Karthikeyan sure he will quickly settle
Narain Karthikeyan is optimistic that it will only take him a few races to get back up to full speed after five years away from the Formula 1 grid
The Indian has made a surprise F1 comeback with Hispania this year. He last raced in the world championship with Jordan in 2005, though he tested with Williams until 2007. He has since raced in a variety of categories including NASCAR Trucks, A1GP, Superleague Formula and the Le Mans Series.
He had a few days of winter testing in HRT's 2010 car to reacclimatise, and thinks he will benefit from having the experienced Tonio Liuzzi to work with as his team-mate.
"I had two days in the wet and in the wet was fine, I was pretty fast," said Karthikeyan. "In the dry I'm still finding my feet a little bit. But with Tonio there it's a good reference. I think the driving styles are pretty similar from what I can see from the data we had.
"So I think overall give me a few races and I'll find my feet. I know I've been fast in the past so it shouldn't be a problem."
Karthikeyan is also confident about his fitness.
"Physically in the old car it was okay," he said. "But in the new car with more downforce I think once I've done two or three races it will be fine. I've been training really hard."
The 34-year-old shares his team's confidence that the F111 will be a significant step forward over last year's Hispania, which was generally the slowest car in the field.
"Obviously there are a lot of good people who are designing the car, and we have the partners that are helping us," said Karthikeyan. "It's early days yet, but if everything comes together as a package, then you've got to aim to be best of the new teams.
"I'm just talking, but it could be a difficult task, I don't know, because nobody has driven the car yet. Having said that, the detail of the car looks like a proper, modern car so we're hoping it's okay."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments