Car Articles

Born on 14 January 1977, Narain Karthikeyan finished on the podium in his first ever race, at Sriperumpudur in a Formula Maruti. He then went onto the Elf Winfield Racing School in France and become a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in 1992.

Karthikeyan returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the 1993 season. He also competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in Great Britain in the same year. Karthikeyan made his British Formula Three Championship debut with the Carlin Motorsport team in 1998.

Karthikeyan became the India's first Formula One racing driver when he was selected by the Jordan Formula One team in 2005. Karthikeyan qualified in 12th position in his first race, the Australian Grand Prix. In the US Grand Prix, Karthikeyan finished fourth, behind team mate Monteiro. In 2005 Japanese GP free practice, he qualified 11th. The season ended with Karthikeyan crashing his Jordan into a wall at the Chinese GP.

In 2005, Karthikeyan got to test an Indy Racing League (IRL) car for Red Bull Cheever Racing team for the Indianapolis 500 race. Karthikeyan also drove for A1 Team India in 2007 season. He finished 10th in the sprint race and 7th in the Feature Race of his A1 GP debut. Karthikeyan tested for the Kolles Le Mans Team in 2009.

On March 27, 2010, Karthikeyan made his NASCAR debut at Martinsville Speedway. He finished 13th in his debut NASCAR race.

Karun Chandhok was born on January 19, 1984 in Chennai. In 2000, Chandhok became the Indian National Racing Champion winning seven out of ten races in the Formula Maruti series. He not only scored pole position, he also had the fastest lap in all ten races. In 2001, Chandhok won the Formula 2000 Asia champion and became the youngest Asian to do so.

In 2001, Chandhok tested with the British Formula 3 champion team Carlin Motorsport. Driving for T-Sport, he raced in the National class in 2002 and finished sixth in class. He stayed with T-Sport in the National Class for 2003, and finished third in the final class standings. In 2004 Chandhok entered the main British Formula 3 class with T-Sport, and finished 14th in the standings.

Chandhok is also the driver to represent A1 Team India in A1 Grand Prix at the beginning of the 2005-06 season. In 2006 he became champion of the first ever Formula Asia V6 by Renault Championship, taking seven race wins and nine pole positions from 12 races.

In 2010, he got selected by the Hispania Racing F1 Team. While he crashed during the second lap in the Bahrain GP, he finished at the fourteenth position in the Australian GP.

Considered as one of the most promising racing driver in India today, Arman Ebrahim started his career in karting and became Formula LGB Champion in 2004. Later, he moved on to Formula BMW Asia for the 2005 season. In the same year, he represented Team India in the A1 Grand Prix Championship and drove in 6 races. Unfortunately, the team was disbanded due to lack of funds.

He also raced for the Formula Renault UK Championship, one of the most competitive junior formula in the world. The magnificent performance and promise shown in his debut season of A1 Grand Prix and his excellent performances in the UK, he was nominated to drive for the A1 Team India in the 2006-07 season.

On December 12, 2008, Ebrahim became the first Asian driver to sign up for the rebirth of FIA Formula Two in 2009. He finished 17th in points with two sixth-place finishes at Brno being his best results. Ebrahim has been rated as the “Driver with the Best Race Form” by the Formula Two Website for his excellent overtaking skills. Arman overtook, on an average, 8 cars per race in Formula 2.