Karun Chandhok

Karun Chandhok

Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Indian
Entries	0
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix

Karun Chandhok (born January 19, 1984 in Chennai) is an Indian racing driver, who is due to drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team in Formula One, in 2010. Before this, he drove in the GP2 Series for three years, winning two races.

Prior to his time in GP2, Chandhok won the Formula Asia championship in 2001 and was the inaugural Formula Asia V6 by Renault champion in 2006.

Career

Early career

2000

Indian National Racing Champion with a record breaking 7 race victories. Pole position and fastest lap in all the 10 races which is still a national record.

2001

Youngest ever Asian Formula Champion driving for "Team India Racing". First Asian to win the opening 5 races of a season and winning a record 8 races in a year. Presented with the award for the "Most promising Asian driver of the year". Tested with British Formula 3 champion team Carlin Motorsport.

2002

6th in the British Formula Three National class with 6 top 3 finishes in the year. Awarded Overdrive Magazine’s "Motorsport man of the year".

2003

3rd in the British Formula 3 National class winning 8 races and scoring 19 podium finishes in 24 races with T-Sport. Becomes India’s first and only certified instructor at the prestigious Silverstone Race school at the Formula 1 venue in England.

2004

Front runner in British Formula 3 with T-Sport and was instantly a top 5 qualifier and finisher when he partnered his compatriot Narain Karthikeyan in the World Series by Nissan for the final two rounds the year and finished 4th in his second ever outing ahead of team-mate Narain. Team captain of "Team India" at the 24 hour Dubai Karting race. First person to be awarded Overdrive Magazine’s ‘Motorsport man of the year’ for the second time.

2005

Raced part-season in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with RC Motorsport. Was the first driver to represent India in A1 Grand Prix. Signed up by the world's leading Motorsport agents, CSS-Stellar management.

2006

Historic champion of the first ever Formula Asia V6 by Renault Championship. 7 race wins and 9 pole positions from 12 races.

2007

GP2 Series driver for Durango. Tipped by Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone to be the next F1 driver from India and claims he is a fan of Karun's. Chandhok improved during the season, and finished in the top 8 at three feature races. He took his first victory at Spa-Francorchamps sprint race from second on the grid. He was awarded a test with the Red Bull Racing team in November for his performances in GP2[1]

Chandhok's first win in GP2 came in the sprint race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium during the 2007 season for the Durango team. Chandhok also led the sprint race in Turkey after starting from pole, only for the second place Kazuki Nakajima of DAMS to collide with him. The collision resulted in retirement for Chandhok while Nakajima was given a drive-through penalty.

Chandok got his biggest career break in November with a call up from the Red Bull Racing Formula One team to test for them over two days at the Circuito de Catalunya in Barcelona on the 13th and 14th of November.[2]

2008

Chandhok driving for iSport International at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Chandhok driving for Ocean Racing Technology at the Monaco round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

Chandhok remained in GP2 for 2008, switching to the iSport International team where he was partnered by Bruno Senna. He won one race and finished tenth in the drivers' championship. He also drove for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season. After winning one race and finishing tenth in the championship, Chandhok was presented with the series' "Best Driving Style" award at the end of the season.

In November, Chandhok became the first Indian driver to be invited to join the British Racing Drivers' Club. India's membership of the Commonwealth entitles him to be a member.

2009

Chandhok signed to drive for the Ocean Racing Technology team in the 2009 GP2 Series season. Even though the deal with ORT was for the pan-European series, Chandhok also drove in the final round of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, in Bahrain replacing Yelmer Buurman. Chandhok amassed ten points in the championship, with a best result of third at Silverstone. He and team-mate Álvaro Parente suffered a testing season, with sixteen retirements between them.

Formula One

Force India

Karun was linked with the Force India team, which was created in 2008. It is an Indian registered-team and is owned by a friend of the family, Vijay Mallya. After the team's driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, moved from Force India to Ferrari during the 2009 season, Chandhok was briefly linked with the seat, with even long-time supporter Bernie Ecclestone supporting him. The team's test driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, was instead promoted to the race seat. After Liuzzi was confirmed as a race driver, Vijay Mallya stated that he would offer Karun and Neel Jani, who has an Indian father, a chance to prove themselves in the McLaren F1 simulator. It is thought that this test could lead to a Reserve drive or future race drive for either with Force India.

2010: Hispania

Chandhok will drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team for 2010, alongside former GP2 team-mate Bruno Senna. He will be the second Indian driver to compete in Formula One after Narain Karthikeyan in 2005.

Racing record

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	India	GBR SPR 15	GBR FEA DNS	GER SPR 16	GER FEA Ret	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	24th	0

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	Durango	BHR FEA 9	BHR SPR Ret	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 15	MON FEA Ret	FRA FEA Ret	FRA SPR 16	GBR FEA 12	GBR SPR 13	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 16	HUN FEA 14	HUN SPR 15	TUR FEA 8	TUR SPR Ret	ITA FEA 5	ITA SPR 6	BEL FEA 7	BEL SPR 1	VAL FEA 17	VAL SPR Ret	15th	16
2008	iSport International	ESP FEA 9	ESP SPR Ret	TUR FEA 4	TUR SPR 12	MON FEA 3	MON SPR Ret	FRA FEA 7	FRA SPR Ret	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR Ret	GER FEA 8	GER SPR 1	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR DNS	EUR FEA 15	EUR SPR Ret	BEL FEA 10	BEL SPR 7	ITA FEA 11	ITA SPR Ret		10th	31
2009	Ocean Racing Technology	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA 7	MON SPR Ret	TUR FEA 13	TUR SPR 14	GBR FEA 6	GBR SPR 3	GER FEA 11	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 17	HUN SPR 10	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 6	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 7	ITA FEA 19	ITA SPR 12	POR FEA Ret	POR SPR 13		18th	10

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008	iSport International	DUB1 FEA 7	DYB1 SPR 3	IDN FEA Ret	IDN SPR 13	MYS FEA Ret	MYS SPR 7	BHR FEA 8	BHR SPR Ret	DUB2 FEA Ret	DUB2 SPR Ret			13th	7
2008–09	Ocean Racing Technology	CHN FEA	CHN SPR	DUB FEA	DUB SPR	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	QAT FEA	QAT SPR	MYS FEA	MYS SPR	BHR2 FEA 9	BHR2 SPR Ret	26th	0

External links

• Official website
• Official Blog of Karun Chandhok