was delayed thanks to the Grand storm of Wall Street in 2008 and thus led to the race being pushed back to 2011 eventually progress did get underway and as the race Drew nigh the circuit began to take shape and was eventually completed at a cost of around about $400 million it had ceasing for 110,000 Spectators initially with the potential to expand that to 200,000 in the future should the demand be there but seeing as how we're here now you don't get to win any points for guessing whether that happen or not of course a lot does go into building a racetrack so with not so much time left before the inaugural race weekend it was the standard Rush that you get at pretty much every new racetrack ever made they really were up against it to get this racetrack done then in late October 2011 it was D-Day the Grand Prix circus had arrived and what had now been renamed to the bud International circuit and or Mar to the area where the track was located the dream of a Formula 1 race in India was now a reality but the thing about reality is that sometimes it ain't quite like the dream there are always going to be teething troubles with every new racetrack and this was no exception but some of these teething troubles were strange some of the infrastructure rure such as gas plumbing and well paint on the walls was incomplete there were power outages which could be problematic and might have been down to the fact that the whole circuit was being run through generators rather than a continuous dedicated power supply the commentary box was described as a Cell by Martin brundle and was stationed so far away that he might as well have been back in New Delhi although perhaps more interesting of all of this was a colony of bats who had taken refuge in the pit building and refused to vacate until they were finally given asylum in Bangladesh there was also the difficult question whether it was right or not to have a race in a country with a disparity of wealth is severely tilted but whether it was right or not the race would go ahead free practice one kicked off with VJ Malia deliberately sending his force India cars out first as a source of national pride it was fun while it lasted with this sentient clump of biscuits and gravy but not even 5 minutes in the circuit was already under [Music] attack it's not uncommon for dogs to invade racetracks matter of fact it's weirdly common but with Lassie here along with those bats in the pit Lane this track was one species away from being ready to accommodate a petting zoo but I tell you what this place had everything as the practice SS went on multiple drivers found the wall while the Ferraris did their standard trick of finding the afterlife it was clear that while it might appear to be a standard Tok drone this track was ready to punish anybody that got too CED with the limits of the circus it was also demonstrated in qualifying that sausage curbs were in fact one of the worst inventions that Motorsport had ever bestowed upon the world and remember this sport gave us Jean Marie ballestra although like him it would take a few years and multiple Broken Backs before the FIA would even attempt to act on it but ultimately when it came to the track itself it was smes all around the drivers did seem to like it even if it did seem to not like them back sometimes and so there they were on the grid on Sunday with a few celebrities looking around including the clinically monarchal Patrol head that was Rowan ainson and part of that starting grid that would go forth and make history not just in Formula 1 but Indian Motorsport as a whole was the man himself nine c can after almost a decade of trying here they were ready to make an impact after the national anthem was sung and after a moment's silence was held for the late Dan Weldon and Marco simonelli the Indian Grand Prix got underway the start comprised of the same old Carnage that you get at any new circuit and sure enough Pastor Maldonado found himself in amongst all of it with his familiar gymnastics before his car eventually retired due to secondhand embarrassment there was a smattering of more chaos and wanted destruction throughout the fields but the big talking point was this incident between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton when Felipe dley decided to pretend that the McLaren didn't exist throughout that year these two had developed a shall we say unhealthy tendency to find each other on the racetrack needless to say Lewis wasn't much pleased nor was Mr Bean Massa was given a drive-through penalty for these troubles but he more than made up for it by tearing apart of suspension at the same chicane that he did in qualifying I mean it wasn't that much of a good thing but at least he was been consistent but once that year other than that the race was pretty unremarkable Sebastian fedel was first on the grid he was first when he left it and as the legendary sashin and Dela wav the checker flag at the end of the race Seb crossed the line to become the first ever winner of the Indian Grand Prix it was as good as it could get and while the event wasn't a sellout it was a good starting point at least on paper it was when Formula 1 returned for 2012 vle was again as dominant as Flavio briori in a room full of counterfeit armanis down the pack the McLaren were battling themselves alono was somehow keeping Ferrari in the championship hunt and Maldonado crashed again so not much changed from last year really there was an instance where Lewis had to change the steering wheel in the middle of a pit stop when one of his paddles went on strike there was also some little glimmer of hope for race band when vid's car started to spark a little bit and started to drag his Pace down Ferrari could smell blood but ultimately it was Seb who once again crossed the line as the winner of the race I guess he was starting to like this track but the organizers and the promoters of the event might have been shaking like a dark in Peach seats when they saw the attendance figures for the week weekend despite having a 110,000 seat capacity and drawing 95,000 people for the previous year on this particular Sunday only 65,000 turned up sure back then F1 venues didn't sell out in 16 seconds like they do nowadays and Bernie eckleson said ah don't worry first year always does better than the other ones but still there were a lot of expectations and this brought everything right back down to earth and behind the scenes there was even more stuff Brewing but we'll get to that in a second for 2013 vetal look set to Superman the field again but on lap two he tried to throw us all off the scent by pitting on on lap two what the hell's blood up to here this seemed completely maniacal but after charging through the field he crossed the line once again to win the race three wins in a row at this venue and still the only man to have won the Indian Grand Prix another year done and another world champion had been crowned for the fourth time fourth time in a Rowan fact Sebastian vle was champion of the world utter domination Almost Boring to those not overly infatuated with Red Bull merchandise and you couldn't help but think that we were witnessing one of the most iconic moments in all of Formula 1 history for more than one reason but number notes to all of us at the time Sebastian fettle would never win another world championship and Formula 1 would not return to India for 2014 but no Panic no Panic it was more of a gap year before returning to the calendar in 2015 however the people that were organizing the race JP Sports International was starting to get into some serious troubles as 2014 Drew on E ruled out a 2015 race and said it would instead take place in the early part of 2016 but as even more time Drew on it became clearer and clearer that this just wasn't going to happen that the Indian Grand Prix was gone so what the hell happened well there were a couple of reasons but the big one was the same thing that plagues all of us hardworking folk taxes ever since the first Grand Prix back in 2011 the Indian government felt that the team should be taxed on their earnings from the Grand Prix they reasoned that since they're racing on our Shores they should be paying paying us for the privilege there were reportedly some threats of a boycott and after some back and forth mudslinging the government eventually decided to foro any tax payments like at all so wow to go from we're going to tax the teams to I don't worry about any of you paying anything for this but even this caused more internal bickering which further mudded the waters and made future Grand Prix look even less likely than they really should have been in the leadup to the 2013 race JP had to attend a court hearing on a dispute over unpaid entertainment taxes from the previous year's race yeah you heard that right entertainment not sport the chief minister of the UT Pradesh government Akila shav said that Formula 1 was not a sport but entertainment that meant that everything was taxed and the custom spe for imported stuff would not be waved even the very tickets that the fans purchased had entertainment taxes attached to them something else that was bothersome was the pain in the ass that was securing visas several drivers expressed frustrations over the Labyrinth that was the Indian visa application and a lot of people in The Paddock were perilous ly close to not being able to make it into the country in time there was just no relenting here it was almost as if the whole system was actively working against this race happening this was beyond what anyone had anticipated because of the huge amount of taxes still to be paid the rupee plummeting faster than a DC 10 in the70s and the big hosting fees demanded from Formula 1 this race was torpedoed off the calendar and once the Supreme Court of India demanded that F1 pay nearly $50 million of taxes in 2015 it destroyed the Indian Grand Prix for good in fact other International race event scheduled for The Bu International circuit was suddenly unscheduled as everyone got cold feet at the thought of paying more than 15 rupees worth of tax JP eventually sold the track in a bit to clear the mounting Debs although they were still in charge of maintaining the track although they didn't do the best job of it considering it got a slight dead bumpy as the years went on and it seemed to fall into a bit of disrepair it was hardly used for anything but in terms of international racing action for the bo International circuit it would never see it ever again that was until Moto GP made its debut in the country in 2023 the track evidently looked a lot better than it did before but still Formula 1 is gone could it return maybe should it return absolutely why because this time it would be different back in the early 2010s f1's popularity in India wasn't all that great there wasn't a lot of care for it and it showed but now it is booming and much more popular than it was before and couple that with the general rise of popularity of Formula 1 around the world they shouldn't really have any troubles selling out a venue like this with Formula 1 always looking to push forward with their plans for world domination you would think they would stop at nothing to make the sport popular in a country with 1.4 billion people that was the mindset then it should be the mindset now difference is that now it could work even if one could argue Formula 1 has become more about entertainment since that time then again aren't all sports technically entertainment I mean where exactly do you draw the line or is that us F1 fans being so naive [Music] [Applause] [Music] big [Music] big

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 312,619

Keywords: f1, formula 1, f1 india, formula 1 india, india, indian grand prix, india grand prix, 2011 indian grand prix, 2012 indian grand prix, 2013 indian grand prix, buddh international circuit

Id: XxOaQzhGOf0

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 22 2023