By Ritangshu Bhattacharya,
In my 15 years of being a TV journalist and watching an endless parade of celebrities in the newsroom, I've only been starstruck once. It wasn't for an actor, a cricketer or any celebrity who would otherwise make heads turn in India.
It was with Nico Hlkenberg.
The year was 2011. The fastest circus in the world — Formula 1 — was finally coming to town as part of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix. The German was lined up as a guest on the sports show of the news network I worked for at that time. Then a reserve driver for the erstwhile Force India Formula One team, Hlkenberg was barely noticed by most people in the newsroom (who anyway saw F1 as a spectacle where cars just went round and round in circles).
But I was on cloud nine. Nico had made a sensational debut only a year ago on track for the Williams F1 team — bagging a pole position at the Brazilian GP — only to be unfairly dropped in 2011 for a driver ready to pay for his seat. While I was getting a picture clicked with him, I wished him good luck in getting back to the grid. Hlkenberg smiled and nonchalantly shrugged it off. He knew even then that F1 is not always a meritocracy.
But Hulk — and his fans like me — need not have worried. He was back on the grid the next year as a full-time Force India driver. Back at his favourite stomping ground in Brazil, he led for most of the race — on course for a sensational maiden victory for him and the Indian F1 team. Sadly, tragedy struck just 16 laps from the chequered flag as he collided with Lewis Hamilton. The dream of a maiden podium — much like Hlkenberg's car — was left wrecked.
That stormy day in Brazil would be the closest Hulk came to a podium — for over a decade.
Over the next few years, the German driver would have giant-killing stints with underdog teams such as Force India, Sauber and Renault, but tantalisingly never managed to stand on the podium. Gradually, he built up a rather unfair reputation of “being good, but not really great” — which is why the big teams never truly saw him as a driver worthy of a race winning car. Read More
This article is referenced from
https://www.indiatoday.in/
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