Men and Formula 1

“For eight months in a year you watch men drive cars, change tyres, fill petrol and go around in circles some 50 or 60 times at around 300 kmph and what is so interesting about it?” my wife has asked me this question for last six years that we have been married and till date I have not had a convincing answer. Only thing I end up saying is it’s a guy thing and my four year old son who cannot understand why car racing (as per him) cannot happen all year round just validates the same.

Men (most of them) love fast cars, hot women, alcohol and not necessarily in that order. I cannot explain my love for formula one. It’s not that, I have grown up watching it like cricket or to some extent football and tennis. While across the world F1 is a second most watched sport after football in India it’s only a decade old but a lot of us claim to understand it and love it. It requires an innate ability to stare at the screen continuously for 2 hours that the race is on while enjoying and having fun. Like any other sport it has the ability to turn men into bunch of boisterous boys who shout and rant over beer at every pit stop furiously counting seconds and cursing if anything goes wrong.

That brings me to the question often asked “is it a sport?” Disbelievers strongly feel putting in millions of dollars to build cars that last anywhere from half a race to a full race or paying obscene money to drivers half of whom never ever in their career finish a race let alone reach the podium is absolutely rubbish to be called a sport. These disbelievers strongly feel formula one is a circus meant to entertain a select few who have more money than they can count. Ask the billions who watch it. They all cannot be as foolish for we know they all are not as rich and yet swear by the game.

Those days of wild times, women and caviar are over. For the last eight years that I have been following the game there has been a new kind of seriousness and intent. Today the new drivers spend all their time with team mechanics, trainers, and managers giving it their all. Everyone is hooked to a computer devising strategy which changes with an occurrence of a cloud or just a few rain drops. Drivers look grim and testy as if smiling more than needed will be a jinx. Team managers and consultants who mainly are ex drivers circulate in the pit while making mental calculations as they smile meeting few important people set up by the PR machinery for glamour and riches. Only people having fun before the race in the pits are pit girls, their aim to be caught on camera as the driver’s line up.

Fun I feel is left to people who watch, enjoy and go home feeling happy or sad but definitely knowing they had a good time most of the times. For people like me its fun to be watching the tension, trying to understand the last minute change in tyres and trying to guess the strategy of one pit stop or two before and during the race. There are two kinds of people, one who go to the race once or twice and then prefer to watch it on TV and other who watch it on TV but always desire to watch the race live. In today’s world technology has ensured you get the best view on camera but my friends who have been to a race say there is nothing more exciting than to hear a sound of a formula one engine racing and a sight of a Ferrari or a BMW zipping past. Watching a race is like being a part of a fraternity with thousands cheering and waving flags. They also agree while one gets to feel the excitement and pump up the adrenalin, you do miss out on replays of crashes or overtaking. I feel it’s important to experience both and hence will ensure I watch a race with my first born at least once in a few years on the circuit.

As I write this 2009 season is about to begin. Almost everyone is preparing to understand the new rules, new circuits and drivers of the teams they support. Lewis Hamilton comes back to the circuit as world champion and riding on his success McLaren come back as strong team. Hamilton must be feeling the heat as he starts his season to defend the title from both the Ferrari drivers. Massa missed by a turn in 2008 and is raring to prove himself. Kimi needs to show the world that last year was a blip and he has it in him to be the world champion. Fernando Alonso finally seems to have a car that is looking good and will be wanting to take it from where he left last season and give it a shot this year. BMW surprised everyone as a team last year and we must not count them out. Talking of teams a lot of us are looking to see if Force India with its Mclaren engine can make themselves count this year. They may not win the match but to be among points will be a reason good enough for a lot of us to down a few more beers.

My money as always in on Ferrari, a team I have supported ever since I began watching formula one because first due to Michael Schumacher and then for the love of their cars and the passion that hey wear on their sleeves. But I do think Hamilton is the prince, yes prince and not the king still even though he won last year because kings win a battle convincingly and in style. I like to see Hamilton win and with the changes in formula one maybe its time for the loyalties too that we have had for long. Hamilton and Ferrai, what a heady cocktail that will make if it happens some day. Till then its time for a group of men to get excited about how long is it taking to change the tyre, how much petrol went into the car, who got the pole? And then have a few beers more. If that is not fun then it sure comes quite close.

Sunday’s will never be same again for next eight months. May the best man win, and the best team win, I am happy as long its Ferrari.