My fascination with Grand Prix/F1 Racing was right from the time when I gathered my senses as a teenager and used to read about them in awe and also dreamt of seeing those exotic and high flying race drivers in action if not the ultimate dream of driving an F1 car.
Plenty of times in the past had planned to witness my first race outside India. Closest venues were Malaysia and Singapore but, those plans never materialized and then finally in 2010, F1 came to India and it was a dream come true. However, a physical presence eluaded me for 2 straight years as something or other would come up at work that wrecked plans to enjoy the race LIVE.
This year, I decided to plan much ahead and thanks to push from another Team-BHP'ian ( Rajesh Rawal) who kept prodding me to book the tickets so we cannot back out of the plan at last minute.
We booked our tickets about a month and half in advance and this was going to be a team-bhp meet-cum-racing event. We picked up the Rs.5000/ticket "Star East Stand 3" ticket that gaves us a lovely vantage point of enjoying the thrill of F1 cars racing at 330kmph on straights, decelerate with that lovely gurgling sound when they downshift and take the right before accelarating fast to 300+ kmph speeds
Following was the team that witnessed this event together
1. Mobike008 + Wife + BIL
2. Rajesh Rawal + 3 friends who flew down from Mumbai
3. Himanshu Goswami (Delhitee)
4. Spadix (He bought the ticket a day in advance and enjoyed the race from Star East Stand 1)
It was very sweet of Spadix to offer us a ride, he picked us up from Dhuala Kuan in his Civic (Which incidentally is bought a day apart my White Annihilator) and we proceeded towards Greater Noida towards the Buddh International Circuit (BIC).
I was overwhelmed with the infrastructure and beautiful roads of UP (Thanks to Mayawati) and we were met enroute in HimanshuGoswami in his SX4 with rest of the folks
We reached the venue around noon and we could hear the roar of the engines on the main highway (those F1 engines are indeed loud and powerful). The next 5 hours were one of the best in my life with the roar of those engines and it so happened to our luck that it was a tight race for Vettel who came from behind the grid at 12th to win the race. I was warned before the race that the sound gets so loud that I may need ear-plugs to keep my eardrums from shatterring but, honestly speaking if you dont enjoy the roar of those engines, then its not worth going to the race.
It was a fantastic experience and according to me all of us should experience the true grit, unbeilevable speeds, screaming engines, potent driving atleast once in their lifetime. Time to share a few moments as view through my camera of the entire race. Have clicked well over 200 pictures but, sharing just a fraction of it due to repetitiveness.
Hope you enjoy this photolog and makes you all relive the moments that we all enjoyed in person
Spotted this BUSA on the way to BIC
Enroute BIC on the Greater Noida Expressway. Great Infra by UP Government
BIC parking area. Huge parking area to accomodate two times more than the actual crowd how came for the race
Chopper shooting from the top. That's how you get to see the top-down angle
Soaring flags at the venue
BIC Track
Racers Passing Parade. Great close-up view we had from our stands
