Karun Chandhok
Karun Chandhok was born on 19 January 1984 in Chennai, India. His racing career started in the year 2000, when he won seven out of the ten races of India’s Formula Maruti series, claiming the title of Indian National Racing Champion. Building on his success, Chandhok became the youngest ever Asian Formula Champion when he won the Formula 2000 Asia championship driving for Team India Racing in the year 2001.
In 2002 Chandhok signed with T-Sport, racing in the National class and finishing sixth. Remaining with T-Sport in 2003, Chandhok finished third in the National Class Series, before moving up to the main British Formula Three class in 2004, and finishing fourteenth in the standings for T-Sport. He also competed in the Nissan World Series in 2004.
In the 2005/6 racing season Chandhok competed in five World Series by Renault races, as well as three A1 GP races before handing over to Armaan Ebrahim to complete the season. In 2006 he became champion of the inaugural twelve-race Formula Asia V6 by Renault Championship after claiming seven wins and nine pole positions.
Driving for Durango in the 2007 GP2 series, Chandhok took his first win at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in a sprint race. He was leading in the sprint race in Turkey when Kazuki Nakajima collided with him, forcing him to retire. In November on 2007, Chandhok Chandhok tested for the Red Bull Racing F1 team at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. However he remained in GP2 for 2008, this time for iSport International, competing in both the GP2 Asia and the main GP2 series, finishing thirteenth and tenth overall respectively. In 2009 Chandhok earned a podium finish with Ocean Racing Technology and completed the main GP2 series in eighteenth position. He also competed in the final round of the 2008/2008 GP2 Asia Series for ORT.
Chandhok has signed to drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team (previously Campos Meta 1), for the 2010 F1 Grand Prix Championship season, with Bruno Senna as his team-mate. The first race of the season, the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, proved to be disappointing for Karun Chandhok as he crashed after the first lap, putting him out of the race. But the season is still young, and at this stage anything is possible. What is certain is there is plenty of excitement up ahead – for drivers and supporters.