On The Podium

Mid season drama, or termed 'Silly season' in Formula One starts around the month of August and goes on pretty much until every move/decision has been leaked or confirmed by the drivers or personnel. This year however was very volatile. One one hand we had Fernando Alonso, dubbed as "the best driver in Formula One" by pretty much everybody. This Spaniard was tired of Ferrari's promises and looking for an exit somehow. And on the other we had the (back then) reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, who had achieved all that he could in his time with Red Bull and every year ends up hearing the same news of him 'moving to Ferrari'. The chain of "who goes where" began with Vettel's sudden announcement during the 1st Practice session in Japan. However, until Austin, his whereabouts up and down the paddock was unconfirmed. So, who is where now? 1. Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg  Lewis Hamilton - Immensely motivated for next ...

Looking ahead to 2015 with (more than) a glance back at 2014!  2014 has been a very ho hum year for me. Too much work and absolutely no time to blog! However, I have come up with an innovative way of getting across the events of every race to you guys, which is another reason to look forward to 2015. But since I left off from the mid of 2014, let’s forget that season entirely*. Mercedes won the constructor’s, Lewis won the driver’s championship and of course, the entire F1 fraternity and fan base even today prays for Jules Bianchi’s fast recovery.  Being very candid here, 2014 F1 Championship was very interesting but also humongously boring! I know, after 4 years of Sebastian Vettel dominance, who wouldn’t have liked Lewis taking the title? But for some odd reason, I found 2013 to be more enjoyable (let’s completely forget first place even existed..) And to back me up here are the 2014 season TV ratings which have pretty much been on a constant decline since 2...

[ PS: This interview was conducted ages back. But something better than nothing after a 2 month hiatus, right? ] “ Who is the next Formula One driver from India ?” is a question people ask me very frequently.  The next formula one driver from India is this guy who has won the Super 6 Championship, who’s driven a Formula BMW race and has won plenty of kart races and a JK Tyre National Karting Championship, Rotax Karting Championship and also holds the title of “One in a Billion” - a karting championship conducted by Sahara Force India F1 team. And with over 80 podiums and 20 career wins (and still counting), I am not the only one who believes Arjun Maini will be the prodigy from India who will secure a drive in Formula One in the coming years.  Already having participated in the BRDC F4 championship 2014 with Lanan Racing, Arjun has earned the title of vice-champion with 480 points, only 3 points behind 2014 F4 Champion George Russell. He is truly the RACER ...

Suzuka hosted Formula One's most dangerous race of recent times. It was only fair to call it an act of sheer will and lot of stupidity to host a grand prix during a typhoon. However exciting, the grand prix only had to end abruptly with a life threatening crash of Jules Bianchi.  Below is the most recent announcement from the FiA regarding his crash:  Given any day, any time and any option, I would choose motorsports to be the ultimate sport. Though its widely assumed that its machine more than the man himself, but I beg to differ. Motorsports is risky, no matter which age we're in and how sophisticated all our advancements are.  Formula One is the ultimate test of the capability of a sportsman/sportswoman, it is one of the many categories of motorsport where the most passionate and committed athletes in the world decide to see what they're made up of. Footballers, cricketers, basketballers may be brilliant in their own way, but racers belo...

So why the IB?  My ultimate goal is to be in Formula one. And my IB diploma will speak greater when I apply to universities to ultimately be in formula one. Its not just the “study study study” regime, it’s more of the “study, research, know and not learn” regime. As IB say it themselves, it’s a “holistic development” that a student undergoes, being in this programme. It’s a challenge, it’s a grind and it’s a huge jump for me, but Im here to push the limits.  Even though I’m in this new school and its an exciting atmosphere, it feels almost being back to square one where no one knows heads or tails about Formula One (I found that offensive) And so I set out on a “venture” spending countless hours explaining what racing and F1 are. Yes, it was a venture. Because the questions thrown at me were.. interesting and put a roadblock to my thinking.  “Wait.. go karting is F1 right?”  “Aren’t they like fitted with jet engines? Why don't they fly because of...

First of all, I apologize from the bottom of my heart for leaving this blog idle. Secondly, I have a darn good reason for it! *drum roll*  I am officially an IB student.  As an IB student, I wouldn’t like to, but have to say, that life is very hard. For those who don’t know what those two random letters put together are, IB stands for the "International Baccalaureate". It’s a system of education (you can call it that) and it is a highly rigorous 2 year diploma programme. And if you want me to rate it on a scale of 10, I’d rate it 11 (No sarcasm, I promise)  So what if I’m an IB student? I could have posted something about the spicy Hamilton-Rosberg controversy or.. about how all of Australia is in smiles because of Ricciardo or how could I forget! or  about how brilliant Valtteri Bottas can get, right? Wrong.  I quote the internet here- “IB students do not have a life”. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this:   Or this..  ...

I just found the best way of posting qualifying results! Thanks live timing.