Thursday 19 June 2014

Goosebumps under the scorching sun

The first thing to notice about any Formula One circuit is its size. The 10 sq. km Jaypee Sports City was no exception. Everything about the experience is grand. On the 8 lane highway (that looked more like a runway) there was nothing to look at except the endless road ahead and expensive cars around. But when you finally arrive (still more than a kilometer away from the circuit) can you take in the grandeur of it all. It’s like this high tech town in the middle of nowhere. At a distance I could see the entrance for my seat when I heard a loud shrill sound. This loud and shrill sound that pierced my ears and came out of all the hairs on my body making them stand on end. It was the revving of a F1 car- by far my favourite sound. At that moment did I begin to realize what I’ve come for. I ran. I was entering this grand and sophisticated spectator’s arena but I didn’t have the time to appreciate it. The practice run had begun and I was missing out. I was like a big being tempted and teased. All I wanted was to go through to the stands and see what I was hearing since a few minutes now.
As I crossed the final gate I was dumbstruck by what I saw. The feeling can't be described. My seat was overlooking a 1800 corner and beginning of the longest straight. Perfect. A car comes speeding up to the corner and then it slows down As I took my I saw everyone wearing some special ear buds- the one I didn’t take. Big mistake! The sound was deafening by now. Nevertheless, missing another few minutes to go back and get the ear-buds seemed too much. Cars kept on zipping past me. Vettel (as always) was dominating most of the lap times. Only after the Practise round was over did I look around to take in the entire spectacle that was around me- an approximate length of 5.14 km spread over an area of 874 acres with a seating capacity of over 1 lakh. And I had thought the Eden Gardens was huge!
I could tell you that a F1 car can accelerate to 160 kmph and to zero in less than four seconds, it has enough downforce that is can be driven upside at just 130 kmph, that the exhaust pipe is red hot when the engine is idling and translucent at maximum rev, or that a driver hits the brake pedal with over 100 kgf of force and the brake discs heat up to around 1,200C (typically the temperature of molten lava) that companies spend ~$300,000,000 every year to design and manufacture an F1 car, or that teams communicate with their driver, ground crew and head office thousands of kilometres away in real time to decide race strategies on the fly, but I would still be understating. Nothing can express the feeling of seeing everything from a few meters away. The is sound of the engine is so exhilarating its almost arousing. Even though its potentially deafening it’s the best sound I have ever heard.
The body is injected with all kinds of hormones. The mind is in such a trance that it is physically visible. Its like a shot of heroin in more ways than one- and not particularly healthy. The combination of all these sensations and hormones gives you goosebumps even while sitting under the overhead sun. Every time a driver exits the corner the engine roars causing all the hair on your body to become even more vertical than the last time the car passes (don’t ask me how but it happens). It happens over and over again. After a few minutes you start feeling the discomfort. You believe you will get used to it In some time only to realize that an hour has passed! By now you are literally sweating and feeling cold at the same time. Probably because of the goosebumps and the adrenaline.
This is like a panic situation. Suddenly you feel thirsty and you want a change of scenery so you look around to see the fellow spectators. It’s a shame you didn’t see them before. Breathtakingly beautiful- almost as good as the cars they came in. Your mind imagines that magically you are talking to one of them. Its not wrong to have such innocent fantasies. Smiling, a couple of minutes have passed and your heart comes back into your chest. You have some water and see cars coming out of their pit lanes on the giant screen in front of you. But as per the race clock only a minute has passed. Time really is relative! Your mind goes from seat you are sitting on to the seat of the driver. You hear three kinks in the melodious voice of the engine as the car slowly approaches the corner. You imagine squeezing the brake pedal with ~150 kgf of force and simultaneously folding your left hand’s fingers to shift down from fourth to first. You amaze at the driver who corners at such high speed that he experiences upto 4Gs. You accept that you would’ve passed out without the years of experience and amount of physical exercise like the driver does. By now the corner is over and you are in the driver seat. You have to press the pedal hard enough to shoot out of the corner but not harder so as not to cause wheelspin. You flip the right hand pedal being the steering wheel at the microsecond the tachometer turns from yellow to green so that it does not run into red. Still, accelerating is only the easiest part of the lap.
I am sitting in my seat while my mind talks to me. The experience is so unreal, so heavenly. The race is over and I suddenly feel chilly. All the sweating has drenched my shirt and now as my hairs go back to their normal relaxed state I’m feeling more and more shivery. I feel like I was at the gym for 2 hours rather than sitting down at a seat. Sebastian Vettel won, as was expected, but Alonso overtook Hamilton and the other redbull and Vodafone cars to a respectable second position, wedging a place for the red colour of Ferrari in between the two Red Bull drivers on the podium. Force India gained a few positions and finished eighth. Our very own Narain Karthikeyan finished 3rd from last since three cars were forced to retire.
Things draw to a close and the most awesome experience is over but the memory lives on. Writing this article 3 months later, I can recall every detail of everything I saw and felt during those 2 days. I’m already nostalgic about it and planning in my mind how to come again next year- hopefully I will get selected for marshalling so that I’m even close to the racetrack, or somehow get tickets for the main grandstand, or …