On March 6, Narain Karthikeyan geared up for his F1 debut over 58 laps at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia ? a first for an Indian driver. But the season ended disastrously for karthikeyan when he crashed heavily into a wall in the 29th lap of the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. Fortunately he escaped what could have been a serious accident with a sore neck and back. Recently Karthikeyan was spotted driving his own Rotax-engined kart at the Kari Speedway in Coimbatore, testing his back to gauge the extent of recovery and how it would hold up to the rigours of racing. In a freewheeling interview Karthikeyan talks about F1, with its ups and downs, and what it has made of him.

Q: How has your first year in F1 affected you ? as a driver and as a person?

A: Nothing prepares you for F1. It’s a completely different ballgame ? the tyres, the engine, the brakes. As a person, I think you become more hardened and racing at this level, you need to be.

Q: How would you sum up your first season as an F1 driver?

A: I think I’ve learnt a lot. I’ve made some mistakes and I was unlucky as well. Overall, I would say it’s been a pretty good year for me. I’ve got a sense of satisfaction now that I’ve done it ? I always believed I could. Eleven of the tracks were unknown to me and I learnt them by watching in-car footage of Michael Schumacher driving those circuits. Learning the circuit was the hard bit.

Q: How did it feel to be at Albert Park in Melbourne for the first race of the season?

A: I had butterflies in my stomach ? not to mention the sleepless nights. It was my first race and there were a lot of expectations from me. It felt good to finish the first Grand Prix (GP) of the season. In the following 56-lap Malaysian GP at Sepang I finished in the 11th position. That too felt great, though Malaysia’s heat and humidity made me lose almost three kilos.

Q: What were the low points of the season?

A: During the Spanish GP in Barcelona, I qualified well, but in the race, the car was down on power because of an engine problem. So I finished behind Monteiro Tiago and in the 78th lap in Monaco, I hit Ralf Schumacher at the start. We also had a problem with the hydraulics during this race. Then at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal, Canada, I had a great qualifying session but I went into the wall. It was really a pity to finish the race like this.

Q: More bad luck dogged you at Magny-Cours in France.

A: I had a great start and was running in front of Christian Klien. But the car developed a gearbox selection problem ? and I had no third and fifth gear. As luck would have it, Magny-Cours has a lot of corners in third and fifth. It may not mean so much in a normal road car but I was losing two seconds a lap as I was shifting from the second gear directly to the fourth.

Q: Was the 60-lap British GP at Silverstone a disappointment as your car drew to a stop for another Did Not Finish (DNF)?

A: This track had raised hopes of a good result, as not only was the track home to Jordan but I also knew it well from my Formula Three days. But we don’t know what happened there as the car shut off completely. I was battling with Felipe Massa before I stopped.

Q: Was Hungary, where the racing is traditionally boring, different for you?

A: Hungary does not suit my style at all because it’s such a slow circuit. But it was one of the most consistent races this year. All weekend I was quicker than Tiago. I had a decent start and kept on pushing throughout the race. My lap times were always steady.

Q: What did you think of the 58-lap Turkish GP that was a new addition to the F1 calendar?

A: It was a new track, and we had a lot of problems on Friday. So we did a few laps and none on Saturday. We had two engine failures and aborted qualifying. The race was OK. I was saving my tyres and so couldn’t catch Robert Doornbos.

Q: Though Monza, Italy is a track you relish, why didn’t things go well for you?

A: It was upsetting as I lost the coin toss but it really didn’t matter as in the race, Christjan Albers hit me and I had to drive 5km back to the pits with a puncture, losing 45 seconds. I knew the race was already over for me.

Q: What was perhaps the most enjoyable race of the year for you?

A: Spa, Belgium, that is another high-speed track, was great as I finished 11th while Tiago finished eighth. Tiago and I were running together but at the end I made a wrong call on the tyres ? I went on the dry tyres too early. It cost me a point for sure.

Q: What do you think of the Japan circuit?

A: Japan is a great circuit. The penultimate race of the season was at Suzuka and this is a track I am familiar with, having raced Formula Nippons here. In the last free practice, I was second despite the rain, which was great as I was ahead of a lot of drivers in the same conditions. We also had a good qualifying session ? it was the best Jordan performance in the whole year. But in the race, I screwed up my tyres due to an imbalance in the car. I struggled with the understeer and lost time due to a pit stop to change a tyre.

Q: What are your memories of the Shanghai race when the accident happened?

A: My qualifying was very good as I was ahead of Takuma Sato and Jacques Villeneuve. I’d passed Sato and was behind Jarno Trulli. Then I don’t know what happened. I think the car was on the artificial grass and it sucked me into the wall. My neck is okay now, though my back is still not wholly recovered. That’s why I’m trying out the karts to see how my back holds up.

Photograph of racing by the author

My first car

Iggy, model

My first car was an Omni that I bought at 19 with my own money. But my first vehicle was a bike. I had a crush on this girl and wanted to go to her home on my own bike to impress her because in college she used to ignore me. So I bought an Enfield from money that I’d earned working at the Taj in Goa. I later sold it and bought a Hero Honda Splendour as I wasn’t earning much and needed to buy a more economical bike. Then, since I used to do parties and had my own sound equipment, I bought an Omni in Goa. I didn’t think I’d be able to afford a car so soon so it was very satisfying. But then I moved out of Goa and sold it.

I love bikes and really fast cars but I don’t like very sophisticated cars, I like the sportier, more rugged ones. In Delhi, it’s difficult to drive a bike what with the dust and all so I’ve got a Tata Indica that I’ve been driving for the last three years and am very happy with — it gives me a mileage of 20km, which is quite abnormal.

Photograph courtesy: Elite Model Management India