2011 Indian GP

India is set to host its first F1 Grand Prix in 2011 – and here’s the first glimpse of the track where the race will take place.

The circuit in the Jaypee Greens Sports City bears the usual hallmarks of a Hermann Tilke-designed track. But from this first impression it seems to have some of the open, flowing corners that many modern tracks often lack.

It looks like a circuit in two halves, with several slow corners before and after the main start/finish straight. These are surely intended to increase opportunities for overtaking, something F1 car designers have been demanding recently.

But the other half of the track includes several longer-radius corners and some quick-looking bends. It’s impossible to get any sense of gradient from this flat map, however.

It is an unusually short track – slightly under 5km (3.1 miles). That would make it shorter than any track on this year’s calendar bar the Circuit de Catalunya, Hungaroring, Interlagos and Monte-Carlo.

The circuit is being built by JP Associates which is part of a large industrial conglomerate called the Jaypee Group. The circuit is being built alongside the Yamuna Expressway, a new road being built to connect India’s capital New Delhi with the country’s biggest tourist destination, the Taj Mahal, in the city of Agra.

The road to the Indian Grand Prix has not been completely smooth. The race was originally slated for the 2010 F1 calendar but Bernie Ecclestone confirmed it had been moved back to 2011.

In August this year the government’s sports minister Manohar Singh Gill refused to support race promoter JPSK’s request for money to hold the race, claiming F1 is not a sport. Ecclestone dismissed the minister’s comments saying: “That’s his view. The rest of the world thinks it is a sport.”

What do you think of the 2011 Indian Grand Prix track?

F1 engine 2009 performance analysis

Throughout 2009 season one kept hearing stories how good Mercedes engine were as compared to the rest.All 3 Mercedes powered cars showed excellent straight line speed. The most interesting race to me was the Belgium GP where Force India powered by Mercedes engine gave the Ferraris their run for their money and showed very good straight line speed. Even KERS, Fisichella matched the pace of Kimi for his chase to podium finish.On the other hand, Renault who lacked the performance , were allowed to improve their engines on a special request during the start of the season.

Most teams reached the conclusion, based on acoustic analysis and GPS that the spread of engine power from the best to the worst was less than 2.5% which means if Mercedes is belived to have 80hp, the least powerful engine was 18hp down which is worth just around 3/10ths of a second per lap.

The BMW and the Mercedes topped the performance chart with Ferrari just behind followed by Renault and Toyota. On this basis given how close lap times were between teams this year, the Toyotas and the Williams chassis must have been pretty good to loosing 3/ths of a per lap through engine performance alone. Both teams did have double diffuser at the start of the season.

Responding to the rumours in the paddock about the Mercedes engine, the FIA took a Mercedes engine apart and tested it after Monza GP giving it a clean bill of health.

The Renault, though it lacked power, won out this year on fuel efficiency which will be much more important for 2010 season with no re-fuelling. Compared to the Mercedes, the Renault would go 4 laps longer on a full tank of fuel which will be worth 3/10ths of a second per lap next year. As we saw on several occasions, the Ferrari was less fuel efficient as compared to Mercedes this year.

For 2010 season, Cosworth who will make a comeback to F1 after 4 seasons, believed to be quoting a figure of 770hp which is up on Mercedes but fuel efficiency is still and issue and the unit is well short of reliability testing of its peers.
Mercedes was given clearance by the FIA to supply a fourth team next year, but is not able to do so, due to the terms of its agreement with McLaren. Mercedes now owns the Brawn team, while McLaren has a technology partnership with Force India. So it is not in McLaren’s interests to add another competitor.

Red Bull is in limbo at the moment, waiting to see whether Renault, on whose engine its 2010 car is designed, will continue in F1. A decision is expected at the end of the year.