Although the brand new Buddh International Circuit appears, against many expectations, to be ready for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, the plush facilities cannot hide the sheer squalor of the country outside. Britain's Jenson Button said coming to India was "difficult" for the drivers, who have been stunned at the living conditions glimpsed outside their luxury hotels. "You can't forget the poverty in India. It's difficult coming here for the first time, you realise there's a big divide between the wealthy people and the poor people," he said.
While high-powered Formula One cars scream round the new course, cycle and auto rickshaws are favoured modes of transport for the masses outside. Piles of burning rubbish flank shanty towns and decrepit buildings, while the acrid stench of urine fills the air as men and women relieve themselves on the roadside.
German champion Sebastian Vettel caught his first glimpse of Indian life on the 200-kilometre (125-mile) drive from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal, and he said it was a humbling experience. "It definitely brings your feet back on the ground in many ways and makes you understand a lot of things," Vettel said. "It's an inspiration and makes you appreciate things you take for granted."
Vettel was also fascinated by driving standards on India's notoriously dangerous roads, where motorists routinely use the wrong side of the road and ignore signs and markings at the cost of 340 lives every day. "So I asked the driver whether people really do a licence here. He said you just pay and you get a licence," said the German.
"The funny thing is, coming from Europe we have so many rules and sometimes it's really complicated sticking to all the rules. Over here, I wouldn't say you have no rules but you have way less. "But it works, we didn't see a single crash happening. We may say it's chaos, but it's organised chaos."
