(born
January 14 ,
1977 ,
Chennai ,
India ) is a
Formula One driver. He made his debut in
2005 with the
Jordan team. He is currently a
Williams F1 test driver.
He is often given the title of "The Fastest Indian in the World".
Karthikeyan was born in
Coimbatore ,Tamilnadu and belongs to the PSG group,Coimbatore which hails a lot of Racing people.Karthikeyan's interest in motorsport began at an early age, as his father was a former Indian national
Rally champion winning South India Rally no less than seven times. With the ambition of becoming India's first Formula One driver, Karthikeyan finished on the podium in his first ever race, at Sriperumpudur in a Formula Maruthi (a.k.a.FISSME). He then went onto the Elf Winfield Racing School in
France , showing his talent by becoming a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in
1992 . He returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the
1993 season, and in the same year, he also competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in
Great Britain . This gave him valuable experience in
European racing, and he was keen to return for the following year.
In
1994 , he returned to the
UK , racing in the Formula Ford Zetec series as the number two works Vector driver for the Foundation Racing team. The highlight of the season was a podium finish in a support race for the
Portuguese Grand Prix held at
Estoril . Karthikeyan also took part in the British Formula Ford Winter Series, and became the first Indian to win any championship in Europe.
1995 saw Karthikeyan graduate to the Formula
Asia Championship for just four races. However, he showed pace immediately and was able to finish second in the race at
Shah Alam ,
Malaysia . In
1996 , he had a full season in the series and became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. He moved back to Britain in
1997 to compete in the British Formula Opel Championship, taking a
Pole Position and win at
Donington Park and finishing sixth in the overall points standings.
In
1998 , Karthikeyan made his debut in the
British Formula Three Championship with the
Carlin Motorsport team. Competing in only 10 rounds, he managed two 3rd place finishes in the final two races of the season, at
Spa-Francorchamps and
Silverstone , to finish 12th overall. He continued in the championship for
1999 , finishing on the podium 5 times, including two wins at
Brands Hatch . His season also included two pole positions, three fastest laps and two lap records, helping him to 6th in the championship out of 30 drivers. He also competed in the
Macau Grand Prix , qualifying in 6th position and finishing 6th in the second race. Continuing his drive in the British F3 Championship in
2000 , he finished 4th overall in the standings, and also took pole position and fastest laps in the Macau Grand Prix. He also won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the
Korea n Super Prix.
Karthikeyan started
2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten. In the same year, he became the first Indian to ever drive an F1 car, testing for the
Jaguar Racing team at Silverstone on
June 14 . Impressed with his performance, he was then offered a test drive in the
Jordan -
Honda EJ11 at Silverstone in
September . Karthikeyan again tested for Jordan, at
Mugello in
Italy on
October 5 , finishing just half a second off the pace off Jordan's lead driver
Jean Alesi .
In
2002 , he moved into the
Telefonica World Series with Team Tata RC Motorsport, taking a pole position and setting the fastest non-F1 lap time at the
Interlagos Circuit in
Brazil . Continued to, now renamed
Superfund Word Series in
2003 , Karthikeyan won two races and took three other podium positions on his way to 4th overall in the championship. These results earned him other Formula One test drive, this time with the
Minardi team. He was offered a race drive for the
2004 Season , but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds to seal the deal. During the year, he also married his wife Pavarna.
He continued in the Nissan World Series, renamed "World Series by Nissan", in
2004 , taking wins in
Valencia ,
Spain and
Magny-Cours ,
France .
- 2004: Formula Nissan World Series(World Series by Nissan), 6th (RC)
- 2003: Formula Nissan World Series(Superfund Word Series), 4th (Carlin)
- 2002: Formula Nissan World Series(Telefonica World Series), 9th (RC)
- 2001: Formula Nippon, 14th (Impul)
- 2000: British Formula 3, 4th (Stewart)
- 1999: British Formula 3, 6th (Carlin)
- 1998: British Formula 3, 12th (Carlin)
- 1997: British Formula Vauxhall, 8th
- 1996: Formula Asia, Champion
- 1995: Formula Asia (4 races)
- 1994: British Formula Ford Winter Series, Champion
- 1993: Indian Formula Maruti + British Formula Vauxhall Junior
Teams:
Carlin Motorsport ,
RC Motorsport ,
Team Impul
Championships:
British Formula 3 ,
Formula Nippon ,
Formula Nissan (now merged as
Formula Renault )
]]
On
February 1 ,
2005 , Karthikeyan announced that he has signed the preliminary deal with
Jordan Formula One team and said that he will be their main driver for the
2005 Formula One Season , thus making him India's first Formula One racing driver. His partner was the Portuguese driver,
Tiago Monteiro . Karthikeyan completed the necessary testing distance of 300km in an
F1 Car in order to gain his superlicense at the
Silverstone Circuit on
February 10 . Both rookies were "paying drivers", i.e. drivers selected not necessarily because of their talent.
In his first race, the
Australian Grand Prix , Karthikeyan qualified in 12th position, mainly thanks to the changeable
Weather conditions, but still over 3 seconds faster than Monteiro. After a poor start which saw him drop to 18th place by the end of the first lap, Karthikeyan finished in 15th, two laps behind winner
Giancarlo Fisichella , and nearly a full minute ahead of Monteiro. He achieved his first points in the
2005 United States Grand Prix under farcical circumstances as all but three teams pulled out due to an argument over tyre safety. Karthikeyan finished 4th, beating only the drivers in Formula One's traditional backmarker team,
Minardi . Besides the controversial USGP, Karthikeyan's highest finish was 11th place.
In an unlucky end to his 2005 season, Karthikeyan crashed his Jordan into a wall at the
Chinese Grand Prix in
Shanghai . Fortunately, he escaped unscathed, able to provide an interview right afterwards.
Because the Jordan team was taken over and renamed Midland for the
2006 season, the management change prompted some doubt over Karthikeyan's future at the team. Near the end of
2005 , Karthikeyan announced he would not be driving for Midland the following year due to their demand that he pay as much as
USD 11.7 million to secure his seat on the team. "There is no way I can raise the kind of money," he said. He mentioned that "anyway, being a test driver in a good car will allow me to showcase my skills better."
On December 8th, 2005, Karthikeyan tested for Williams at Spain and finished a respectable 5th, outpacing the confirmed Williams second driver, Nico Rosberg in the FW27C chassis, who finished 9th.
On January 27th, 2006, Williams confirmed Narain as their fourth driver
Karthikeyan signs with Williams as test driver . He will perform testing duties for the team alongside
Alexander Wurz who was confirmed earlier as the team's third driver.
Narain Karthikeyan says he has been blown away with the difference between F1's stragglers and a top flight team.
After spending his rookie year with Midland owned Jordan, the 28-year-old Indian made his test debut for former title winner Williams at Jerez last Tuesday.Karthikeyan told the Indian media that the difference between the two cars was 'huge'.
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Narain Karthikeyan's Indian National Flag Misuse
UNI Kochi Aug 9: A local organisation here today demanded that the government take action against Formula One race driver Narain Karthikeyan for allegedly misusing the national flag on his helmet and website.
Addressing a press conference here, the Mahatma Gandhi National Foundation president, Mr Eby J Jose said the ace driver had “distorted” the tricolour while displaying it on his helmet.
Demanding that the government take action against Karthikeyan under Sections 4 and 5 of the Flag Code and the National Honour Act of 1971, Mr Jose said under article 51A of the Constitution, it was enjoined upon all citizens to show respect to the national flag.
He also urged the authorities to withdraw from Karthikeyan and ace batsman Sachin Tendulkar, the permission to use the tricolour on their sporting gear.
http://www.freewebs.com/proudtobeanindian/narainkarthikeyan.htm
