Indian Grand Prix promises to be death by boredom

On Sunday afternoon, a maximum of 20 drivers will start in the Indian Grand Prix. Fans worldwide will watch the race, riveted for about 90 minutes to the idiot box (a little over 1,00,000 will watch it live at the Buddh circuit). They’ll watch these 20 cars going around the circuit 60 times (not all will; there are some whose cars wont make it, either due to accidents or to mechanical failures). [caption id=“attachment_118440” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Ferrari Formula One driver Felipe Massa of Brazil drives in the pits during first practice session at the Buddh International Circuit. Reuters”]  [/caption] And die-hard fans will speculate on who will win, and how Sahara Force India’s drivers will do, whether the Sahara Force India drivers will make it to the podium, on whether the ‘tyre’ strategies are correct, on whether the ‘pit stop’ strategies are correct. But there’s one fan – a self-christened fanatic – who tells us that there’s no great need to speculate. Okay, it’s not a fan, but a website devoted to F1. F1fanatic.co.uk has done an analysis on the performance in the 2011 season thus far. The great story is in the following table, which shows the number of laps led, during the entire season, by each driver.  More fascinating stats from F1fanatic can be found here, but for those in a hurry, here are some highlights. Out of 28 drivers who’ve been involved in F1 racing in 2011, only 8 have ever led a lap. The other 20, believe it or not, have not led a single lap in a single race during the entire 16 race season thus far. Only one driver, Sebastian Vettel, has completed all the races that he has participated in (and he has participated in all the races). Seven drivers, including Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok, have, at best, completed a lap in the 8th position. There’s not much, to speculate on. Considering all the drivers – 28 of them, just three of them (Vettel, Hamilton and Button) have been the leaders in almost 90 percent of the laps of the entire season. You have a fair idea who will win, who will complete the race. You have a fair idea of who has no statistical chance of doing better than 8th place. And yet, fans will speculate, today and tomorrow, on how Sutil could win a podium position or whether this race could be the big chance for Michael Schumacher. There are some, like, me, who have better things to do than watch a race where it’s all over bar the chequered flag – even before the qualifying races are run. There’s speculation, damned speculation and statistics. I’ll take the statistics.