Karthikeyan became the world’s first indian Formula 1 driver back in 2005
when he joined Jordan Racing. The team confirmed his move last week after he had announced it prior. This comes along with India having their very first Grand Prix held sometime in October and KarthiKeyan says he feels very privileged to be a part of that. He joins the team which gave his fellow countryman his F1 debut. Karun Chandhok raced for Hispania in the 2010 season but has yet to be confirmed as a driver for the team. Karthikeyan is the only confirmed driver for Hispania racing and the uncertainty of Bruno Senna and Chadhok’s future with the team looms on. Karthikeyan has been keeping himself busy as a test driver for Williams in 2006 and 2007, he then went on to race in the A1 Grand Prix series which has since been scrapped before changing to race in the American Nascar Truck series and Superleague Formula in Europe. Considering they had one of the slowest cars on the track and being one of the newest teams to the scene, Hispania finished 11th out of 12 in the constructor’s championship. Bringing back a driver who has been out of the scene for so long? Could this really be a good thing? After having only been away from the grid for a couple of years Michael Schumacher failed to make a considerable impression. Schumacher had the advantage though of being with a team with a much better car than Hispania and so will most likely come back into in his shining performance with a few more appearances. What chance does this leave for Karthikeyan? I’ve no doubt he’ll have the full support of the team and his will to compete will probably be unmatched, but if Hispania fail to deliver a competitive car surely he’ll not only struggle but feel completely helpless. A 5 year break is a considerable amount of time to be away from Formula 1 so it will be interesting to see how he performs, maybe his experience in other sporting fields and his aged wisdom will hold something over the other drivers. All the developments over Formula 1 this past month have really got me excited to dig into the new season. I wonder if the drama will ever end and we can get into some serious racing. While you’re waiting for the new season to start how about whiling away the time with a few laps around one of our newest tracks Tower Bridge, or a firm favourite Bristol, both recent additions to Team-Sport and both worth it.