[lsp]

Some more pics

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by lsp

Some clicks from Saturday. Pardon the poor quality.

mayankk.. It seems you were also in Classic stand east near Gate 9.

yup.
I was classic east 2-7-b-p20.
Not a lot of high speed there,but I know for next year,if the race schedule holds as published,the place to be is the parabolic or the picnic stands.
Serious view on the parabolic and good speed and mobility in picnic stands.

[iFuel]

I was at the classic stand W1. Awesome high speed curve to witness as I was right above the right curve which was wide and offered the racers a high speed turn opportunity.
And bang on the other side I could see the turns 5, 6, 7, 8 where all the action was happening.
I am going to get the tickets to that stand for next year. It was an experience of a life time and I am hooked to the sport.

[Taronish_E]

Originally Posted by mayankk

He he!
maybe karthikeyan and his ride were expected to be whisked away on a magic carpet, and the public was going to use ascending rope tricks instead of stairs.
i am disappointed with BIC to not have implemented these daily conveniences.shame!!
Even my elephant disapproved for this departure from our culture!!


Anyhoo, some pictures!
one thing i have learnt.
you wanna watch the race, stay at home/the pub.
you want the violence, go trackside!!
I knew jack about who was 2nd, or 3rd, or how many laps remained.
But the intoxication of the roar, and speed...yowza!!

AMAZING photos there!! You're lucky!!!

As for Hamilton and Massa coming together,I'm quite sick and tired of them both. Neither deserves his place in F1 if they let grudges and rivalry do this. With the passing away of Simoncelli and Wheldon we've seen how these speed rockets could kill if mistreated and thats what one of them may end up doing.

[RGK]

Thanks Mayvu for this wonderful thread.
Yes it was a spectacular event ended on a high note (esp after the CWG blemishes).

Eventhough I am not a regular race watcher, always used to think "Do India have the capability and facility to organise these kind of rich sport events?". "Will this happen in our country".

All my skepticism was trashed and India hosted the inaugural GP in style. Feel proud.

My colleague went to Delhi and came back on the same day. He said, the return flight on Sunday had full of F1 fans from Chennai.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by mayankk

some short clips for consumption.
noise, and speed.
no knowledge here.
was glad for a good video phone.


1.mp4 - YouTube

for reference' sake, here's how one of the quicker sports cars, curently, takes the same corner.
PS:the engine and exhaust note is to DIE for.
but just look at the difference in attitude!

SLS AMG at BIC - YouTube

[bottle]

So there wasn't any restrictions to carrying cameras?

[sat]

So there wasn't any restrictions to carrying cameras?

I saw plenty of Dslr's with large zoom lenses (one of them was 100-400mm Canon)

[vagu]

Originally Posted by bottle

So there wasn't any restrictions to carrying cameras?

None. there was no restriction on DSLRs, people were bring all sort of professional camera.

[V-16]

What can i say? I was so impressed. Im proud once again to be an Indian and proud that an event of such magnitude was held for the first time in India and it was a super success.
All skeptics should have been silenced by now, whether we could or could not hold such a large event without a glitch. Well, we have. All those responsible, take a bow

I reached Delhi on a slightly nippy 27th night (the outside temperature is 22 degrees celsius.... Airplane announcement) In the aircraft itself,i could see a whole lot of enthusiasts who had arrived in Delhi for the same event. I was shocked at the lack of F1 related paraphernalia at the Airport. The airport should be shouting from every nook and corner that there was an F1 event happening in Delh in the next few days. Thats one thing the government need to learn....PR. Though there were remote reminders and random posters, one would have expected F1 screaming themes etc. Nothing of the sort. Well there always the next time.

Flight tickets were going at the price of gold for these days. I know a friend from Bombay for whom i arranged a Grand Stand ticket for a discount but he was unable to come, as the lowest one way fare quoted to him was in excess of Rs. 23,000/- ditto for the return on the 31st.

Reaching the first day(practice) was a breeze. The expressway was so well marked with signboards that one could not miss the Buddh circuit even if one tried. The parking facilities were very well placed and spaced. Ample parking, very well connected to other parking stands and very very well marked and charted out. From the parking, a road lead to another inner ring road around the circuit where only certain cars with certain colour coded passes were allowed. There was a bus shuttle service for people to get to other stands if needed.

As soon as we reached we entered through gate 12 to the Premium Stands, South, Block A. The roar of the formula one engines was on. The practice had just started and i cannot tell you the thrill of hearing your first live F1 engine sound, roaring at, well, almost full blast. At the Entry gate, very well organized system of security check was on with a hoard of guards. No shortage of man power here. We rushed to our block after climbing nearly two stories of steps to the elevated stands and on to our numbered seats which were very comfortable.

The practice was on and the sound of the engines revving freely past the 12-15k rpm mark was hair raising. I expected to smell a lot of gasoline fumes but caught whiff of none. The sound was really loud and many looked out for something to suppress the sound with available earplugs for a mere Rs. 15/-. Why would someone want to suppress the sound of sheer music? Does any fan wear earmuffs to a Mettalica Concert? Of course i bought a pair too but that was largely unutilized.

Before and post the race/practice/qualifying, the safety Mercs a SLS and a GL, powered by AMG were throbbing down the circuit, sweeping it. They looked really really slow therefore, one can imagine the speed at which the F1 cars were lapping the circuit. Soon after a few laps the JK cars came on for practice and the day was over in a jiffy. We checked the arrangements for food, drink and rest rooms which were ample and well thought of and spaced out.

I will not bore you with the race details as they have been put up accurately in earlier posts by many members. I will post pics and some of my observations along with. Kindly bear.


DAY ONE - Practice Laps:

Various Teams were zooming on the track at what we thought was not full flat out. We realized that we were right when we saw them do the same circuit with the same cars on the final day.

The view of the track




The various teams in their super machines.








The Force India Team




The Usual suspects....Team Bhp team





FLAWS: nothing major that cannot be rectified in the coming years.

I noticed a few flaws in the arrangements. One, that there was no stall selling beer in any other area except in the Grand stand and that all the merchandise vending stalls were congregated in and around the grand stand area.

It bought these thoughts to my mind; VIZ:

1) Do the organizers think that just by the virtue of a person being able to pay double the price for a ticket to a premium stand, he automatically also has the culture, capacity and finesse to consume and control his/her behavior after ingesting liquor? If not why were these vendors missing from other stands? Dont people who pay less for a ticket feel hot?

2) The same principle applies for the buying capacity of the stalls other than the Grand stand.

My suggestion, which should have been the natural way to go....have same stands especially food and drink vendors in each category. One cant categorize the nuisance factor monetarily. All of us have seen people of high social standing make utter fools of themselves after excessive intake of alcohol.

Also, expecting people to walk, over a kilometer and in some cases, even more, to visit the merchandise vending tents is ridiculous in that heat. There were shuttle buses meant for that but there was no boards, placards or people to direct someone who wanted to go that way. In fact the first day was so confusing that most persons whom we contacted did not even know where the merchandising shops were situated.

The major flaw i noticed was that once a person enters his block he cannot come out. Nowhere was it mentioned in the ticket that it is a single entry ticket. For example what about someone, who to avoid the rush wanted to slip out of his stand to buy the merchandise and lock it in his car and return to see the race. It was not possible. When we argued and explained some persons at the gate they agreed to let us out for one time only. I think these little irritants make the event. IM not even commenting about the quality of the food, it needs no mention. The soft drink cans were filthy and we had to constantly ask the vendors to clean them before giving them to us. The cans should have been cleaned before hand. No food or drink was allowed in the stands but we Indians have our own ingenious ways of doing the undoable so i saw many who had managed to take what was restricted inside, including, cigarettes, lighters and what not. So that speaks a lot about security commitment.

Safety Hazards:

This drain was open, right next to the stairway. As you can see the drain is full and it even has a few full grown frogs in it, meaning, either it has access to a canal or that the frogs have been breeding there. We pointed it out to someone who looked less confused and we are happy to note that the following day it was covered. Of course none of us dared to try step on it to see if it was just covered or actually repaired.







Merchandise Vending was a tad bit on the higher side. To pay in excess of Rs. 3500/- to 4000/- for a Ferrari Puma T which can be bought form the official puma store for as much as 1800/- was a bit much. Still, fans bought a lot of stuff but im sure they could have set their cash registers ringing, had they thought about pricing the materials realistically.


At the Merchandising Tents




While the Cops and security take a break from the strong sun




This mobile ATM makes sure no one goes home with an excuse for not buying something at least





There were a lot of options to choose from depending on your favourite team. T shirts , Mugs, Pens, Caps and earplugs which were being sold at Rs. 100/- and Rs. 200/- as opposed to Rs. 15/- if you bought them from, not the official merchandising shops. Weird!!









....to be continued........

[Mik]

My first attempt at posting pics on team-bhp
I was in the Natural Stand South.

The Great Indian hope -


The Great one


The soon to be great one


The Naughty one


The second Great Indian Hope


The slower ones were easiest to photograph



My shoddy attempt at capturing the action



The great indian fans

[sajands]

Originally Posted by V-16

Safety Hazards:

This drain was open, right next to the stairway. As you can see the drain is full and it even has a few full grown frogs in it, meaning, either it has access to a canal or that the frogs have been breeding there. We pointed it out to someone who looked less confused and we are happy to note that the following day it was covered. Of course none of us dared to try step on it to see if it was just covered or actually repaired.


Merchandise Vending was a tad bit on the higher side. To pay in excess of Rs. 3500/- to 4000/- for a Ferrari Puma T which can be bought form the official puma store for as much as 1800/- was a bit much. Still, fans bought a lot of stuff but im sure they could have set their cash registers ringing, had they thought about pricing the materials realistically.


This mobile ATM makes sure no one goes home with an excuse for not buying something at least

There were a lot of options to choose from depending on your favourite team. T shirts , Mugs, Pens, Caps and earplugs which were being sold at Rs. 100/- and Rs. 200/- as opposed to Rs. 15/- if you bought them from, not the official merchandising shops. Weird!!


....to be continued........

V-16, thanks for the in-depth review from a fan's point of view. I hope 2012 everything will be in place.

Looks like someone noticed you clicking pics of the drain and ensure that it was covered.

Nice to see a mobile ATM there. Are they no ATM machines inside the circuit??

Merchandise is expensive indeed. strange that there are no official stores like puma selling. Hardly any crowd at these stalls by looking at the pic or maybe it was practice day.

Waiting for the part 2 of the report.

-Sajan

[iceman7]

Originally Posted by mayankk

yup.
I was classic east 2-7-b-p20.
Not a lot of high speed there,but I know for next year,if the race schedule holds as published,the place to be is the parabolic or the picnic stands.
Serious view on the parabolic and good speed and mobility in picnic stands.

I was in Classic East - Block B too. This stand had a nice sweeping view of vast part of the circuit. I had spent too much time while buying tickets to choose these seats

Pictures from raceday coming up soon!!

[V-16]

Thanks for the lovely pics Mik. The one with Titus driving the legend is awesome and so so clear. Id love to know what camera and lens u used to get such clear and close pics.

I though id give our visit to Delhi another perspective keeping in mind the reason was to see the F1. Everyone who has been there will have great stories to tell about the race, albeit all will be similar, so i choose to give another perspective of my visit.

So here goes part two of my Day-1.

Not far from the merchandise selling tents, we heard some music and could see a somewhat large crowd gathered around what appeared to be a stage. We walked towards the stage to see some performance was going on.

We decided to give it a skip as didnt want to see some group dancing to some melody but a glimpse of it forced us to stay and watch on.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Bir Khalsa Group - Bir Khasla Group" not knowing what or who they were, we stayed back. This was the group performing, "The Bir Khalsa Group" a group of young Sikhs doing some acrobatics and stuff on stage with music.

Members of the Bir Khalsa group




Their performance




Just watch how one of the group, smashes a set of tube lights onto another member's face






As if hes not had enough, the guys actually starts to break the sharp and serrated tubes with his teeth




While another member performs a stunt from standing up to lying down to rotating and again standing up and at all times keeping the "thing" rotating.








Another crazy stunt.....yes those are sharp nails and that is a sledgehammer being used to smash the ice block







While these dare devils went on to with their performance, our growling stomachs were begging us to get something to eat. As the venue eatables were not something one can easily ingest, we headed back to Delhi to Pahar Ganj area for a taste of special Channa And Bhatura



The famous Channa Bhatura shop at Pahar Ganj





The Bhaturas contain a mild stuffing of Paneer and is served with dry Channa, a semi dry preparation of potatoes or Alu masala and is accompanied by green chilles tossed in a masala, freshly sliced onions and Awla/Amla or Indian goose berry. I remember eating awla from school, small grape sized hard and crisp morsels mixed with coarse salt and red chilly powder. Extremely tart but very very beneficial health wise. The Awla served here is first boiled in spices and salt which takes the tart flavour away and leaves a pulpy, healthy mild tasting dollop of goodness.

[V-16]

After here we headed to Nirula's in Delhi for their famous Hot Chocolate Fudge, the best i have eaten anywhere but we spotted the famous Dhaba opposite and as time was short and we had kept space for a hot chocolate fudge, a few of us decided we could utilize some of this space for a bite of non veg food at Kake Da Hotel




or Bhape da Hotel. There was a huge line at KDH so we decided to eat at BDH.




The Accompaniment




Rogan Josh




Butter Chicken



all eaten with crisp tandoori roti straight out from the tandoor.

The Kitchen at the entrance. Clean and tidy.




Followed by a customary Hot Chocolate Fudge at Nirulas




and then there was nothing else to do but go directly to the bed and fall in deep slumber.


Day two soon..........