Journalism of Courage
Mercedes have won both Formula One titles already, and Red Bull are sure of second place, but Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be a last roll of the dice for some of those behind them. With an unprecedented double points on offer, ‘Abu Double’ has the power to bring joy and despair in equal measure and not just for Mercedes rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
For tail-enders Caterham, in administration and facing closure unless they can find a buyer, the day-to-night race at Yas Marina could literally be a last blast before darkness engulfs their hopes. They are hoping, even if any sort of points looks out of reach, to show they are a team that deserves being saved from the scrapheap after the failure last month of rivals Marussia. Neither team raced in the last two Grands Prix, with Caterham returning only after a crowd-funding exercise to raise sufficient funds to get them back on the starting grid.
“It’s going to be extremely tough,” said principal Monisha Kaltenborn after Mexican Esteban Gutierrez and Germany’s Adrian Sutil, both without seats for next season, drew yet another blank in Brazil. Ahead of them, Lotus would need their best result of the season to overhaul Toro Rosso for eighth place while Force India would require something pretty spectacular to make up 34 points and get back in front of fifth placed McLaren.
Williams are looking good for third place, their highest overall placing since 2003, but Ferrari still have a chance of overtaking them if they can repeat their Hungary haul of 26 regular points.
No threat to F1: Chandhok
Bangalore: Indian racer Karun Chandok on Monday laughed at the idea of Formula E’s green credentials threatening the existence of Formula One, considered the pinnacle of motor racing.
“Formula E is a different sports arena. They are not competing with F1, GP2 or F3 or anything else. They want to establish as the parallel and vertical sport,” he said.
The former Caterham F1 driver, who races for the India’s Mahindra Formula E team, said Formula E cannot be compared with any other series.The objective of Formula E is to transfer technology from being a racing car technology to road-car technology, Chandok said. “It is a double whammy. They are focusing on marketing and engineering point of view. They want to transfer technology from the racing track to the road,” he said.
Chandok said Formula E is a huge mental challenge unlike Formula One where speed and physical are major challenges. “Formula E is a huge mental challenge. I think the speed and physical needs is high in other categories including F1, but Formula E is mentally pretty exhausting,” he said.
