F1
Circuit Guide: Buddh International Circuit
We take you on a tour of the Buddh International Circuit, home of the Indian Grand Prix.
Written by Justin Hynes
4 min readPublished on
2011 Indian Grand Prix
2011 Indian Grand Prix© Lorenzo Bellanca/LAT Photographic
Circuit Guide: Buddh International Circuit
Location: Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Known for: F1
Type: Permanent Circuit

The Form

Circuits designed by Hermann Tilke have come in for a bit of stick over the years but his last few projects have produced really excellent tracks – and there’s no finer example than Buddh. It swoops, it swirls, it compresses it releases. Even that incredibly long straight is made more interesting by clever elevation changes. The big ticket items though are the blind corners, the Spoon-like Turns 10 and 11 which make up a corner that goes on for ever and the sequence of quick changes of direction all the way through from Turns Five to 15 that will have engineers cranking the suspension down to the very stiff end of the spectrum. There’s also the enormously wide entrances to Turns Three and Four which provide multiple lines – and therefore some interesting decisions to make when attacking and defending;
Basically, the drivers that get a kick out of Silverstone, Spa and Suzuka all love Buddh.
With precisely one event to fall back on, there’s precious little historical data to impart about racing in India The prevailing strategy at last year’s Indian Grand Prix was a two-stop race, with the leading drivers all going for a soft – soft – hard strategy. Pirelli have the same compounds in 2012 but with the tyres generally a bit softer this year, in reality that translates as a more aggressive choice.
That may lead to some very extreme tyre behaviour, as Buddh isn’t particularly gentle with the rubber with the quick corners putting in lots of lateral energy. Another factor to consider is that the surface will have evolved since last year. New asphalt has a tendency to release oils which cover the surface with a slippery patina: now properly bedded in, that will have washed away, making the greywacke surface more abrasive. Under other circumstances that might call for a three-stop strategy – but Buddh has a very long pitlane which puts a heavy price on making an extra stop – more likely will be less sympathetic drivers finishing their stints with very little performance left in their tyres.
Indian GP
Indian GP© Clive Mason;

The Location

Chaos, confusion and mass outbreaks of diarrhoea: just three things that didn’t happen at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix last year – but from the paranoia pre-race they certainly seemed imminent. India has a problematic reputation, grown around the weird and wonderful tales told by touring sports teams over the years and backstopped by horror stories recounted by tourists.
F1 didn’t particularly experience that side of the country. For one it avoided the ever-present possibility of illness by shipping its own food and preparing it for the crews to eat at the circuit – which is standard practice at most places. (Ironically the last time F1 had a mass outbreak of food-poisoning was in Monaco). Another reason is that Buddh is far-removed from the bustle of the big city, down a long and deserted highway to the south of Greater Noida. There’s still the odd car that will flash past going the wrong way in the fast lane of that particular motorway, but otherwise it’s one of the easier venues to work at.
The circuit itself had plenty of problems, from random power cuts to blocked drains but every new racing circuit has teething problems like that – though the bat infestation in the offices was unusual.
For tourists the Indian Grand Prix might be a bit more of a stretch than the luxuries of Abu Dhabi or the cut-price tropical location of Kuala Lumpur but there’s no shortage of good hotels and things to gawk at – the real problem is that the race track isn’t particularly near any of those, so there isn’t the sense being part of the action like there is at city races like Singapore or Montreal – so maybe not the location for a grand prix holiday.
Maldonado at the 2011 Indian Grand Prix
Maldonado at the 2011 Indian Grand Prix© Andrew Ferraro/LAT Photographic

Other series

Like many tracks designed as part of a newly-minted F1 contract, Buddh hasn’t developed much of a profile with other series – but given its modernity most likely it will develop the full package of international events over time. World Superbikes are due to visit in 2013 and there has been much speculation (and a fair amount of confusion) regarding MotoGP and international GT racing. Buddh is also supposed to be a base for home-grown series to flourish, but very little has been forthcoming in that regard.

Did you know

Buddh bucks a recent trend by running in a clockwise direction. Historically, racing circuits tend to be clockwise but recent permanent circuits developed specifically for F1 are not. Istanbul Park (2005) Yas Marina (2009), the Korea International Circuit (2010) and the Circuit of the Americas (2012) are all ran in the anti-clockwise direction.
Indian GP
Indian GP© Clive Mason;
 
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