While the Williams, Ferraris, Mclarens, Minardis, Jordons, Renaults etc are formulating pit stop strategies to race each other out in tomorrow's British Grand Prix, the F1 sport is vrooming ahead in India in its bid to earn itself the second most watched sport position. Cricket currently holds the pole position in India.

The F1 sport's speed and adrenalin rush has magnetised many Indians including 34 year old, Yohan Sethna, a restauranter in Mumbai's NCPA complex. He literally breaths Formula 1 during the F1 season. And growing passion is finding more and more friends sharing the same. Two years ago Sethna and two of his F1 addicted friends raced ahead to float India's first Formula One fan club called Chequered Flag. The club already has over 300 members to its credit. Indian racer Narain Kathikeyan is also pleasantly surprised at the growing fan populace for the F1 sport.

Some trivia about F1 should clear any doubts about why this sport can make other sports look a little tame. Two kms of running an F1 car will cost the same as running a new Maruti 800. Vroom. The F1 cars zoom to 180 kmph in seconds leaving behind the rush we normally get at 80 kmph. Vroom. It's about speed and continuous heart thumping action and the dizzying Gs that make this sport what it is; splendid. Vroom. Vromm. Vroom…

For people who want to hit the speed zone professionally, they should start with go-karting, move on to single-seater racing championships, graduate to Formula 3 and then move on to the Superfund World Series by Nissan or to F3 3000, and then the best 20 drivers make it to the F1 race.

The game is pretty simple; the season consists of 16-17 races. An F1 racer would cover 305 km in a race and it's all about the different flags used in the game, checkered flag signifies the end of the race. Red flag signifies that the race has been stopped. Yellow flag indicates danger on the track (slow down).Green flag indicates the end of danger, track is clear. Blue flag is displayed to a driver about to be lapped. White flag indicates that a slow-moving vehicle is on the track, also indicates one lap to go (at finish line). Slippery track flag signifies that the track is slippery. Mechanical problem flag is displayed to warn driver of mechanical problem with car, called in pits. Unsportsmanlike behavior flag displayed as a warning to driver for unsportsmanlike behavior on the track. Black flag displayed to instruct driver back to the pits for a penalty. Of course, the driver reaching the checkered flag first wins the race with points for the Championships.

Watch out for the British Grand Prix tomorrow (Sunday, July 19, 2003). Could Ralf Schumacher make it to a hatric victory for the Williams? The British Grand Prix for the Williams is home track, but then the only problem apart from brother, Ferrari driver, Michael Schumacher could be the moody English weather (Unpredictable as usual) which doesn't quite suit the tyres that Williams races on. One thing's for sure it's going to be one heaven of gripping race. So keep Vrooming.

For more visit: www.khel.com

Source: Outlook, June 30, 2003.

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