Über Desi » Motor Racing

Karun dropped for the German GP and why he is coming back.

Karthik — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:15:01 +0000

A month ago, there was a lot of chatter about Karun facing the axe from the HRT team, for a lack of funds. While similar rumors had been circulating since the start of the season, there were a couple of incidents that week, which made me believe them. First there was Karun talking up the idea of an Indian driver at Force India F1 and how it would attract sponsors. But the second and more significant event was Karun’s mom, Chitra Chandhok re-tweeting fan’s messages referring to the rumor about him being dropped, because of a lack of funds.

When Bruno Senna was dropped for the British GP, I wondered how and why he was dropped in favor of Karun. Bruno obviously has way more following and seemed in a much better financial position than Karun. Later that weekend, news broke that Karun had a new sponsor. Jaypee group, the people who are building the circuit in Delhi for the Indian GP in 2011, at which point I thought that it was all well.

Today we hear the disappointing news that Karun was dropped and as always, we have no reasons. Adding insult to injury, no one, including Karun himself, is sure about when he will be back.

At the moment we are talking only about Hockenheim but with four drivers and two cars, it is probably inevitable I will miss some more races. We will sit down after Hockenheim and talk about the next race, which is in Hungary the following week. Then we have the summer break and we will see what happens. It is a little bit up in the air. The team are looking towards 2011. I have talked with Jose Ramon Carabante [team owner] about their plans for 2011 today so it’s not like there’s been a total breakdown between us or anything. It’s just something they want to do now.

The norm in F1 is for the driver to not “talk”, but Karun is changing all that and in the process winning a bunch of fans, not just outside the F1 fraternity, but the hardcore insiders. Instead of trash talking, he had something constructive to say.

As a racing driver it’s obviously not great to be missing races but I’m not in contention for the world championship or in a points battle over anything. I came into this team looking to establish myself as a credible, respectable Formula 1 driver and I’ve done that. I expect to be back for some races later in the year. The team gave me the chance to be in F1 and I have to respect and support this decision.

Like Narain, I think Karun could have proved a lot more, had he been put in a better car. But one thing is for sure, he is a very cool customer (he is tweeting his weekend plans) and has made a bunch of people love him, by being himself. For that one reason, I’d love to see him back on the grid.

But one thing I’ve known as an F1 fan is that Karun is one of the few people, who is loved by all. Maybe it was his first interview at the start of the season or the fact he is open or that he deals with things well, but judging by the reaction form the general public, it’s only a matter of time before he comes back. And would not be surprised if he shows up in the Force India cockpit next year.

Ps: If you have not, I suggest you take a look at Karun’s blog posts. Specifically the one where he talks about what it took for him to get on the grid. I’ve never read anything close to this from any of the current F1 drivers.

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Post tags: chandhok, f1, FIF1, force india, Force India F1, formula1, German GP, hrtf1, karun, karun chandhok

Narain does well in his first Nascar race. Finishes 13th.

Karthik — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:04:24 +0000

Narain's truck, beat up after his first race.

Narain Karthikeyan managed to finish his first Nascar race, in 13th position. Given that he was the first Indian driver to move from open wheel racing, Nascar had a lot of coverage. That and he got together with a few others trucks during the race. Then again, that’s normal with Nascar.

Narain managed to finish his first practice at the 31st spot and the second practice at 21st. With Qualifying rained out, Nascar used something called Owner points (I’m assuming it’s equivalent of Team points in F1) to place him 11th.

All said and done, he managed to have a great debut. Although people have to get used to his name.

Here is the first report out after the race.

Narain Karthikeyan made history at Martinsville as he became the first driver born in India to make a NASCAR national series start. Karthikeyan was on the lead lap until Lap 200, when contact with Clay Greenfield sent the No. 60 around and Karthikeyan was unable to get it re-fired, dropping him a lap. Karthikeyan was able to get his lap back though, and finished 13th.

I’ve never been a big fan of Nascar, but as an Indian motorsports fan, I had to follow Narain’s progress and I was not disappointed.

From the sounds of it Narain will be doing a few more races this year.

Now if someone would educate him about good Chicken wings, I’d be happy.

Narain is also active on twitter @narainracing, make sure you follow him.

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Post tags: a1gp, brown, f1, karthikeyan, martinsville, Motor Racing, narain, Narain Karthikeyan, NASCAR, nk, oval, starbeast

NASCAR Goes Brown

Anantha — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:04:41 +0000

Well, UPS is already in NASCAR, but a desi in NASCAR is definitely news. Narain Karthikeyan, who in 2004 became the first driver from India to race in the Formula One world championship, has jotted up another first to his credit. Karthikeyan, who previously has raced in the LeMans series as well for one of the privateer Audi teams, has secured a drive in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, as Speed TV reported earlier today.

… Narain Karthikeyan «NA-rain kar-thee-KAY-un» will make his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut on March 27 in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway. Karthikeyan, who is India’s first NASCAR driver, will drive the Wyler Racing No. 60 SafeAuto Chevrolet Silverado.

SpeedTV further reports that Karthikeyan will drive the No. 60 Wyler Racing truck in selected races, the schedule for which is due to be announced soon.

Interestingly Starbeast Motorsports, a newly formed company that is supporting Karthikeyan’s drive is attempting to bring NASCAR into the consciousness of motor racing fans in Asia and Narain’s hiring seems to be part of that strategy.

At UberDesi, we have keenly followed Narain’s career from the feeder races to Formula 1 and LeMans. Rest assured that his NASCAR sourjourn will be watched with similar interest and covered in detail here.

All the best, Narain. At least this year, we will be watching the NASCAR Truck series. Do us proud.

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Post tags: f1, formula1, india, motorsports, NASCAR, uberdesi

Feel the Force? (Force India snags teams first pole)

Karthik — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:53:30 +0000

Roman veteran, Giancarlo Fisichela , driving for Force India Formula 1 managed to snag the teams first pole position, this afternoon at the Belgian grand prix.

Force India, which is not considered a front running team managed this feat without rain, crazy accidents or any untoward incident. Normally that would be the only way you would see a back marker team pulling such an upset.

To their credit, Fisi’s car was not lightly fueled. With the fuel adjusted levels (an indicator or how much fuel they have, resulting in how it affects time, faster cars have less fuel – have to pit first – lost positions during the race), Fisi still says 4th. The team has also been working on upgrades and has managed to challenge the mid field rivals pretty often this season. Even with that in their bag, today is a pretty incredible day for the team.

Force India’s other driver Adrian Sutil managed to slot himself in the 11th position for tomorrow’s race.

Do not expect a live updates from us, I’m stuck in Texas at a wedding and thanks to some creatives names and an internet connection at the Sheraton, I managed to get this up in the 5 minutes I have.

Personally, I expect Force India to finish in the points, in face, I’d not be surprised if both their drives managed to get themselves a piece of the pie. This might also add momentum to the rumors that Fisi might replace ailing Luca Badoer at Ferrari for the rest of the season. Luca is sitting in for Felipe Massa and has come last in both the qualifying sessions he started.

Sponsors of A1 Team India back out – Narain might buy the team.

Karthik — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:03:05 +0000

Looks like the recession that is hitting India has led to Spice Energy backing out of the sponsorship of A1 Team India.

Neha Rastogi, the spokesperson for Spice Energy was quoted as saying

Spice Energy is temporarily out of handling operations for A1 Team India given the current economic situation. We will look forward to continue our support to the team.

The news is not all bad. Narain Karthikeyan while confirming that things have changed, confirmed that the drivers are staying put

There is a reshuffle in the management but the team will be on the grid with me as lead driver and Armaan (Ebrahim) and Parthiv (Sureshwaran) as backup

Hindustan Times adds a little bit more to the mix, predicting that Narain might step in and buy the team.

Even as A1 GP looks to find another seat holder for the team, which has now changed hands four times in as many seasons, speculation suggests it is likely to be Karthikeyan himself.

This in my personal opinion is a very good thing. Narain is a grat band ambassador and sponsors have always loved him, at least in the Indian market and he is sure to rope in a few good people to support the organization. This will also ensure that his race skills are being put to good use. Almost every F1 driver has a racing team in one league or another. This is true even for people like Tiago Monteiro, who owns a GP2 / F3000 team.

The other front of this drop out is bringing A1 GP to India, for which Spice had done a lot of work, besides which, the article claims that Spice owes Narain a significant sum of money.

We will keep our fingers crossed to see how this plays out.