New Delhi: Five points, five races to go! The 2010 Formula One season is still too close to call with Championship leader Mark Webber of Red Bull leading the pack with 187 points and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on 182, following him every inch of the way .
There is enough happening on the tracks but the action has already started heating up off it as well.
Great news for F1 fans in India, October 30, 2011 is the date that has been set for the Indian Grand Prix which will take place near the capital city, New Delhi.
Great news for F1 fans across the globe, 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen has apparently approached Renault for the next season after trying his hand at the World Rally Championships this year.
What else can one ask for, looking ahead to the next season considering that the current one has already had its share of thrills and frills.
Apart from Webber and Hamilton, defending champion Jenson Button who is Hamilton’s McLaren teammate and double world champion Fernando Alonso driving for Ferrari are also genuine title contenders for the remainder of the season.
Enter Raikkonen and it could not get any better for racing enthusiasts.
The Finn also known as the ‘Iceman’ for his serene temperament had all the credentials to take over from Michael Schumacher as the king of F1 racing.
After making his debut for Sauber Petronas in 2001, he was soon snapped up by McLaren Mercedes for whom he had five eventful years from 2002-06.
There was nothing that the man lacked. Breathtaking speed, great starts, audacious overtaking and superb car control in wet weather conditions. To top it all his amazing stoic approach after winning races was almost unreal.
He was unlucky not to win the driver’s championship for McLaren for whom he finished runner up in 2003 and 2005.
But Raikkonen was not to be denied and his time came in his very first season for the Scuderia Ferrari as he pipped Hamilton by a single point to win the championship.
In fact, the Finnish F1 driver also put a dampener on Force India’s (owned by Indian industrialist Vijay Mallya) hopes of winning their maiden race when he overtook Giancarlo Fisichela in the last few laps at Spa-Francorchamps to win his fourth Belgian Grand Prix.
But Mallya's team has been improving with every race. The Italian-German combination of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil has taken their team to 58 points this year and they are placed sixth in the Constructor's Championship. Last year they finished ninth with 13 points largely due to the race in Belgium which gave them eight points and a second place on the podium.
Karun Chandhok’s presence in the HRT-Cosworththe team means that another Indian driver is behind the wheels of an F1 car for the first time since Narain Karthekeyan in 2005.
All in all there is plenty to look forward to for speed buffs this year and the following one as well.
The Indian Grand Prix, an Indian driver and Raikkonen's possible comeback will make for a real cracker of a 2011 season.
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