Karun Chandhok

Karun Chandhok
Chandhok at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix
Nationality	Indian
Born	19 January 1984 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Current team	Mahindra Racing
Car no.	5
Starts	11
Championships	0
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	17th in 2014–15
Finished last season	17th
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	2010–2011
Teams	HRT, Lotus
Entries	11
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last entry	2011 German Grand Prix
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Participating years	2012–2015
Teams	JRM, Murphy Prototypes
Best finish	6th (2012)
Class wins	0

Karun Chandhok (Tamil: கருன் சாந்தோக்) (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver, who competes in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in 2010. Before this, he drove in the GP2 Series for three years, winning two races, and in 2013 competed in the FIA GT Series for Seyffarth Motorsport.

Prior to his time in GP2, Chandhok won the Formula Asia championship in 2001 and was the inaugural Formula Asia V6 by Renault champion in 2006. After leaving F1 he has worked as a commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports F1 from 2013-2015 and has joined Channel 4 for 2016 as Technical Analyst and Pitlane Reporter.

Early career

Chandhok was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and is the son of Vicky Chandhok, multiple Indian rallying champion and president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India since 2003.

In 2000, Chandhok was Indian National Racing Champion winning seven out of ten races in the Formula Maruti series. He scored pole position and fastest lap in all ten races. In 2001 Chandhok was the Formula 2000 Asia champion, becoming the youngest ever Asian Formula Champion, driving for Team India Racing.

Chandhok tested with British Formula 3 champion team Carlin Motorsport in 2001. He raced in the National class in 2002, driving for T-Sport, finishing sixth in class. He stayed with T-Sport in the National Class for 2003, and finished third in the final class standings, behind champion Ernesto Viso and runner-up Steven Kane. In 2004 Chandhok stepped up to the main British Formula 3 class with T-Sport, and finished 14th in the standings.

He was instantly a top 5 qualifier and finisher when he partnered his compatriot Narain Karthikeyan at RC Motorsport in the World Series by Nissan for the final two rounds the 2004 season.

With Karthikeyan moving on to Formula One in 2005, Chandhok raced part-season in the revised Formula Renault 3.5 Series with RC Motorsport. He was the first driver to represent A1 Team India in A1 Grand Prix at the beginning of the 2005–06 season, before handing over to Armaan Ebrahim for the remainder of the season.

In 2006 he became champion of the first ever Formula Asia V6 by Renault Championship, taking seven race wins and nine pole positions from 12 races.

GP2 Series

Chandhok driving for iSport International at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season

Chandhok moved to the GP2 Series in 2007, driving for Durango. Chandhok's first win in GP2 came in the sprint race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium. Chandhok also led the sprint race in Turkey after starting from pole, only for the second place Kazuki Nakajima of DAMS to collide with him. The collision resulted in retirement for Chandhok while Nakajima was given a drive-through penalty.

Chandok got his biggest career break in November with a call up from the Red Bull Racing Formula One team to test for them over two days at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on 13–14 November.

Chandhok driving for Ocean Racing Technology at the Monaco round of the 2009 GP2 Series season

Chandhok remained in GP2 for 2008, switching to the iSport International team where he was partnered by Bruno Senna.^[1] He won one race and finished tenth in the drivers' championship. He also drove for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season. After winning one race and finishing tenth in the championship, Chandhok was presented with the series' "Best Driving Style" award at the end of the season.^[2]

In November, Chandhok became the first Indian driver to be invited to join the British Racing Drivers' Club. India's membership of the Commonwealth entitles him to be a member.^[3]

Chandhok signed to drive for the Ocean Racing Technology team in the 2009 GP2 Series season.^[4] Even though the deal with ORT was for the pan-European series, Chandhok also drove in the final round of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season, in Bahrain replacing Yelmer Buurman.^[5] Chandhok amassed ten points in the championship, with a best result of third at Silverstone. He and team-mate Álvaro Parente suffered a testing season, with sixteen retirements between them.

Formula One

Force India links

Chandhok was linked with the Force India team, which was created in 2008. It is an Indian registered-team and is owned by a friend of the family, Vijay Mallya. After the team's driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, moved from Force India to Ferrari during the 2009 season, Chandhok was briefly linked with the seat, with long-time supporter Bernie Ecclestone supporting him. The team's test driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, was instead promoted to the race seat.

Chandhok said in Autosport, on 11 June 2010, that he was targeting a move to Force India for 2011. Chandhok believed that the commercial benefits for the team running an Indian driver make him an obvious choice.^[6]

HRT (2010)

Chandhok recorded Hispania Racing's first finish with fourteenth position in Australia and beat team-mate Bruno Senna at the next race in Malaysia.

Chandhok began the 2010 season driving for Hispania Racing alongside former GP2 team-mate Bruno Senna,^[7] becoming the second Indian driver to compete in Formula One after Narain Karthikeyan in 2005.

At Chandhok's first race, the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, he was unable to complete a lap in any of the free practice sessions as his car was still being completed and then suffered hydraulic problems. He was, however, able to use the qualifying session to run his F110 for the first time. He qualified last on the grid, 1.7 seconds behind Senna, who had completed laps earlier in the meeting,^[8] and crashed out of the race after just one lap due to a large bump in the tarmac which sent him crashing into the wall. Chandhok recorded the team's first classified finish when he ended up fourteenth in Australia. In Malaysia he finished 15th, and finished 17th in China. Chandhok retired in the next three races with suspension failure in Spain, an accident with Jarno Trulli in Monaco and more technical problems in Turkey. He finished 18th in Canada and Valencia, and 19th at Silverstone, but was dropped for the German Grand Prix onwards, in favour of Sakon Yamamoto. For all the following races he was a co-commentator on BBC Radio 5 Live's coverage of the sport.

Lotus (2011)

Chandhok as Team Lotus's third driver at the 2011 Italian Grand Prix.

On 22 March 2011, Chandhok was confirmed as a reserve driver at Team Lotus for the 2011 season.^[9] He drove the car in free practice for the Australian Grand Prix, crashing out on the installation lap. He reprised his co-commentary role for BBC Radio 5 Live at the Spanish Grand Prix. After driving in a further three free practice sessions he replaced Jarno Trulli for the German Grand Prix.^[10] He finished 20th and last, two laps behind teammate Heikki Kovalainen and a lap behind 19th placed Daniel Ricciardo. He was also 4 laps behind race winner Lewis Hamilton.^[11]

Endurance Racing: 2012

For 2012, Chandhok drove in the FIA World Endurance Championship for JRM Racing in a Honda Performance Development ARX-03a with co-drivers David Brabham and Peter Dumbreck. At the Le Mans 24 Hours, Chandhok's team finished sixth overall out of the 56 starters.

FIA GT Series: 2013

Chandhok drove in the FIA GT Series for the 2013 season in a last minute deal for Seyffarth Racing. He was joined in the car by Jan Seyffarth, who had been competing in the German GT series for his family run team. Chandhok joined Armaan Ebrahim, who became the first Indian driver to be confirmed in the series. Ebrahim signed a full one-year contract with the BMW Sports Trophy-Team India GT 1 Team.^[12][13]

Formula E: 2014

Chandhok racing in the 2014 Punta del Este ePrix

In 2014-2015, Chandhok drove the inaugural season of Formula E for Mahindra Racing.^[14]

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2000	Formula Maruti	?	10	7	10	?	10	?	1st
2001	Formula 2000 Asia	SMR Team India	14	8	?	?	13	246	1st
2002	British F3 National Class	T-Sport	25	0	0	1	7	156	6th
2003	British F3 National Class	T-Sport	24	7	7	2	20	314.5	3rd
2004	British Formula 3	T-Sport	17	0	0	0	0	37	14th
	World Series by Nissan	Tata RC Motorsport	2	0	0	0	0	11	16th
2005	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	RC Motorsport	5	0	0	0	0	0	29th
2005–06	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team India	3	0	0	0	0	38	15th
2006	Formula V6 Asia by Renault	Team E-Rain	12	7	4	4	9	131	1st
2007	GP2 Series	Durango	21	1	0	1	1	16	15th
2008	GP2 Asia Series	iSport International	10	0	0	0	1	7	13th
	GP2 Series		19	1	0	0	3	31	10th
2008–09	GP2 Asia Series	Ocean Racing Technology	2	0	0	0	0	0	26th
2009	GP2 Series	Ocean Racing Technology	20	0	0	1	1	10	18th
2010	Formula One	Hispania Racing F1 Team	10	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
2011	Formula One	Team Lotus	1	0	0	0	0	0	28th
2012	24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP1)	JRM	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
	FIA World Endurance Championship		8	0	0	0	0	50.5	10th
2013	24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP2)	Murphy Prototypes	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	7th
	FIA GT Series	Seyffarth Motorsport	10	0	0	1	0	32	13th
		Vita4one Racing Team
2014	24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP2)	Murphy Prototypes	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2014–15	Formula E	Mahindra Racing	11	0	0	0	0	18	17th
2015	24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP2)	Murphy Prototypes	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	13th

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2005	RC Motorsport	ZOL 1 13	ZOL 1 11	MON 1 Ret	VAL 1 16	VAL 2 Ret	LMS 1 DNS	LMS 2 DNS	BIL 1	BIL 2	OSC 1	OSC 2	DON 1	DON 2	EST 1	EST 2	MNZ 1	MNZ 2	29th	0

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005–06	India	GBR SPR 15	GBR FEA DNS	GER SPR 16	GER FEA Ret	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR	MEX FEA	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR	CHN FEA	24th	0

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	Durango	BHR FEA 9	BHR SPR Ret	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 15	MON FEA Ret	FRA FEA Ret	FRA SPR 16	GBR FEA 12	GBR SPR 13	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR 16	HUN FEA 14	HUN SPR 15	TUR FEA 8	TUR SPR Ret	ITA FEA 5	ITA SPR 6	BEL FEA 7	BEL SPR 1	VAL FEA 17	VAL SPR Ret	15th	16
2008	iSport International	ESP FEA 9	ESP SPR Ret	TUR FEA 4	TUR SPR 12	MON FEA 3	MON SPR Ret	FRA FEA 7	FRA SPR Ret	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR Ret	GER FEA 8	GER SPR 1	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR DNS	EUR FEA 15	EUR SPR Ret	BEL FEA 10	BEL SPR 7	ITA FEA 11	ITA SPR Ret		10th	31
2009	Ocean Racing Technology	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA 7	MON SPR Ret	TUR FEA 13	TUR SPR 14	GBR FEA 6	GBR SPR 3	GER FEA 11	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 17	HUN SPR 10	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 6	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 7	ITA FEA 19	ITA SPR 12	POR FEA Ret	POR SPR 13		18th	10

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008	iSport International	DUB1 FEA 7	DUB1 SPR 3	IDN FEA Ret	IDN SPR 13	MYS FEA Ret	MYS SPR 7	BHR FEA 8	BHR SPR Ret	DUB2 FEA Ret	DUB2 SPR Ret			13th	7
2008–09	Ocean Racing Technology	CHN FEA	CHN SPR	DUB FEA	DUB SPR	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	QAT FEA	QAT SPR	MYS FEA	MYS SPR	BHR2 FEA 9	BHR2 SPR Ret	26th	0

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2010	Hispania Racing F1 Team	Hispania F110	Cosworth CA2010 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS 14	MAL 15	CHN 17	ESP Ret	MON 14†	TUR 20†	CAN 18	EUR 18	GBR 19	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	KOR	BRA	ABU	22nd	0
2011	Team Lotus	Lotus T128	Renault RS27 2.4 V8	AUS TD	MAL	CHN	TUR TD	ESP	MON	CAN	EUR TD	GBR TD	GER 20	HUN	BEL TD	ITA TD	SIN	JPN TD	KOR TD	IND TD	ABU	BRA	28th	0

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2012	JRM	David Brabham Peter Dumbreck	HPD ARX-03a	LMP1	357	6th	6th
2013	Murphy Prototypes	Brendon Hartley Mark Patterson	Oreca 03-Nissan	LMP2	319	12th	6th
2014	Murphy Prototypes	Nathanaël Berthon Rodolfo González	Oreca 03R-Nissan	LMP2	73	DNF	DNF
2015	Murphy Prototypes	Nathanaël Berthon Mark Patterson	Oreca 03R-Nissan	LMP2	347	13th	5th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Rank	Points
2012	JRM	LMP1	HPD ARX-03	Honda LM-V8 3.4 L V8	SEB 12	SPA 9	LMN 5	SIL 7	SAO 7	BHR Ret	FUJ 5	SHA 5	10th	50.5

Complete FIA GT Series results

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos.	Points
2013	Seyffarth Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	Pro	NOG QR 6	NOG CR 10	ZOL QR 10	ZOL CR DNS	ZAN QR 8	ZAN CR 4	SVK QR Ret	SVK CR 10					13th	32
	Vita4one Racing Team	BMW Z4 GT3										NAV QR 12	NAV CR Ret	BAK QR	BAK CR

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2014–15	Mahindra Racing	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	BEI 5	PUT 6	PDE 13	BNA Ret	MIA 14	LBH 12	MON 13	BER 18	MOS 12	LON 12	LON 13	17th	18

References

1. "Chandhok and Senna sign for iSport". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). 19 December 2007. Retrieved 19 December 2007.
2. "Chandhok wins Best Driving Style award". Motorsport.com. 16 September 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
3. "Chandhok receives BRDC invite". crash.net. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 27 November 2008.
4. "ORT sign Chandhok for main series". autosport.com. 3 February 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
5. "Nunes leads a Piquet GP 1–2 podium finish as Kobayashi takes title". AutomobilSport (MaP). 25 April 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
6. Noble, Jonathan (11 June 2010). "Chandhok targets Force India seat". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 21 August 2011.
7. Noble, Jonathan (4 March 2010). "Chandhok announced as HRT driver". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 4 March 2010.
8. Straw, Edd (13 March 2010). "Chandhok: Qualifying was a shakedown". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 13 March 2010.
9. "Karun Chandhok named as Team Lotus reserve". BBC Sport (BBC). 22 March 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
10. Benson, Andrew (21 July 2011). "Karun Chandhok replaces Jarno Trulli for German GP". BBC Sport (BBC). Retrieved 21 July 2011.
11. Bear, Matt (24 July 2011). "Lewis Hamilton wins thrilling German Grand Prix". Autosport (Haymarket). Retrieved 2 July 2011.
12. "Chandhok confirmed for GT1 World Series". The Hindu. 25 March 2013.
13. "Nogaro FIA GT Series Entry List 2013". Automobilsport.com. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
14. Prasad, Vishnu (29 November 2013). "Karun Sparks on Mahindra Radar". The New Indian Express (Express Publications (Madurai) Limited). Retrieved 16 January 2015.

External links

• Official website
• Karun Chandhok career summary at DriverDB.com