You hear phrases like main straight and overtake, wins and podiums, fastest laps and Michael Schumacher, media briefings and Kimi Raikkonen and other relatable phrases in the same sentence.?
Don¡¯t you?
That said, Lewis Hamilton and India aren¡¯t really relatable phrases you end up hearing in the same sentence. Do you?
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Well, this changed drastically recently. Given some remarks from Hamilton on India, as deemed controversial by the better part of the F1 fraternity, this too was made possible.?
Right now, you could be anyone and anywhere. All you need is a running Internet connection to understand what¡¯s really happened.
Just Google Lewis Hamilton and India to witness the sheer number of web searches it will direct you to in order to find out just what happened.
Fair to say, Hamilton, who¡¯s engineering some sparkling feats, culminating into five world titles may not have been too pleased to engineer this bit.
Hamilton put forward a simple view and stuck by it. Here¡¯s what he said.
"I've been to India before to a race which was strange because India was such a poor place yet we had this massive, beautiful Grand Prix track made in the middle of nowhere. I felt very conflicted when I went to that Grand prix."
Later, upon drawing the wrath of those who felt uncomfortable in lines with Hamilton¡¯s remark, obviously, most noticeably fans from India, the driver offered some explanation, perceptibly in a bit to assuage those who were ¡®hurt.¡¯
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It¡¯s easy to be triggered by remarks such as poor. It¡¯s almost like being taunted for being the holder of a burn-mark on the body. You don¡¯t want to hear it. You don¡¯t want to be told about it.
Except, what wasn¡¯t debated a fair deal in this case was whether Hamilton¡¯s comment about a ¡®poor country¡¯ stemmed from ignorance.?
F1, it must be reminded, isn¡¯t just a property of the drivers and the teams or the organizers alone.
It belongs to crucial stakeholders.? So, who are they?
The fans are about as possessive about it as the drivers are about their cars. Countless media publications earn their livelihood by explaining the world every possible tiny detail of a Grand Prix and its heroes involved.?
It¡¯s a sport that refuses to be dulled by the clich¨¦s thrown around in precious respect.
Verstappen, not even half a decade old in the sport commands a loyal fan army. You can only imagine what might have happened to them when Ocon did the unthinkable at Brazil?
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Raikkonen¡¯s fans, indifferent that they may be to politicized F1 debates, must have been inebriated fully on the night of Kimi¡¯s US GP triumph.
But let¡¯s do a simple exercise.?
This will reveal the intensity of Lewis Hamilton¡¯s ¡°India¡± connect, a country he last visited as part of a major Grand Prix event 5 years ago.
It¡¯s the 2013 Indian Grand Prix.?
This was to be, yet another race, where Red Bull¡¯s Sebastian Vettel broke through the barricades on the grid, so to speak, and clinched his second win in India, in as many years.
At the conclusion of the 2013 season, Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion by then, smashed the likes of Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Raikkonen, beating the big names by a margin as huge as 155, 198, 208, and 2014 points respectively.
The 2013 season may surely have been the last time that Hamilton went to India, part of his duties for McLaren as an active driver for them back then.?
Half a decade has passed on since then.
Lewis, a great of the sport now, has won four world titles in the past five years and taken his overall world title tally to an incredible five world championship wins. This is an achievement everyone can be proud of
It¡¯s more than a great feat.
Only Schumacher now lies in sight, with seven world titles.
Possibly, it¡¯s a matter of time for F1¡¯s fastest and arguably, the finest man on the grid to truly ¡®overtake¡¯ a timeless great of the sport.
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All that told, why hasn¡¯t anyone bothered to check on Lewis¡¯ overall understanding of India.?
Did Hamilton have his facts right?
On the other hand, is it necessary to touch upon statements that draw immense reaction from others¡¯, in the least?
Business Standard noted that in 2018, India¡¯s GDP is set to overtake England¡¯s. But let¡¯s chuck that aside. Let¡¯s focus on what¡¯s really important.
So where was Lewis Hamilton living in India when he encountered ¡®poverty¡¯ well enough to call the country ¡®poor¡¯, in the process, irking fans?
Let¡¯s assume safely that he was put up in a five-star hotel, as with other drivers, on any track anywhere in the world, where would this ¡®pit of hospitality¡¯ have been located?
Did Hamilton stay in Noida? The chances are bleak, in front of the many sprawling and landmark Hotels New Delhi has, for instance, The Diplomat, Taj Mahal Hotel, Maurya Sheraton, Le Meridien, et cetera.
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Chances are, he was ushered around from either of these venues straight into the F1 track.
Where on earth did he encounter ¡®slums¡¯ brazenly decorated by say, half-naked urchins running around the roads to convey the idea that what he found was nothing but poor?
Did he not see the real estate envelope that¡¯s engulfed much of Noida and Greater Nodia with prices of owning a two-bedroom being well beyond the reach of the common man?
Nonetheless. Some facts.
The Buddha International Track is located at Greater Noida. Interestingly, it is nestled in the heart of a major infrastructural specimen in North India, a mega expressway that takes one to inarguably, India¡¯s most loved and internationally-acclaimed tourism sight, the Taj Mahal.?
If you do not get of your car or turn anywhere on the dead-straight road from Greater Noida, you go straight to Agra. Tourists from all around the world densely populate it.?
Hamilton might be aware that people spend thousands altogether to specifically visit India to see this symbol of opulence.
Another thing.
The F1 track, that¡¯s still surprisingly holding up well to host important national motor-racing events of the class of JK Tyre championship and several biking events that promote MotoGP, has in its vicinity, a world class University, around the same complex of the sport-city.
One struggles to find where Lewis might have spotted the ¡®poor¡¯ India apart from those on the streets.
If that was the case, however, aren¡¯t international destinations such as Hamilton¡¯s own Stevenage or London plagued with the same issues of urban poverty that lies in fragments?
Do European nations not have their own poor? Does that define the ultimate fate of the country? Is Germany not the strongest economy currently, not grappling with the case of poverty, it being as high as 16 percent??
While the purpose here is to not ¡®settle a score¡¯ with Hamilton, truly a passionate man who loves traveling and connecting with those from different cultures, one can¡¯t stomach the fact that Hamilton found sufficient poverty- if that was the case- to term the India he would¡¯ve seen in those two years¡¯ stints?
This is, when you consider, that Lewis found enough time to spend in deep hinterland of the country instead of spending time on the track.
Shouldn¡¯t Hamilton have restricted to the narrative about the sport sticking with destinations with F1 history? In that case, there may not have been a need to defend or offer an additional explanation.
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Vettel, Raikkonen, Alonso, three big names who were around that time haven¡¯t offered any views and in general, refrain from going into anything beyond the realm of motor-racing.?
Although, Hamilton¡¯s comment does provide stimulus for a solid discussion: whether F1 should expand only at places where there¡¯s some connect?
Because, where India is concerned, it would always be remembered for a lost love-affair that went off the radar rather inexplicably than expected.
But on the same lines, did those who raced earlier at Kyalami offer a critique about a lost South African track, maybe racial tensions if not poverty leading to the track missing the calendar!