Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan was born on 14 January 1977 and is an Indian racing driver.
64 Facts About Narain Karthikeyan
2.
Narain Karthikeyan was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One.
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Narain Karthikeyan has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series.
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Narain Karthikeyan made his Formula One debut in 2005 with the Jordan team, and was a Williams F1 test driver in 2006 and 2007.
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However, HRT was not included in the FIA's 2013 entry list, and thus Narain Karthikeyan was left without a drive.
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Narain Karthikeyan did his schooling at Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore.
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Narain Karthikeyan's interest in motorsport began at an early age, as his father was a former Indian national rally champion winning South India Rally seven times.
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Narain Karthikeyan then went on to the Elf Winfield Racing School in France, showing his talent by becoming a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in 1992.
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Narain Karthikeyan returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the 1993 season, and in the same year, he competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in Great Britain.
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Narain Karthikeyan took part in the British Formula Ford Winter Series, and became the first Indian driver to win any championship in Europe.
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In 1995, Narain Karthikeyan graduated to the Formula Asia Championship for just four races.
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Narain Karthikeyan 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.
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In 1998, Narain Karthikeyan made his debut in the British Formula 3 Championship with the Carlin Motorsport team.
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Narain Karthikeyan continued in the championship for 1999, finishing on the podium five times, including two wins at Brands Hatch.
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Narain Karthikeyan's season included two pole positions, three fastest laps and two lap records, helping him to sixth in the championship.
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Narain Karthikeyan competed in the Macau Grand Prix, qualifying in sixth position and finishing sixth in the second race.
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Narain Karthikeyan 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.
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Narain Karthikeyan won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the Korea Super Prix.
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Narain Karthikeyan started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten.
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Narain Karthikeyan was offered a race drive for the 2004 season, but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds to seal the deal.
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Narain Karthikeyan continued in the Nissan World Series in 2004, taking wins in Valencia, Spain and Magny-Cours, France, and finished 6th in the standings, and 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.
22.
On 1 February 2005, Narain 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.
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Narain Karthikeyan achieved his first points in the 2005 United States Grand Prix where all but three teams pulled out due to an argument over tyre safety.
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Narain Karthikeyan finished fourth, finishing ahead of the two Minardi drivers but behind teammate Monteiro.
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On 8 December 2005, Narain Karthikeyan tested for Williams at Spain and finished fifth, outpacing the confirmed Williams second driver, Nico Rosberg, who finished ninth.
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Narain Karthikeyan was to perform testing duties for the team alongside Alexander Wurz who had been confirmed earlier as the team's third driver.
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Narain Karthikeyan was retained as a reserve test driver for Williams alongside Kazuki Nakajima in 2007.
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Narain Karthikeyan said he was "blown away" by the difference between Formula One's stragglers and a top-flight team.
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Narain Karthikeyan was 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.
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Narain Karthikeyan was India's only Formula One driver until the 2010 season, when Karun Chandhok signed to drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team.
31.
On 6 January 2011, Narain Karthikeyan announced that he would drive for the Hispania team in the 2011 season, following five years away from active involvement in the championship.
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The first occurrence was during the Chinese Grand Prix where the single retirement of Jaime Alguersuari meant Narain Karthikeyan finished in 23rd place, after he was overtaken by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi on the final lap.
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However, in the European Grand Prix there were no retirements meaning that Narain Karthikeyan broke the record by being the 24th car to cross the finish line.
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On 30 June 2011, Narain 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.
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On 23 October 2011, it was confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan would replace Liuzzi for the Indian Grand Prix.
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Narain Karthikeyan was outqualifed by 0.022 secs to qualify 22nd, however he started 24th and last due to blocking Michael Schumacher in qualifying.
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On 3 February 2012, it was confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan had again signed for the HRT team for the 2012 season partnering Pedro de la Rosa.
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In Malaysia, both the HRTs managed to qualify, with Narain Karthikeyan starting 23rd due to a 5-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.
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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 Narain Karthikeyan stayed out and was as high as 5th place at one point, before McLaren's Jenson Button crashed into him whilst they were racing for position.
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Narain 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.
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Post-race, Vettel and Red Bull boss Christian Horner criticised Narain Karthikeyan's driving, with Vettel calling Narain Karthikeyan an "idiot".
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Narain Karthikeyan finished the race in 18th, behind Pic and de la Rosa but classified ahead of Lewis Hamilton who retired after crashing out with two laps remaining.
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Narain Karthikeyan finished the next 3 races as the final classified finisher before retiring in Hungary due to broken suspension.
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Narain Karthikeyan was running ahead of Pic and de la Rosa for quite some time until retiring with vibrations on lap 32.
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Narain Karthikeyan did a one-stop strategy in Korea and finished last in 20th, almost a lap behind Pic in 19th.
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Narain Karthikeyan retired in spectacular fashion on lap 9 in Abu Dhabi after his steering broke and he was rear-ended by Nico Rosberg.
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Narain Karthikeyan eventually dropped back and finished last in 18th.
48.
Narain Karthikeyan finished the season in 24th, with zero points.
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In 2005, Narain Karthikeyan tested an Indy Racing League car for the Red Bull Cheever Racing team for the Indianapolis 500 race and was offered $500,000 as an initial fee, but the deal was not completed.
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Narain Karthikeyan made his A1 GP debut in New Zealand and he finished 10th in the sprint race and 7th in the Feature Race.
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Narain Karthikeyan won the A1GP of Zhuhai for Team India on 16 December 2007.
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Narain Karthikeyan is the first to take pole position for India in the A1GP.
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Narain Karthikeyan got pole in the feature race in Brands Hatch in 2008.
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On 11 May 2009, Narain Karthikeyan finished sixth in his first ever Le Mans series race while driving for the Kolles Audi team in the second round of the 2009 championship held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
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On 14 June 2009 Narain Karthikeyan dislocated his shoulder in a fall just before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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Narain Karthikeyan had come up with strong performances in the practice and the qualifying, and was scheduled to do the opening double stint.
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Narain Karthikeyan went on to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Most Popular Driver Award for the 2010 season which was voted by the fans, becoming the first foreign-born driver to win the award.
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Narain Karthikeyan drove for the PSV Eindhoven team in SLF in 2010.
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Narain Karthikeyan won the 2nd race at Brands Hatch, Great Britain and finished 16th in the Championship on 288 points, taking part in six of the twelve race weekends.
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Narain Karthikeyan drove for Zele Racing and Super Nova Racing in the Auto GP series in 2013.
61.
In 2014, Narain Karthikeyan returned to the Japanese Top Formula series Super Formula for the first time since 2001 with the same Team IMPUL.
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Narain Karthikeyan moved to Sunoco Team LeMans for the 2016 season after DoCoMo Dandelion Racing chose McLaren Honda F1 Reserve Stoffel Vandoorne.
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In 2019, Narain Karthikeyan raced with Nakajima Racing for one race, winning the Fuji Super GT x DTM Dream Race in Fuji, gaining the fastest lap during the race.
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Narain Karthikeyan then raced with Modulo Epson NSX-GT Team for 8 races, gaining one podium.