Narain Karthikeyan was the first Indian driver to race in Formula One and represented teams like Jordan and HRT
Former Indian F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan hosted a 60-minute ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit and questions poured in from fans and racing enthusiasts. Karthikeyan answered some of the selected questions and the responses were pretty interesting. Fans loved the candid interaction with the Tamil Nadu-born driver, who is known for putting India on the F1 map thanks to his exploits with Jordan and HRT F1 teams in 2005 and 2011-12.
Karthikeyan spoke on a lot of different topics and revealed interesting facts about his racing days in F1. One such interesting question popped up when a fan asked: “Hi Narain! I was a big fan of HRT back in the day, and I was wondering what those two cars were like to drive? And what were their strengths and weaknesses?” Karthikeyan came up with an honest response and wrote: “I think, back in those days, the team did not have much funds to begin with. So, unfortunately, I have to say the car had more weaknesses than strengths. But Formula One is still the ultimate form of Motorsport!”
Interestingly, both HRT (also known as Hispania Racing) and Narain Karthikeyan made their last F1 appearances in 2012.
Narain Karthikeyan represented the HRT F1 team for two seasons
Karthikeyan drove for HRT in two seasons – 2011 and 2012. The Indian driver made a comeback to F1 after five years in 2011 with HRT but he was replaced mid-way through the season by Daniel Ricciardo. HRT were a small team and got outpaced by other teams in most of the races throughout the season which meant that Karthikeyan twice set the record for the lowest placed finisher in the Grands Prix that season.
The HRT F1 team retained Karthikeyan for the 2012 World Championship. It was a thoroughly disappointing season for both Karthikeyan and his HRT team-mate Pedro de La Rosa. To make things worse, Karthikeyan finished in last place even in his home race – the Indian Grand Prix. He eventually finished the season at the bottom of the Drivers’ Championship Leaderboard, earning 0 points. It turned out to be Karthikeyan’s last season in Formula One.
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