Indian Grand Prix - First Formula 1 Car race in India, Narain confirms his presence

Narain to drive at Indian GP
Two of the biggest pieces of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix fell into place Saturday. The tickets for the event officially went on sale and Narain Karthikeyan confirmed his participation for the Hispania Racing Team (HRT). "It was always a dream for me to race in Formula 1 and race in front of my home crowd," said Karthikeyan speaking to reporters at the press conference in Greater Noida. "And now thanks to the Jaypee Group that dream is going to be a reality.

India's second F1 driver Karun Chandhok, however, was non-committal about his participation in the Indian GP. "I've always maintained that racing in the German GP this year was a one-off," said Chandhok.

"The team (Lotus) seem to be pleased with my performance at the event so we will see what happens."

Sameer Gaur, MD of Jaypee Sports confirmed the availability of tickets through ticketing website bookmyshow.com and that the tickets would also be available through vending outlets by the early part of September.

                          

Complete details on Indian GP

The Indian Grand Prix (Hindi: भारतीय ग्राँ प्री) will be a Formula One race held at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The first event is scheduled to take place on October 30, 2011 as the 17th race of the 2011 Formula One season, The homologation of the new race track will take place on September 1, 2011

The race will be held at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, 50 km from Delhi. The circuit will be roughly 5.14 kilometres (3.19 miles) and will be designed by F1 circuit designer Hermann Tilke. The track will be spread in an area of 875 acres. The initial seating capacity is speculated to be around 150,000. However there are plans to increase the seating capacity to 200,000 later on. The sprawling circuit will be a part of Jaypee Green Sports city and will also be used for hosting one or more rounds of Moto GP championships in the year 2012. The 10-year contract for the race has been given to the Indian construction company Jaiprakash Associates.

The track in all has 16 largely medium speed corners where F1 cars will lap at an average speed of 210 km/h. The back straight will let F1 cars reach 320 km/h making it one of the fastest tracks in the world. The expected F1 car lap time is 1 minute 17 seconds. The organizers have also taken feedback from teams which have done the track analysis via simulators leading to modification of the turn 7 in order to maximize overtaking opportunities into banked turn 10. A grand stand with a capacity of 13,000 will overlook the turn 10 and turn 11 giving the F1 fans an opportunity to be a part of the action.

Says Samir Gaur, MD and CEO of JPSI Sports, a subsidiary of Jaiprakash Associates, "Land acquisition for the 5.5 km track is on and we are hopeful of completing the exercise by February. The designer and contractor for the job too, have been finalised and we are sure of getting the track ready by February 2011, in time for the championship." According to Ashok Khurana, executive vice-chairman of JPSI, the core area of the circuit would be spread over 4,000 hectares and building the infrastructure of the circuit would cost between Rs 12 billion and Rs 15 billion (US$309 million/£188 million/€216 million, at exchange rates of 21 August 2009).

The latest development (January 2010) with the circuit in India was the appointment of Mark Hughes, former number 2 at the Bahrain International Circuit for 5 years and also advisor to the Yas Marina Circuit for their first Grand Prix at the end of 2009. But on January 24, 2011, Hughes confirmed that he quit the Indian job due to 'personal reasons'. His post later went to Mr. Azhar Rehman, a former race organiser in Sepang, Malaysia

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