Narain Karthikeyan

Narain Karthikeyan began his foray into racing back in 1994, when he participated in the Formula Ford Zetec. In 1994, he also became the first Indian to win the British Formula Ford Winter Series, and further went to attain a top three classification in the Portuguese Grand Prix, at Estoril.

In 1996, he added another win to his collection after clinching the Formula Asia championship title, becoming the first Indian to win an International series. In 1999, Karthikeyan participated in the Formula Three championship class, where he drove in the Autosport British Formula Three championship. Here he attained five podium finishes and a further 2 pole positions, as well as three fastest laps and two lap records. Karthikeyan finished sixth in the championship, against 30 drivers from over five countries. Karthikeyan had another achievement that year, when he qualified sixth in the Macau Grand Prix, and finished in the second leg.

The next year, Karthikeyan once returned to the Formula Three championship class, and also participated in the British Formula Three championship, where he finished in fourth place. Dominating most of the season, Karthikeyan bagged a finish from pole position as well as a lap record at the Macau Grand Prix. His biggest achievement came the same year, when Karthikeyan won the International Formula Three race at Spa, Belgium, ranking him amongst bigwigs such as Ayrton Senna, his idol, David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher and many others.

In 2001, Karthikeyan moved onto the Formula Nippon championship F3000, where he finished as one of the top rookies at the event. Getting the opportunity to drive a Formula One car, Karthikeyan drove a Jaguar R1 on the 14th of June. This resulted in a test drive opportunity with Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda EJ 11. His performance in the first test drive was quite impressive, this led to another test drive, again at Silverstone.

2002, was remarkable for the fastest driver title in the Telefonica World Series, in which Karthikeyan further claimed a pole position and even set a fastest time record in the Interlagos circuit. The next year played witness to Karthikeyan’s entry into the Super Fund World Series, where he managed to finish fourth in the series, a result of five podium finishes attained against some of the best drivers in the world. His skill did not go unnoticed and Karthikeyan was offered a test drive by Formula One team Minardi.

In 2005, Karthikeyan once again made history by becoming the first Indian to drive in the Formula One championship. He was driving fro Team Jordan Toyota, and amongst the four participating rookies, Karthikeyan was most impressive. Experience with Formula Three, Nissan World Series and Formula Nippon as well a testing with teams such as Jordan, Minardi and Jaguar gave him the edge.

In 2006, Karthikeyan was test and reserve driver for William Formula One, which he continued into 2007, when he also joined A1 Team India, racing with them in five weekend races. In his very first race for the team, Karthikeyan scored the teams first points, at Taupo, New Zealand. The team finished in fourth place in the A1 GP World Cup of Motorsports, their best so far.