Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (; born 14 January 1977) is an Indian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and .
Early life and family background Karthikeyan was born on 14 January 1977 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, to Sheela and Kakarla Karthikeyan Naidu. He has an elder sister, Deepika and younger brother, Rajeev. He did his schooling at Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore. His interest in motorsport began at an early age, as his father Karthikeyan was a former Indian national rally champion winning South India Rally seven times.
Karthikeyan went on the Elf Winfield Racing School in France, and became a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in 1992.
Early career Karthikeyan finished on the podium in his first race at Sriperumbudur in a Formula Maruti National racing championship. Then, he went to France and attended the Elf Winfield Racing School. He returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the 1993 season at the age of 15 years, and in the same year, he also competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in Great Britain.
Karthikeyan previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F3, World series by Nissan, AutoGP, Formula Asia, British Formula Ford and Opel series in his single-seater career. He won the British Formula Ford Winter Series in 1994 and Formula Asia Championship in 1996.
In 1994, Karthikeyan returned to the UK, racing in the Formula Ford Zetec series as the number two works Vector driver for the Foundation Racing team. The highlight of the season was a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix held at Estoril. He also took part in the British Formula Ford Winter Series, and became the first Indian driver to win any championship in Europe.
In 1995, Karthikeyan graduated to the Formula Asia Championship for just four races. However, he showed pace immediately and was able to finish second in the race at Shah Alam, Malaysia. In 1996, he had a full season in the series and became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. He moved back to Britain in 1997 to compete in the British Formula Opel Championship with the Nemesis Motorsport team, taking a pole position and win at Donington Park and finishing sixth in the overall points standings.
In 1998, Karthikeyan made his debut in the British Formula 3 Championship with the Carlin Motorsport team. Competing in only ten rounds, he managed two third-place finishes in the final two races of the season, at Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone, to finish 12th overall. He continued in the championship for 1999, finishing on the podium five times, including two wins at Brands Hatch. His season also included two pole positions, three fastest laps and two lap records, helping him to sixth in the championship. He also competed in the Macau Grand Prix, qualifying in sixth position and finishing sixth in the second race. He was the first racing driver to record a win for Carlin in British F3 ever since then Carlin have been invincible in terms of race wins in the British F3 Championship. Continuing his drive in the British F3 Championship in 2000, he finished fourth overall in the standings, and also took pole position and fastest laps in the Macau Grand Prix. He also won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the Korea Super Prix.
Karthikeyan started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten. In the same year, he became the first Indian to ever drive a Formula One car, testing for the Jaguar Racing team at Silverstone on 14 June. Impressed with his performance, he was then offered a test drive in the Jordan-Honda EJ11 at Silverstone in September. Karthikeyan again tested for Jordan, at Mugello in Italy on 5 October, finishing just half a second off the pace off Jordan's lead driver Jean Alesi.
In 2002, Karthikeyan moved into the Telefónica World Series with Team Tata RC Motorsport, taking a pole position and setting the fastest non-Formula One lap time at the Interlagos Circuit in Brazil. Continuing in the renamed Superfund World Series in 2003, Karthikeyan got four podium finishes on his way to fourth overall in the championship. These results earned him another Formula One test drive, this time with the Minardi team. He was offered a race drive for the 2004 season, but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds to seal the deal.
Karthikeyan continued in the Nissan World Series in 2004, taking wins in Valencia, Spain and Magny-Cours, France, and finished sixth in the standings, and also made a single appearance in the FIA GT Championship for Scuderia Veregra, partnering Anthony Beltoise and Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum at the Dubai 500km, finishing 11th in class and 19th overall.
Formula One career
Jordan (2005)
On 1 February 2005, Karthikeyan announced that he had signed a preliminary deal with the Jordan Formula One team and said that he would be their main driver for the 2005 Formula One season, making him India's first Formula One racing driver. His partner was Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro. Karthikeyan completed the necessary testing distance of 300 km in an F1 car in order to gain his superlicence at the Silverstone Circuit on 10 February.
In his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, Karthikeyan qualified in 12th position. After a poor start which saw him drop to 18th place by the end of the first lap, he finished in 15th, two laps behind winner Giancarlo Fisichella. He achieved his only points in the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where all but three teams pulled out due to an argument over tyre safety. He finished fourth, finishing ahead of the two Minardi drivers but behind teammate Monteiro. Apart from the USGP, his highest finish was 11th place. In the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix free practice, he was fastest for a long period and eventually qualified 11th. At the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix he qualified in 15th place. In an unlucky end to his 2005 season, Karthikeyan crashed his Jordan into a wall at the Chinese race, but was unhurt and able to provide an interview afterwards.
Because the Jordan team was taken over and renamed Midland for the 2006 season, the management change prompted some doubt over Karthikeyan's future at the team. Near the end of 2005, he announced he would not be driving for Midland the following year allegedly due to their demand that he pay as much as $11.7 million to secure his seat on the team.
On 8 December 2005, Karthikeyan tested for Williams at Spain and finished fifth, outpacing the confirmed Williams second driver, Nico Rosberg, who finished ninth. On 27 January 2006, Williams confirmed Karthikeyan as their fourth driver. He was to perform testing duties for the team alongside Alexander Wurz who had been confirmed earlier as the team's third driver. He was retained as a reserve test driver for Williams alongside Kazuki Nakajima in 2007. Karthikeyan said he was "blown away" by the difference between Formula One's stragglers and a top-flight team.
Karthikeyan was a Williams F1 test driver in and .
Like several other former F1 drivers, Karthikeyan moved to stock car racing and drove the No. 60 Safe Auto Insurance Company Toyota Tundra for Wyler Racing in the 2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
HRT (2011–2012)
Later in 2007, Karthikeyan was linked with the Spyker (previously Jordan) Formula One team after their driver Christijan Albers was fired, although Sakon Yamamoto got the drive. Due to the withdrawal of support of Williams F1 by Tata (Karthikeyan's main sponsor), Nakajima was given the lion's share of testing duties and Karthikeyan was sidelined.
When the Spyker F1 team was bought out by Vijay Mallya towards the end of 2007, Karthikeyan had been linked with a drive with the new Force India Formula One team in 2008. However, he did not even get to test for the team. He was also linked to a drive with the Super Aguri team in January 2008, as one of the terms of an Indian consortium investing in the team. The deal was not agreed and he continued to drive for A1 Team India. He was India's only Formula One driver until the 2010 season, when Karun Chandhok signed to drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team.
2011
On 6 January 2011, Karthikeyan announced that he would drive for the Hispania team in the season, following five years away from active involvement in the championship. He confirmed the deal via his Twitter page, saying it would be a "dream come true to race in front of the home crowd in the Indian GP in October," and adding that the support of financial backers Tata Group had been "instrumental".
Driving for a small team, along with the increasing reliability of modern Formula 1 cars, meant that Karthikeyan twice set the record for the lowest placed finisher in a Formula 1 event. The first occurrence was during the Chinese Grand Prix where the single retirement of Jaime Alguersuari meant Karthikeyan finished in 23rd place, after he was overtaken by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi on the final lap. However, in the European Grand Prix there were no retirements meaning that Karthikeyan once again broke the record by being the 24th car to cross the finish line.
On 30 June 2011, Karthikeyan was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo for the remaining races of the season except the Indian Grand Prix but participated in Friday first practice in Germany, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
On 23 October 2011, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan would replace Liuzzi for the Indian Grand Prix. Karthikeyan was outqualifed by Ricciardo by 0.022 secs to qualify 22nd. However, Karthikeyan started 24th and last due to blocking Michael Schumacher in qualifying. Despite picking up damage in the first lap of the race, Karthikeyan managed to beat Ricciardo by 31.8 seconds in the race to finish 17th. Liuzzi returned to replace Karthikeyan ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
2012
On 3 February 2012, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan had again signed for the HRT team for the 2012 season partnering Pedro de la Rosa. In the Australian Grand Prix, he and teammate Pedro de la Rosa were unable to qualify. In Malaysia, both the HRTs managed to qualify, with Karthikeyan starting 23rd due to a five-place gear box penalty for Heikki Kovalainen, the start was wet and the HRTs gambled to start the race on full wet tyres, whilst the other cars started on intermediate tyres. As the rain increased that gamble paid off as other cars had to pit for full wets which promoted Karthikeyan to a points-paying tenth place before the safety car then red flag came out for heavy rain. At the restart, after a few more laps behind the safety car, the track was dry enough for intermediate tyres and a few drivers pitted as the safety car came back in, however Karthikeyan stayed out and was as high as fifth place at one point, before McLaren's Jenson Button crashed into him whilst they were racing for position. Karthikeyan suffered damage however, but he pitted for intermediate tyres which dropped him to the back of the field, bar teammate de la Rosa who had a served a drive-through penalty. On lap 47, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel received a puncture after hitting Karthikeyan's front wing, whilst lapping him and Vettel was forced to pit and replaced the punctured tyre which put Vettel down from fourth place, finishing 11th; Karthikeyan finished the race in 21st, however he was given a 20-second post-race penalty for his part in the collision, which meant he dropped to 22nd and last, behind de la Rosa.
Post-race, Vettel and Red Bull boss Christian Horner criticised Karthikeyan's driving, with Vettel calling Karthikeyan an "idiot". Karthikeyan hit back at Vettel, calling him a "cry-baby". Later, Kartikeyan decided to call a truce with Vettel, stating his respect for Vettel's abilities and saying "I think we have to deal with it in a mature way and forget about it."