Formula One News: Karun Chandhok says that his seat at HRT is safe
Karun Chandhok has finally talked to the media denying all the speculations that have kept swelling for a lot many days now. The news had been out in the town that his current team HRT is thinking to replace Chandhok, due to lack of funding for the team. There had been reports lately that the team is having problems finding sponsors due to which the team management is thinking of replacing the driver, however Chandhok completely dismissed all such gossips calling them baseless.
Three weeks ago it had been his teammate Bruno Senna in the news as well as on the internet with similar suppositions that he would be removed from the team. The Indian driver, while talking to Reuters told that they were completely baseless stories and the team is doing pretty well with him. He suggested that it might be some other teams trying to defame theirs or it could be some other drivers that wants to come to the team and hence they are spreading all these stories.
He also told that he is to stay with the team till the end of the season and at the moment he is looking forward to having a good race in Valencia this weekend. He had raced in six out of the total eight races of this season. However, he was not able to get any success as no points have been grabbed by him at all during the entire season.
Moreover, talking about his future in the sport, he said that he would like to be a part of the Force India Team, though he is happy with his current team as well. He thinks that his move to Force India would be beneficial for the Indian-based team as well as for himself. India is planning to host one of the Grand Prix’s on their soil in the 2011 season which will be a first for the country. If the team and the driver come under the same umbrella, the support and enthusiasm of the nation would be doubled. On top of it, local Indian sponsorship would also increase many folds. So far the team owner Vijay Mallya, who also owns Kingfisher Cooperation, has not openly expressed any interest for including the driver in the team. At several occasions, Chandhok has expressed his desire to be in the team. At the moment, it is hard to say if Mallya would be interested in signing him for the upcoming season or not. He did not even offer him a seat at the start of this years’ race.
Chandhok is a Chennai-based racer, who has driven with GP2 series for three years before he moved to Formula One at the start of this season. His racing history had been really bright as he started his career some ten years back with Formula Maruti Series in India. He won seven out of the ten races that he participated in. Later, he made a record for being the youngest Asian Formula Champion while he was driving for Team India Racing. He had driven for a number of teams and series in the past few years including the British Formula 3 championship in 2001, the National class in 2002 and the T-Sport as well.
He was amongst the top 5 qualifiers and finishers at the RC Motorsport in the World Series by Nissan in the 2004 season.
He has the credit of being the first driver from A1 Team India who had ever been to A1 Grand Prix at the 2005/06 season. In 2006, he was crowned as the champion in the first season of Formula Asia V6 by Renault. In the following year, he was ready to flee to the GP2 Series where he raced for three years.
Now, his first year at the Formula One, though had not been a big success, however much is expected from him and also he is hoping to have a brilliant year ahead as Formula one goes to India.
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