Vineet Sharma
A fast paced, adrenaline pumping and heartbeat jumping year of 2008 has in store for us, the racing enthusiasts, a lot to match our pulses. The season revs off at the Albert Park in Melbourne, a parkland circuit, it’s an adrenaline junkie’s delight despite the fact that it is a temporary circuit. Last year’s winner Kimi Raikkonen will surely try to assert his supremacy on the Oz racetrack that covers a distance of a whooping 307.574km.
There will be 58 nail biting, G force crunching laps that will also set the tone for the future of this circuit as it has been in news of late into being turned as a night race track due to pressures from Bernie Ecclestone.
The pre season testing at Jerez is over and the race demons have surely churned up enough paces to leave the average racing enthusiast yearning for more.
Last year saw the F1 fraternity feel the tremors of bad accidents, spy sagas and bitter rivalries, on the race track and within the team too. The world saw a glimpse of the possible first rookie champion in Lewis Hamilton and also witnessed the heartbreak when the clinical Ferrari team notched up one of the most unthought-of victories in the final.
This year will be a killer of a season with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and other top notch drivers racing for the apex spot at the podium. The added spice to the curry is the fact that there will be no computerized traction control on the F1 cars making them even tougher to work them round the corners. This will definitely put a lot more impetus on the driver’s skills and his conjugation with the car.
The year marks the beginning of the Indian foray into the F1 circuit with Vijay Mallya owned Force India making its debut on the tarmac. With high hopes and a billion prayers to back, the Indian challenge to the world of speed and thrills will be surely a treat par excellence to grasp in our vision.
All in all, the new season indeed gives me the Goosebumps and I’m sure that it will leave all you fellow race-heads mesmerized and spell bound. I know that like me, you too feel the need…the need for speed.
