Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan was with the Jordan team for the 2005 season and was the first Indian F1 driver. He moved to Williams in 2006 and 2007 as a test driver, since which time he has raced in other series. He returns to Formula 1 in 2011 driving for Hispania Racing.


 

Nationality & DoB	Indian, 14-01-77
Team	Hispania Racing
Car Number	22
Prior Teams	Jordan (05)
Championships	0
Races	19
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Pole Positions	0
Fastest Laps	0
First Race	2005 Australian Grand Prix
First Win	None
Last Win	N/A

Karthikeyan was born in Tamil Nadu, India, the son of a former Indian national rally champion; he always wanted to follow his father into motorsport. He first raced in Formula Maruti, finishing on the podium in his debut race. In 1992 after attending the Elf Winfield Racing School in France, he was a semi finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars. In 1993, he raced again in the Formula Maruti series, and also competed in Britain in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship.

Racing in the Formula Ford Zetec series in 1994, he achieved a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese GP. In the winter of '94 he became the first Indian driver to win a championship in Europe, the British Formula Ford Winter Series.

Karthikeyan competed in four races in 1995 Formula Asia Championship, finishing second in Malaysia, and in 1996, he became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. In 1997 he finished sixth in the British Formula Opel Championship, including a pole position and win at Donington Park.

In 1998 and 1999 Karthikeyan competed in the British Formula Three Championship, finishing in 12th place in '98 and 6th in '99. In 2000, Karthikeyan finished in fourth place in the British F3 Championship in 2000, and also took pole position and fastest laps in the Macau Grand Prix and won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the Korea Super Prix.

In 2001 took part in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the in the top ten, and then in 2002 and 2003 he raced in the Telefonica World Series, (renamed Superfund Word Series in 2003). He was offered a drive for Minardi F1 team in 2004 but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds, so raced in the World Series by Nissan, winning two races.

In early 2005, Karthikeyan moved to Formula One, to drive for Jordan. Karthikeyan had a uneventful year, although he did score points at the 2005 United States GP, however, the race was ludicrous because all but three teams had pulled out due to an argument about tyre safety.

Jordan changed ownership at the end of the season and the new team Midland did not renew Karthikeyan's contract, and he moved to Williams for 2006 and 2007 as the fourth test driver. In 2008 and 2009 he moved away from F1 to A1, and had modest results, moving to the NASCAR series in 2010 with again modest results.

After a five years absence from active involvement in F1, Karthikeyan returns to F1 for the 2011 season, driving for Hispania Racing F1 Team. 2010 was Hispania's, first season in F1 and the results were less than impressive, joining Virgin way way off the pace. Hispania, need to raise considerable funds, and Karthikeyan has admitted that the financial support he brings with him from the Tata Group was 'instrumental', in getting the seat.

Karthikeyan has had a modest driving career to date, and it seems unlikely that his time with a team that produced a car as slow as the Hispania 2010 effort will enhance his reputation.