T

o boldly go — or as the split infinitive haters would prefer — to go boldly where no one has gone before.

That might be a bit dramatic, but this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix certainly represents new frontiers for Formula 1.

The first trickle of journalists into the country was met with a mixed bag of trepidation, excitement and frustration — as you would expect of anyone visiting the subcontinent. Will Buxton, the pit reporter for Speed TV, summed up his experience via Twitter: “At the track already after a fabulous first day in India. Already love this place. Nothing works. Total chaos. Absolutely brilliant.”

The day before, a medical emergency drill had an ambulance rehearse the retrieval of a “critically-injured driver”. The dry run failed so miserably that the FIA official, who was playing the part of the driver, got up from his stretcher and walked away. He claimed that anyone who had really been critically injured would have died long before he’d gotten the attention he needed.

The Buddh International Circuit isn’t the first and won’t be the last to have its teething troubles made public. India needs a smooth Grand Prix this weekend to cast bad memories associated with their hosting of the Commonwealth Games aside once and for all.

The organizers talk the talk pretty well, and there’s no escaping the fact that they have put together a challenging track that looks like it will be thoroughly entertaining.

But while Indians both in the country and around the world look forward to this weekend with
understandable pride, it will be another two years before the new jewel in Formula 1’s crown sparkles in front of a worldwide audience.

This week, on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey, a race scheduled for 2013 and the following nine years was announced that threatens to outshine the glamour of Monaco, the thrilling backdrop of Singapore and even the potential market size of India.

The track itself is far from the roller coaster that the Indian circuit seems to be, and the off-track experience immediately on the other side of the crash barriers is hardly akin to Monaco, but the reason New Jersey will be such an exciting venue is across the Hudson River.

There won’t be too many television cameras facing inland. You can bet they’ll be north facing towards the imposing and exhilarating skyscrapers of New York City.

For those of you who know Manhattan, the New Jersey track will span the area adjacent to the 30 blocks between 50th and 80th streets in the city. In other words it’s parallel to the stretch between midtown Manhattan and the historic residential developments of the Upper West Side, made famous for housing artists such as Rudolph Nureyev, Judy Garland and John Lennon (and that’s just in one building — The Dakota).

But the perspective from across the Hudson will give an even wider vista, such that you’ll be able to pick out iconic buildings far south of 50th Street and that will include many a gratuitous shot of the developments rising from the rubble of Ground Zero.

New Yorkers are an insular lot, and won’t cast much more than a curious eye on their noisy guests. But motorsports enthusiasts up and down the country (and there are many) will happily acknowledge F1 as the more international and technologically superior version of the sport and will travel to New York to take in the race, a Broadway play and a “dirty-water dog” in a bun with some ketchup.

All of which sounds good to me.

Steve Dawson presents on STAR Sports’ coverage of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix this Sunday.