The Indian Racing League returns for another season with more manufacturer interest, a revised calendar and, if the pre-season tests are any guide, the closest field the championship has ever assembled. Here are the five storylines that will define the year.
Testing times are always a lie, everyone says so — and yet the covered lap times from the first two tests suggest the gap from front to back has never been smaller.
The title fight
Last year’s runner-up enters as the clear favourite, having moved to the strongest team on the grid. But the defending champion is not going quietly, and the two have a history that predates their car numbers.
Watch, too, for the rookie who topped the final test day. Nobody expected the name at the top of the sheet, and the paddock has been talking about little else since.
The championship is wide open, and that has not been true for years.
— A team engineer, off the record
The calendar
A new street circuit joins the schedule this season, and it is a proper test — narrow, unforgiving and likely to produce either brilliant racing or a very long safety-car afternoon.
Lights out is a fortnight away. On this evidence, it will be worth clearing the calendar for.