Narain Karthikeyan: India's First Formula One Driver and His Long Road Through Motorsport

Narain Karthikeyan raced in Formula One from 2005 to 2012 and was the first driver from India to do so. He became India's first Formula One driver when he signed with Jordan in 2005, and he later raced in Japan's Super Formula and Super GT series.

Who is Narain Karthikeyan?

Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on 14 January 1977. His parents were Sheela and Kakarla Karthikeyan Naidu, and his father was a former Indian national rally champion who won the South India Rally seven times. Motorsport was part of his life from an early age.

He has an elder sister, Deepika, and a younger brother, Rajeev. Coimbatore's Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School was where he studied as a boy, before racing took over.

His first podium came in his first race, in the Formula Maruti National championship at Sriperumbudur. A spell at the Elf Winfield Racing School in France followed, and in 1992 he made the semi-final stage of Elf's Formula Renault talent contest.

Karthikeyan became India's first Formula One driver in 2005, when he signed a deal with the Jordan team.

How did his early single-seater career develop?

Back in India, he raced in Formula Maruti in 1993 while still only 15. The same season he entered Formula Vauxhall Junior in Britain as well. In 1994 he became the first Indian driver to win a championship in Europe, taking the British Formula Ford Winter Series.

That season he went back to Britain as Vector's second works driver with Foundation Racing in Formula Ford Zetec. A podium at Estoril, in a race supporting the Portuguese Grand Prix, was the year's high point.

The 1996 Formula Asia campaign was a full season for him, and it gave him the International series title, making him the first Indian and first Asian to take it. A year later he was back in Britain with Nemesis Motorsport in the British Formula Opel Championship, where he took a pole position and a win at Donington Park and finished sixth overall.

How did he fare in British Formula 3 and Macau?

His British Formula 3 debut came in 1998 with Carlin Motorsport. He contested ten rounds and finished 12th overall. In 1999 he had five podiums, including two wins at Brands Hatch, and finished sixth. That campaign further brought two poles, three fastest laps and two lap records.

That year he also raced in the Macau Grand Prix, qualifying sixth and finishing sixth in the second race. His Brands Hatch wins were notable for Carlin, a team that went on to win a great many races in the series.

In 2000 he finished fourth overall in British F3, and he took pole and fastest laps at Macau. Two further wins came at the International F3 round at Spa-Francorchamps and at the Korea Super Prix.

How did he become India's first Formula One driver?

Karthikeyan became India's first Formula One driver in 2005, when he signed a deal with the Jordan team. He completed the 300 km of testing needed for his superlicence at Silverstone on 10 February.

He had tested for Jaguar at Silverstone on 14 June 2001, the first Indian to drive a Formula One car. Jordan then offered him a test in September 2001. On 5 October that year he tested for the team at Mugello, finishing just half a second behind the pace of Jean Alesi.

In 2002 he switched to the Telefonica World Series with Team Tata RC Motorsport, where he earned a pole and the quickest non-F1 lap at Interlagos. In 2003 he finished fourth in the renamed Superfund World Series, winning four podiums, and that result earned him a Minardi test. He was offered a 2004 race drive, but could not raise the sponsorship to seal it.

What was his 2005 season with Jordan like?

He qualified 12th for his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, but a poor start dropped him to 18th, and he finished 15th, two laps behind the winner. The Japanese Grand Prix free practice was better: he was fastest for long periods and qualified 11th for the race.

His only points came at the United States Grand Prix, where most teams withdrew over a dispute about tyre safety. He finished fourth, ahead of both Minardi cars but behind his team-mate Tiago Monteiro. At the Chinese Grand Prix he qualified 15th, then crashed into a wall. He was unhurt and gave an interview straight after.

Jordan was taken over and renamed Midland for 2006. Karthikeyan announced late in 2005 that he would not drive for the team in 2006. Reports said the new owners wanted up to $11.7 million from him to keep the drive.

In 2005 he also ran an Indy Racing League car in testing for Red Bull Cheever Racing, with the Indianapolis 500 as the goal. He was offered an initial fee of $500,000 for the drive, but that deal was never completed.

What were his years as a Williams test driver?

On 8 December 2005 he tested for Williams in Spain and finished fifth, ahead of the confirmed second driver Nico Rosberg. On 27 January 2006 Williams confirmed him as its fourth driver, with test duties alongside Alexander Wurz, who was its third driver. He stayed a reserve test driver in 2007 alongside Kazuki Nakajima.

He said he had been blown away by the gap between the back of the grid and a top-flight team. Later in 2007 he was linked with the Spyker team after Christijan Albers was dropped, but Sakon Yamamoto got the drive. Force India also showed interest in 2008 without offering him a test.

Why did he drive for Hispania and HRT?

Karthikeyan returned to the grid in 2011 with Hispania, a small team backed by the Tata Group. He had announced the deal on Twitter, calling a race in front of the home crowd at the Indian Grand Prix a dream come true. Hispania's limited pace, alongside the rising reliability of modern cars, meant that he twice ended a race as the last car classified. He finished 23rd in China after being overtaken on the final lap by Vitantonio Liuzzi, and 24th in Europe, where there were no retirements.

On 30 June 2011 Daniel Ricciardo replaced him for the remaining races, though Karthikeyan returned at the Indian Grand Prix. He qualified 22nd, then started last after blocking Michael Schumacher in qualifying. He finished 17th, beating Ricciardo by 31.8 seconds in the race.

In 2012 he joined HRT alongside Pedro de la Rosa. In Malaysia he was running as high as fifth in the wet before a collision with Jenson Button, followed by an incident with Sebastian Vettel's front wing. The stewards gave him a 20-second penalty, and he and Vettel traded insults before agreeing a truce.

His best result that season was 15th at Monaco. He suffered brake failure in Canada and a broken steering system in Abu Dhabi, when Nico Rosberg hit him from behind. He finished the season 24th with no points.

What did he do after leaving Formula One?

From 2014 to 2018 he raced in the Japanese Super Formula series, first with Team IMPUL, then with Docomo Team Dandelion and Sunoco Team LeMans. In 2019 he joined the Super GT series in Japan, and a single outing for Nakajima Racing produced a win in the Fuji round of the Super GT and DTM crossover event.

He then raced eight times for Modulo Epson NSX-GT, achieving one podium. Earlier, in 2013, he had driven in Auto GP for Zele Racing and Super Nova Racing, and he won five races and finished fourth in the championship. After switching teams mid-season, he also took four poles and collected more points than anyone else after the switch.

In 2007 he made his A1 Grand Prix debut for Team India in New Zealand, taking tenth in the sprint and seventh in the feature. In 2009 the team ended its final season with a podium in the sprint race at Brands Hatch, though his own feature race ended on the first corner after a collision.

Sportscar racing, NASCAR and other series

In 2009 he drove for the Kolles Le Mans team in the Le Mans Series, in a pair of Audi R10 machines. The R10 had already won three Le Mans 24 Hours and 22 individual races. His first Le Mans Series race was a sixth-place finish at the 1000 km of Spa. Shortly before the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year he dislocated his shoulder in a fall, and the ACO declared him unsuitable to drive at 1am despite an Audi doctor's approval.

Like several former Formula One drivers, he moved into stock car racing in 2010 with Wyler Racing. His NASCAR debut came at Martinsville Speedway on 27 March 2010, in the Camping World Truck Series for Wyler Racing. Qualifying was rained out, so the starting order was set by owner points, and that placed him 11th. He finished 13th on the lead lap. He was the earliest Indian-born competitor in NASCAR, and that year he won the series' Most Popular Driver award, the first foreign-born winner of it.

In 2010 he also drove in the Superleague Formula series for PSV Eindhoven, winning the second race at Brands Hatch and finishing 16th in the championship. That year the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian honour.

Early wins and a 2004 sportscar outing

In 1995 Karthikeyan entered the Formula Asia Championship for only four races, but he showed pace from the start and finished second at Shah Alam in Malaysia, which marked the early sign of the speed that later carried him through the ranks.

In 2004 he raced in the Nissan World Series, took wins at Valencia and Magny-Cours, and finished sixth overall. A lone FIA GT start for Scuderia Veregra at the Dubai 500 km followed, sharing the car with Anthony Beltoise and Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum.

That Dubai outing ended 11th in class and 19th overall. Earlier, in 2001, he had started the year in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship and finished among the top ten drivers.

Career milestones at a glance