Mark Webber of Australia drives into the pit lane during the second practice session ahead of the Indian F1 Grand Prix at the Buddh circuit, near New Delhi on Friday.
Mark Webber of Australia drives into the pit lane during the second practice session ahead of the Indian F1 Grand Prix at the Buddh circuit, near New Delhi on Friday.
Mark Webber of Australia drives into the pit lane during the second practice session ahead of the Indian F1 Grand Prix at the Buddh circuit, near New Delhi on Friday.
Mark Webber of Australia drives into the pit lane during the second practice session ahead of the Indian F1 Grand Prix at the Buddh circuit, near New Delhi on Friday.

Grand Prix indulges dreams of India's rich


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NEW DELHI // India' first Formula One race stands as a testament to the wealth and power of the new Indian upper class, while the country as a whole hopes the event will shake off the bad memories of last year's scandal-plagued Commonwealth Games.

The fact the Grand Prix is unlikely to turn a profit for several years , perhaps never, is secondary to its role in indulging the dreams of India's rich.

The new 5.14 kilometre racetrack on the outskirts of Delhi cost US$200 million (Dh734m), while premium seats for this afternoon's race have sold for $4,000 (Dh14,692) a person. The string of five-star hotels in the new developments surrounding the track are all sold out, with average rates rising to about $500 a night.

KTS Tulsi, a senior lawyer and president of the Heritage Motoring Club in Delhi, will take F1 champion Sebastian Vettel out for a spin in his 1947 Buick during the pre-race vintage car parade.

"It is beyond my wildest dreams that such a world-class event and track could come to India, let alone that I would be driving on it with the current champion," said Mr Tulsi.

When the show is over, the international jet-set has dozens of after-parties to choose from, the most sought-after being a trackside club night where Lady Gaga will perform a 20-minute set. Tickets start at $800 a head, and go up to $20,000 for a table of eight.

"There were 1,200 tickets and we have completely sold out," said Romola Bachchan, one of the organisers. "It shows the appetite for international entertainment in India, and also the spending power that exists now."

The Forbes India rich list for 2011 contains 57 billionaires. The country's 100 richest citizens are collectively worth US$241 billion and its GDP is expected to double in the next five years to nearly $9 trillion.

"It's a very limited number of people in the top bracket," said Ms Bachchan. "But they spend in a way that we don't even see in the West."

Beyond its luxury brand associations, India's first grand prix is also an unexpected treat for motorsports fans, and about 120,000 of them are expected to turn up for this afternoon's race.

"I'm a huge F1 fan, and I never thought it would come to my country," said 31-year-old chartered accountant Vihar Gupta, as he headed in to watch the qualifying sessions yesterday. "I'm so excited, it feels like I'm on drugs."

Jesdev Saggar, a managing director at Deloitte, flew from Dubai to see an F1 race in his home country. "I don't think Abu Dhabi's Grand Prix has anything to worry about just yet," he said. "But in terms of big projects, this is definitely an improvement on the Commonwealth Games."

That event, in Delhi last year, proved calamitous for India's international reputation. Filthy accommodation, shoddy stadiums and a stream of corruption allegations confirmed visitors' worst suspicions about the government's organisational abilities.

The Indian Grand Prix, by contrast, has had a relatively smooth preparation period, which many see as evidence only the private sector should be in charge of large projects. "We will make up for the shameful memories of the Commonwealth Games," Jaiprakash Gaur, founding chairman of the Jaypee Group which owns the circuit, told reporters.

The event has not been without a few hiccups, however, such as the moment when a stray dog ran on to the track midway through the first practice session on Friday.

Chaotic traffic on the approach to the race track yesterday forced many passengers to abandon their cars and rush to catch a glimpse of qualifying sessions.

The biggest embarrassment happened on the other side of the capital in Gurgaon, where Metallica were due to play their first performance in India on Friday night.

Billed as the main entertainment of the F1 weekend, it ended in disaster after a faulty safety barrier in front of the stage forced the organisers to cancel the show at the last minute, causing some in the furious crowd to raid the stage and demolish some of the band's equipment.

Four members of the DNA Network, which organised the concert, were arrested yesterday on charges of cheating and breach of trust, local media reported.

The deeper criticism of the F1 event is whether such a luxury event has any place in a country as poor as India, where the average income is less than US$1,200 a year.

Questions have also been raised about the manner in which the land was acquired to build the circuit and surrounding facilities, with some reports that disaffected farmers may attempt to sabotage today's race by blocking the roads.

But inside the track, these concerns mean little. The glitz and the glamour of the F1 roadshow create their own realities.

"This shows India has come of age," said Mr Tulsi. "It shows the technical and economic advancement in this country in the last decade.

"We are no longer a developing country."

Coverage, pages, s6-7

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Zidane's managerial achievements

La Liga: 2016/17
Spanish Super Cup: 2017
Uefa Champions League: 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18
Uefa Super Cup: 2016, 2017
Fifa Club World Cup: 2016, 2017

Gertrude Bell's life in focus

A feature film

At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.

A documentary

A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.

Books, letters and archives

Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
 

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

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FINAL RESULT

Sharjah Wanderers 20 Dubai Tigers 25 (After extra-time)

Wanderers
Tries: Gormley, Penalty
cons: Flaherty
Pens: Flaherty 2

Tigers
Tries: O’Donnell, Gibbons, Kelly
Cons: Caldwell 2
Pens: Caldwell, Cross

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
  • Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
  • Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.

Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press

JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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Blonde
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster

We Weren’t Supposed to Survive But We Did

We weren’t supposed to survive but we did.      
We weren’t supposed to remember but we did.              
We weren’t supposed to write but we did.  
We weren’t supposed to fight but we did.              
We weren’t supposed to organise but we did.
We weren’t supposed to rap but we did.        
We weren’t supposed to find allies but we did.
We weren’t supposed to grow communities but we did.        
We weren’t supposed to return but WE ARE.
Amira Sakalla

J%20Street%20Polling%20Results
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'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

Rating: 1 out of 4

Running time: 81 minutes

Director: David Blue Garcia

Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills