Jordan announce new driver

**Stephen Green** · 1 Feb 2005, 09:20 (Ref:1214388)

Jordan Grand Prix have announced that Narain Karthikeyan will be joining the team as No1 driver for the 2005 season.

Narain has in the past tested for Jordan, Minardi and Jaguar but has never had the budget to compete in F1. He makes history as India's first Formula One driver.

climb · 1 Feb 2005, 09:25 (Ref:1214394)

A good visa for F1, in the perspective of landing on India.

Super Tourer · 1 Feb 2005, 09:41 (Ref:1214409)

Link to the story.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...27_DEL176302:1

Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan will drive for Jordan in the 2005 Formula One season after securing an offer from the team, his manager said on Tuesday.

"Narain has been offered a full drive by Jordan as their number one driver. He has accepted it," Sanjay Sharma told Reuters.

Sharma said Narain had given his confirmation to Jordan and would address a news conference in Bombay later on Tuesday.

Gabrio · 1 Feb 2005, 09:59 (Ref:1214425)

With all respect, if he's the first driver, imagine the second.....

Raglanparade · 1 Feb 2005, 10:03 (Ref:1214431)

Well he did have some big Indian backers... its always nice to see a country get behind SUCH TALENTED sportsmen.

Maybe Minardi will have a better season then anticipated. I sure hope there is a performance clause in this one.

DougK · 1 Feb 2005, 10:06 (Ref:1214436)

I have seen Narain Karthikeyan perform at lower formulas and I do not doubt his ability.
I think this is a very good choice by Jordan.

Super Tourer · 1 Feb 2005, 10:23 (Ref:1214449)

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonhill9884

Well he did have some big Indian backers... its always nice to see a country get behind SUCH TALENTED sportsmen.

Maybe Minardi will have a better season then anticipated. I sure hope there is a performance clause in this one.

Bit harsh. It's another 'Yoong', in that these emerging countries (in motorsport terms) don't have a pool of drivers to back, and of those that are available, very few have European experience - so it's natural that they will back the one that has. He's fast, but erratic (IIR) but still finished 6th in the World series in 2004.

Surely it's good to see a country backing anyone, in the UK we have masses of driving talent and virtually nil backing from British businesses over many years of their hands stuck firmly in their pockets!

To widen the scope and have another country represented on the grid can only be a good thing. It's another first for F1 and some positive press - for a change.

Anyone some info on him:http://www.narainracing.com/index.html

steve_r · 1 Feb 2005, 10:39 (Ref:1214464)

How did he do in his previous F1 tests? Is he quick?

Hope for Jordan's sake that they can afford to get an experienced/quick driver in the second seat.

ASCII Man · 1 Feb 2005, 10:44 (Ref:1214468)

Good grief, even Bas Leinders is better than this guy....

So it's most likely this guy and Dominguez that are going to fill the raceseats then?

What a joke...

**Stephen Green** · 1 Feb 2005, 10:50 (Ref:1214474)

It seems from further articles on Reuters that Trevor Calin is quite a fan of this lad. He drove for Calin in F3 and didn't do too badly.

**GTRMagic** · 1 Feb 2005, 10:59 (Ref:1214481)

I recall reading somewhere that Mr K was in negotiations with Kingfisher Beer (a former Benetton sponsor, and Indian beer brand) for support for 2005 and beyond... perhaps those talks paid off... literally...

x_acto · 1 Feb 2005, 11:04 (Ref:1214485)

I hope the second driver will be Tiago Monteiro. He drove also for Calin and was 2nd last year in Formula Nissan World Series.

**Stephen Green** · 1 Feb 2005, 11:07 (Ref:1214487)

And I have just noticed I spelt Carlin wrong twice...sorry Trevor!

toot toot · 1 Feb 2005, 11:08 (Ref:1214489)

He's got plenty of experience in single seaters, he's had a go in just about every formula going. But he can't be that bad with a win in the Korean F3 superprix, sixth in Macau and various British F3 success'.

**GTRMagic** · 1 Feb 2005, 11:10 (Ref:1214492)

Are they naming a 3rd driver? Maybe someone from Formula Woman would like a go

[/rant off]

This seems a very lightweight driver line up... even RBR recognised the need to get a driver with F1 experience aboard a rookie ship...

Gabrio · 1 Feb 2005, 11:12 (Ref:1214495)

Now I understand why yesterday Jordan GP stopped a driver from signing a contract....Probably more money...

Phoenix1 · 1 Feb 2005, 11:13 (Ref:1214497)

How about Pizzonia? He has experience and the speed to go with it. He may not of done lots of races but he has raced in F1 with two different teams and has done more testing than most of the young drivers on the market although there is always Wurz - depending on the cars air intake/versus his height.

Phoenix1 · 1 Feb 2005, 11:15 (Ref:1214503)

Just had a quick second read. Narain Karthikeyan is actually a bit like Sato/Massa fast but needs to calm down a bad driver at all. But of course we will see! Lets which him and the new sponsors the best. It will be great if 9 teams run together, maybe Minardi can get in the mix too. Best of luck.

BSchneiderFan · 1 Feb 2005, 11:18 (Ref:1214509)

Is Doornbos still likely to get the other seat, do we think? Crash.net suggests that Glock is now looking to Champ Cars.

f1_carzy · 1 Feb 2005, 11:19 (Ref:1214510)

If he is as exciting as Sato, then it is going to be fun, but just read an article at F1Racing, and here is an excerpt from http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=75665:
"
Sanjay Sharma, Karthikeyan's manager, said in a Reuters report: "Narain has been offered a drive by Jordan as their number one. He has accepted."

The Jordan team denies a deal has been signed at the moment but could reveal to F1Racing.net: "We will announce our drivers within two weeks."
"

Don K · 1 Feb 2005, 11:23 (Ref:1214513)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephen Green

Jordan Grand Prix have announced that Narain Karthikeyan will be joining the team as No1 driver for the 2005 season.

Has this been confirmed by Jordan yet?

All I have seen until now, is that his manager claims there is a contract.

Gabrio · 1 Feb 2005, 11:36 (Ref:1214522)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don K

Has this been confirmed by Jordan yet?

All I have seen until now, is that his manager claims there is a contract.

nothing officially confirmed by Jordan as of now

Ian Sowman · 1 Feb 2005, 11:58 (Ref:1214538)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/4224963.stm

Not confirmed as yet.

cos · 1 Feb 2005, 12:15 (Ref:1214551)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/moto...ne/4224963.stm

Not confirmed as yet.

I was going to say that Carlin's had better drivers through the years that he could offer the seat to, but from that BBC article it's clear that they want pay-drivers for 2005

Quote:

"We're a year ahead of schedule. We're using this year as a learning year and building for 2006, so we don't want to use up next year's budget this year,"

I guess it's too much to hope that Carlin's old drivers van de Merwe or Keohane could raise the budget...

BootsOntheSide · 1 Feb 2005, 12:34 (Ref:1214564)

Maybe Narain's team are trying to force Jordan's hand by announcing it first, hoping that Jordan will give him the drive so as to avoid disappointing hundreds of millions of people? It sounds as if he still needs to get the last of the sponsorship sorted.

I'd say Narain is more talented than Yoong - he's got reasonable results in every junior series he's entered, and has done lots of F1 miles seemingly without difficulty. He could be a Baumgartner-style slow but steady guy, or perhaps a Diniz who does well once given a chance in F1 and largely belied his status as a pay-driver.

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