2011 end of term report – Narain Karthikeyan

Narain Karthikeyan made a rather surprising return in Formula One this season with HRT.

The Indian’s last appearance dated back to 2005, when he contested a full season with Jordan-Toyota (scoring 5 points and finishing 18th in the championship).

Season review:

On January 7th, HRT surprised the F1 world in announcing Karthikeyan signing for the 2011 season. His cause was certainly helped by the expected inaugural Indian Grand Prix and his financial backing.

Despite the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team was not ready for the start of the season and arrived in Australia with cars in pieces. It took a grueling effort from the mechanics to have both cars ready for the qualifying session. However, it was not rewarded as neither Liuzzi nor Karthikeyan managed to qualify. None of them was allowed to race.

From the Malaysian GP to the European race, Karthikeyan always qualified on one of the last two rows. In the races, he often finished at the back of the field but made few mistakes and crossed the finish line of six of the seven races he started.

He was sidelined and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo after the European Grand Prix but made a one-off comeback for his home race in India. There, he scored his best result of the season with a 17th place finish – in front of Ricciardo.

Conclusion:

Although Karthikeyan ended his shortened season on a high, he is all but assured to be back next year. Actually, it seems he hasn’t been in contact with any team. The 34 year-old could still stir a surprise… maybe on occasion of the Indian Grand Prix.

Highs :
— Good performance in India
— Few mistakes

Lows :
— Contested only 8 Grand Prix
— Outperformed by Tonio Liuzzi
— Sometimes struggled to respect the blue flags

Nextgen-Auto.com marks:

— Olivier Ferret : 10/20
— D.Thys : 8/20
— Sandrine Bouchard : 10/20
— Jean-Michel Setbon : 10/20
— Average mark on the forum Nextgen-Auto.com : 9/20
—  Global mark : 47/100