Narain Karthikeyan

Birthdate: January 14th 1977   Country: India   Gender: M

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History: 1992 -  ELF Winfield Racing School, France won debut race Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault. 1993 -  Formula Maruti Formula Vauxhall Junior championship 1994 -  Formula Ford Zetec. First Indian to win the British Formula Ford Winter series. Podium at Portuguese Grand Prix support race at Estoril. 1995 -  Formula Asia. Four races, second at Shah Alam in Malaysia 1996 -  Won Formula Asia championship with a host of records. The only Indian and only Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. 1997 -  Sixth in the British Formula Opel Championship 1998 -  British Formula 3 (Carlin Motorsport) - eight races, two 3rd place finishes at Spa-Francochamps and Silverstone 1999 -  Autosport British Formula 3 Championship (Carlin Motorsport), 5 podiums, 2 wins at Brands Hatch, 2 pole positions, 3 fastest laps, 2 lap records. 6th in the championship among 30 drivers Qualified sixth and finished the second leg of the Macau Grand Prix in 6th place. 2000 -  British F3 Championship - fourth place overall. 1 lap record, pole at Macau Grand Prix, wins in Spa and the Korea F3 Super Prix 2001 -  First Indian to test a Formula One car, with Jaguar at Silverstone. Additional F1 tests with Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda at Silverstone and Mugello. Formula Nippon Championship 2002 -  Formula Nissan World Series (Team Tata RC Motorsport) 2003 -  Formula Nissan World Series (Carlin Motorsport) F1 test with Minardi 2004 -  Formula Nissan World Series (Team Tata RC Motorsport), FIA GT Championship 2005 -  FIA F1 World Championship (Jordan Grand Prix) Race Driver

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When Narain Karthikeyan arrived in Australia he knew that 2 billion eager eyes would be watching him. Being the first Indian driver ever to race in F1 put even more pressure on Narain that most rookies.

Narain's appearance on the big scene came following a moderately successful 3 years in British F3 with Carlin Motorsport. In 2000 he finished fourth in the championship, leading to Formula 1 tests with Jaguar and Jordan.

Neither of these tests came to anything, and Karthikeyan was forced to hang around. However when the Midland Group announced they were taking over the Jordan team and placed Trevor Carlin as team boss, Karthikeyan was flung into a race seat with his F3 boss' team.

The early signs looked good. Despite being in an underpowered Jordan Toyota, Karthikeyan outqualified and outraced fellow rookie Tiago Monteiro. The team hailed his first race as a success.

The Indian knew he wouldn't be getting any higher than the back two rows of the grid, so when he regularly beat his team-mate and the Minardis for the first few races his confidence grew. However as the European season began he slipped behind his team-mate. It all came to a low in Monaco, where he was annihilated by his team-mate and left to fight the Minardis.

Nurburgring and Canada followed, once again with little success. However his luck was about to turn at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the first time this season, Bridgestone tyres were the tyres to have. With just 6 cars on the grid, Karthikeyan could sense a podium. Pushing hard, this was the race in which he desperately needed to beat his team-mate.

Sadly it wasn't to be. Karthikeyan was beaten into fourth by Monteiro. However 5 points were a great boost in his first season.

India had a new superstar.

But the excitement was to be short-lived. Karthikeyan never reached those dizzy heights again and dropped off the pace at the end of the season.

After Midland confirmed Cristijan Albers for the 2006 season, Karthikeyan was left with minimal hopes of keeping his seat. This wasn't helped by a falling-out with team boss Cristian Kolles, and Karthikeyan began searching for a third driver role for 2006, preferably with Williams.

Statistics

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Statistic	#	Percentage	First	Last
Number of Grand Prix	19	100%	2005	2005
Number of starts	19	100.00%	2005	2005
Number of finishes	14	73.68%	2005	2005
Number of finishes in points	1	5.26%	2005	2005
Number of retirements	5	26.32%	2005	2005

Seasons:	1 (2005)
Points:	5 (Average per start: 0.26)
	Points per season - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 5 2005
Team:	Jordan Ford (2005)
Chassis:	Jordan EJ15 (2005)
Engine:	Toyota (2005)

Created by: system last modification: Sunday 06 of November, 2005 [15:01:22 UTC] by Sennaesque