WTF Happened to Narain Karthikeyan?

the racing point formula 1 team will be renamed to aston martin for the 2021 season onwards after having competed under racing point for just a couple of years if you trawl through the team's history you'll see a raft of name changes that date all the way back to 1991 then known as jordan grand prix it quickly became a popular team and those cars are still missed to this day i mean like i missed them but while they experienced high points in the late 90s through to the early 2000s it soon fell under that cloud where the team would require extra backing in order to help make ends meet in their last season in 2005 they had two very interesting pay drivers in their seats one of them was thiago montero this was the man who scored jordan's last ever podium at the oh so loved 2005 united states grand prix but let's not talk about that anymore what hang on we have to but that guy's teammate was a curious case indeed he was the first driver from his country to compete in formula one his performances early in the season had turned heads but would soon fade into obscurity he won junior formula titles he won for his nation and would later go on to test for teams such as williams he was a pioneer from a country home to 1.5 billion people and yet if you say his name most would just laugh so i guess the question here is what happened to this guy [Music] bye one of only two formula one drivers to hail from india and a lot of people primarily remember him for fiddle's cucumber comment but aside from that you'd be hard-pressed to find a casual fan who is aware of what he's done behind the wheel yeah yeah yeah i know what you're thinking but for however many memes and jokes are around this guy there is a little bit more to his career than you may think born in combatry india kathy kane grew up in a sporting family however unlike most indians who would normally pursue the national game of cricket karthikone's love was firmly with motorsport he was introduced to the sport at a young age through his father who was an indian national rally champion and seven time winner of south india rally he made his car racing debut in the formula marousi series before traveling to france to partake in the pilota elf competition in 1992. he competed once again in formula maruti in 1993 before heading over to the uk to compete in the british formula ford championship it was a relatively quiet season finishing 13th in the standings although he would achieve his first podium in the support race for the portuguese grand prix esther real and would win the winter series to cap off the year heading back to asia in the year after that karthiken competed part-time in the formula asia series although the pace demonstrated in his time here was enough for him to consider a full-time season in 1996 and of course he would go on to win the championship so with this results kathy kane moved back to the uk hopeful that his experience would help guide him to the formula vauxhall title where it actually guided him was sixth place however he did want to race at donington so i guess it was that nonetheless karthiken would graduate to the british f3 series in 1998 driving with intersport alongside ben collins and two other people that didn't get to play the stick initial efforts looked rubbish on paper and by the sixth round at donington kathy kane was out of a drive but then a place came available at carlin which saw kathy kane return to the championship at pembery and when he returned the results picked up with kathy kane securing podiums in the final two rounds at spa and silverstone he would once again team up with carlin for the 1999 season and this time kathy kane would take two wins both at bran's hatch and as if it's meant that he finished in sixth place overall finishing ahead of the likes of alex jung and for 2000 kathy kane would move to paul stewart racing for a third attempt at the british f3 crown but despite achieving four podiums that season he had to settle for fourth place in the driver standings while teammate thomas shechter achieved second place overall not the greatest result but he would compete in numerous one-off f3 races later that year this included a campaign at the macau grand prix kathy kane took pole position ahead of takuma sato and led the race comfortably in the opening stages victory was certain but then karthik kane crashed on lap six taking him out of the race it's something that he still rose to this day acknowledging that he very well could have won that race and become india's first ever grand prix winner fun fact that title now belongs to jihan dharavala for winning the new zealand grand prix and you know for however much we take the piss out of him he was showing some speed at this time of his career you know and he would prove that once again by winning the korea super pre held in shanghan later that year these performances gave him the moniker of being the fastest indian in the world but despite being a literal one a billion in the eyes of the patriotic journalist kathy kane couldn't make that leap to formula one at least not yet instead karthik packed his bags and headed for japan to contest the formula nippon series in 2001. joining team impul karthikain was paired up with satoshi motoyama which made things just a tad difficult seeing as how this guy was only extremely fast carthikaine also struggled to gel with the culture of japan he wasn't a fan of the food and struggled with the language and hey to be fair it doesn't matter how long you study the damn thing for there will be days where you look at the wall of japanese and think while team at maruyama would go on to win the title kathy kaine finished a lowly 15th with only two points finishes to his name but it wouldn't be all bad times for him in 2001 because in june that year kathy kane headed to silverstone to test for the jaguar formula one team thus becoming the first indian to drive a formula one car he also tested for jordan in that same year this was groundbreaking stuff but ultimately it still didn't lead to a full-time drive yet however with the goal in sight kathy kane returned to europe to compete in the world series by nissan series team with peter sornberg rc motorsport kathy kane had a troublesome middle part of the year although he would finish ahead of teammate sunberg and achieve the team's only podium at haram as well as its only pole position at certibar he remained in the series for 2003 rejoining the carl and team that he raced with early on in his career this time he would drive alongside kathy kane finished fourth overall with four podiums to his name while his teammate faulted but it was during the season where kathy kane's formula one dreams picked up again over at minardi nicolas kaiser had signed up to complete the last few races of the season although it wasn't originally meant to be him apparently karthiken was in talks to take over the drive although these plans fell through and ultimately ended up testing for the team at the end of the year still though this guy was getting closer and closer to his formula one dream but for 2004 at least he would spend another year in the world series having rejoined rc motorsport kathy kane would finish sixth in the standings although he enjoyed a good year of results including a win at manicore and valencia boy here was showing some speed even if the standings didn't necessarily reflect that helmut marco saw this too although it may have been out of his bad eye nevertheless kathy kane was drafted into the red bull junior team for the 2004 season at the end of the year he tested an indie car at the phoenix international raceway for eddie cheeva racing and was offered a seat for next year's indy 500 although he'd take a pass on this because back in europe he had his sights set on something else he had proven to have a degree of speed but his backing was also of utmost importance one team that needed a mixture of both was the jordan grand prix team who had just been bought by some russians however these particular russians didn't have any sons to drive for the team and with nick heidfeld and teemo glock leaving the team two new drivers were required to fill the void on the 1st of february 2005 in a press conference at the taj mahal hotel in mumbai kathy kane was announced to become india's first ever formula one driver for the forthcoming season now with him being into jordan in 2005 he wasn't exactly expected to win any championships or anything but he did have a teammate to go up against in this case it was portuguese driver thiago montero not exactly a trailblazer but he did beat kathy kane in the previous year of junior racing so by the time they got to melbourne for the first round you would imagine that kathy kane would be a laughingstock and would be severely outqualified and not even meet the 107 time which we'll get back to later in order to qualify instead he stuck it on the sixth row of the grid ahead of teammate montero and the lord of the eyebrows in fact for the first team grand prix that year kathy kane was actually beating montero in the qualifying battle with some sensational performances to start off the year not my words the words of martin brundle he would finish ahead of montero in the first race in melbourne and again in sepang however in the third round of bahrain he would complete two laps before the electrics went on strike but while the first few races were pretty decent for him the remainder of the year was relatively crap some of it was down to him and some down to the alleged politics within the team and driving a jordan the likelihood for points was pretty much non-existent that was until the united states grand prix where there was a slight disturbance and when i say slight disturbance i mean that over half the cars would not take the start and i guess now is when i had to lean some explainings to those who were not aware of what formula one was like back in 2005. so there was a tyre war back then some used bridgestone rubber while others used michelin the teams that used the bridgestones were ferrari minardi and jordan and everyone else was on the michelin tyres over the course of the weekend the michelin runners began to experience tyre failures i'll explain this all in another video because this really was the biggest fast on american soil since american top gear or the yankees the point is that all michelin shot cars would be forced to withdraw from the race leaving the bridgestone runners ferrari jordan and minardi as the only cars on the grid aside from the ridiculous nature of what was unfolding this was crucial because one of those teams was going to score the vital constructors points to keep them off the bottom of the table for the season and one of those drivers was going to get their first ever podium but which driver would it be would it be kathy cayenne montero christian albus or god forbid patrick freesaka well it wouldn't be him and it wouldn't be albers and it wouldn't be kath kane either as montero would be the only happy person in indianapolis that day taking his first and only podium in formula one as well as jordan's last ever podium nonetheless kathy kane scored his first points and remains the only indian to score points in a formula one race take that karoon the rest of the year wasn't terribly great apart from one good qualifying session at the season ender in shanghai where he outqualified the mel gibson of the racing world jacques vilner and he celebrated this momentous occasion by destroying his car in the race bringing his season to a disastrous end his inclusion into the team for the 2006 season was eradicated thanks to the team's new management demanding 11.7 million dollars worth of sponsorship from kathy cayenne so instead he went to tesla williams where he was actually outpacing second driver and future world champion nico rosberg he remained their test driver for 2006 right up until 2007 which is when his main sponsor tata decided to stop lending money he was also linked to spika for the 2007 season after the team made the conscious decision of firing a driver mid-season however that seat went to sak on yamamoto who incidentally has a wikipedia article that simply reads meh but while kathy kane with tespar williams in 06 and 07 he never truly liked the idea of being out on track without the fear of being lapped so instead he headed to new zealand in late january to compete for team india in the a1 gp series the a1 gp series was pretty much the world cup of motorsport it was a fantastic idea that was doomed from the start he drove most of the season with the best result of fourth at bran's hatch meanwhile back in europe vj malia kingfisher tycoon and human form of gravian biscuits had bought the spica team and announced its rebranding to force india naturally kathy kane was tied to drive for the team but he wouldn't get so much as a test for them he was also linked to super aguri but of course nothing came of this either and alas his formula one career appeared to be all but over at least for now in the meantime kathy kane would continue to compete for team india in a1 gp from 2007 to 2009 where he would rack up one pole petition three podiums and two wins he also partook in the 24 hour of le mans where he finished seventh overall or at least that's what the result sheet said but the story of his le mans venture was interesting after putting in some good performances in the lead-up to the race kathy kane was meant to drive the opening portion of the race in a double stint however before the race started he climbed over the pit wall to go take a sh but in doing so he sort of fell and dislocated his shoulder which would force him out of the race and gave him an injury which would not fully recover for another two years after a1 gp collapsed kathy kane sought refuge in the super weird super league formula series in 2010 winning one race at bran's hatch as well as this kathy kane decided to compete in a series of which the luxury and glamour of formula 1 was rivaled a series which requires at least a modicum of etiquette and is universally described as the ballet of the racing world nascar competing in the truck series for a while of racing he would put in some okay performances and would win the most popular driver award because i mean hey why not but all of this didn't satiate kathy kane's thirst he wanted to get back into formula one problem was there wasn't really a team he can go to until hispania racing's drivers had ditched the team by the end of 2010 and left two vacancies at the spanish team one of those seats would be occupied by vita antonio leotze who was very fast but had a nasty habit of remembering mid-race that he was italian the second driver was announced on january 6 2011. and of course it was kathy kane this was doubly important because 2011 would see the first running of the indian grand prix an indian driving in the indian grand prix a dream come true however this season would be anything but a dream there were two reasons for this firstly hispania racing with the stragglers of formula one the cars were garbage and often had the performance and reliability of a mcdonald's drive-through then there was the second problem and now is where i'm gonna stop being nice to the rain sorry brother i gotta lay down some truth here narain was comprehensively beaten by lyoutsee for that season it was even worse in melbourne when both he and leotze failed to qualify for the race what's more there were two occasions where kathy came broke a record in formula one but it wasn't a record you'd be particularly pleased about it was the record for the lowest place finisher of a grand prix first breaking it in china when he finished 23rd and then breaking it again in valencia when he finished 24th and while that had nothing to do with it kathy kane was buddha from hrt to make way for red bull junior daniel ricardo from the british grand prix onwards although it was not the end for the reign as he would return for his home race in india with the home crowd on his side and looking to make an impact kanthi kane put in a lap time of one minute 30.238 which was slower than rookie teammate ricardo and this would be further compounded when kathy kane was penalized for blocking michael schumacher in q1 although hey to his credit kathy kane did beat ricardo in the race to finish 17th although this would be his last race for the year and i guess despite being in the worst car in the grid it was perhaps gratifying to beat his teammate in his last f1 race right well it wasn't his last f1 race because on february 3rd 2012 kathy kane announced that he would be driving once again for hrt this time for the duration of the season and would be partnered by pedro de la rosa for the season and no disrespect to pedro but he was and eleventy million years old at the time of his signing having said that noreen wasn't a spring chicken either sir the team rocked up to the australian grand prix with a car that certainly looked better than in previous years the problem was that it was still slow enough to gather algae this became a problem in qualifying as both cars would not qualify once again thus dela rosa and kathy kane would be forced to wait for the malaysian grand prix just a couple weeks later and hey once he was there he did qualify i mean barely however as both hrts were starting at the back they decided to gamble with the weather starting kathy kane on the wet tyres praying that the rain would get worse and whatever god they prayed to it worked as everyone was forced to put and help levitate kathy kane into the points that was until the safety car came out due to the rain and then subsequently the red flag as the race got back underway the track began to dry out ever so slightly cars began to pull in for intermediates but carthage stayed out there on the wits and was running as high as fifth place at one point in hrt there was until he was hit on lap 15 by jensen button giving carthage some damage to his car and consequently forcing him into the pits he changed to the intermediate tyres which saw him drop to the end of the field sorry to take the wind out of his sails but of course that was not the end of his race not by a long shot on mate 47 sebastian vettel came into the picture in his red bull and left kathy kane and while doing so clipped kathy kane's front wing causing a puncture for fettle and throwing him out of the points the stewards meanwhile took note of kathy kane's involvement in the incident and rewarded him with a 20-second post-race penalty dropping him to last place behind old man river the fallout of the vettel kathy kane incident was extreme with fettle calling kathy kane an idiot and a cucumber to which kathy kane responded by calling fiddle a crybaby for the majority of the season dela rosa out-qualified him and outraced him it seemed that nothing was going his way until the 2012 belgian grand prix after roman gorjon took out half the field in his bid to learn how to fly kathy kane found himself in 13th after 30 laps and had some good race pace on hand that was until the suspension decided to nope on him and forced him out of the race good fortunes were just on the horizon though when he managed to out qualify de la rosa for the first time all year at monza and then again in singapore unfortunately on both occasions he was beaten by dela rosa in the grand prix with singapore ending on a particularly sour note after he crashed out on lap 30 which tested the patience levels of everyone working within the pit garage he qualified last in suzuka again although he was running ahead of dela rosa before his race was brought to an end due to vibrations within the car the next couple of races in korea and india were relatively unspectacular as he would finish last in both races he wouldn't finish last in abu dhabi however although that was because he didn't finish it all this was because nico rosberg tried to lap kathy kane using the novel method of mounting carthage hrt rather than just going around it and that kitties is how baby formula one cars are made any questions in austin kathy kane once again got in the way of fettel which eventually gave the league to lewis hamilton and then finally there was the last round in brazil this was a little bit more eventful as the carnage at the start allowed kathy kane to run as high as 11th place however with the hrt being what it was he was relegated to last once again when the other cars spinning at the start got their act together he finished the season in last place with no points to his name and by this time lorraine had enough of struggling in a car built by a team of people who throw goats off church towers although to be honest he didn't really help himself with some of his performances you know what i mean of course hrt would be no more come 2013 as they could no longer keep the team afloat he attempted to find a midfield team willing to take him on but with the finances of f1 spiraling out of control he decided upon other ventures entirely and conceded his formula one career to be over but not willing to relinquish his career and open wheelers kathy kane went to the auto gp series which was starting to die a slow death nonetheless it still played host to some modest talent and had a field large enough to warrant calling it a championship for the first three rounds he struggled in a team that was making life difficult for him on paper the results looked as pathetic as you would expect however he would join supernova racing for the third round in silverstone replacing francesco draconi he would go on a manic streak of pole positions podiums and wins allowing him to finish fourth in the standings but now that he had an appetite for winning kathy kane looked toward japan for the 2014 season driving in the super formula series for team impul kathy kane would achieve three points finishes that year which would be good if his teammate jp oliveira didn't absolutely dominate the series himself a minor setback for sure but he would continue racing in super formula until 2018 having previously loathed japan he grew to love his time there learned the language and looked at sashimi the same way that americans look at lawsuits so how did he do in his time there well in 2015 he raced with team dandelion paired with tomoki najiri he started off the season well with a podium but team najiri would finish higher in the standings with more points in 2016 he switched to team lemon racing alongside kanwe kobayashi and this is where the tables turned karthiken scored a podium okayama while kobayashi scored nada thus karthiken beat kobayashi in that year's super formula championship for the 2017 season however kathy kane felt the need to switch teams this time to nakajima racing paired with daisuke nakajima neither driver achieved much success with kathy kane being particularly let down finishing last overall in the standings remaining with nakajima again for 2018 and this time paired with gp2 reject takeo azawa kathy kane would finish 15th overall beating azawa in the standings in what would turn out to be his last year in open wheel racing in 2019 he made his debut in the super gt series piloting the nakajima racing honda nsx alongside tarasuke makano he and makano performed modestly throughout the year with the best result of second at sportsland sugo but the highlight of the year came at fuji at the dtm super gt dream race where kathy kane would take the race win ahead of marco vettman and lu duval but following this kathy kane left the series and his feature in motor racing remains unclear so it's been quite a journey for karthikeyan being india's pioneer in formula one showing that it can certainly be possible most will look at his formula one career as a failure but honestly when you look back on it you have to yeah but the importance of his formula one career to a whole nation cannot be understated drivers such as the minis and jihan daruvala are winning in the f1 fetus series against some of the world's very best and let's not forget the last indian to win a european championship while india's current motorsport situation is written with politics and other nasty stuff that kind of plagues the rest of the motor racing world there is still some good talent coming out of that country and for however many memes surround this cucumber he's set the benchmark and he's provided inspiration to millions so you know what were your memories of kathy kane drop a comment below subscribe to the channel if you're awesome and always remember keep it respectful be wholesome don't be a madison as always i'll see you all later [Music] this weights [Music] bye

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 993,774

Keywords: Narain Karthikeyan, Karthikeyan, F1, Formula 1, F1 2005, Jordan, India, HRT, Hispania Racing, F1 2011, F1 2012

Id: HC23KwpXILM

Length: 23min 9sec (1389 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 17 2020