Jehan Daruvala Wins The British Karting Championship

It’s the kind of preparation that Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok wish was at their disposal when they started out on the road to making it in Formula 1.

Fifteen-year-old (as of October 1, this year) Jehan Daruvala became the first Indian driver to win a British Karting Championship when he triumphed in the KF3 category this year. There are higher categories of karting still left but the Mumbai-native has done his chances of going far in motorsport no harm with his KF3 win.

A former karter and now owner of Rayo Racing, Rayomand Banajee worked extensively with Daruvala in his younger days and helped guide him to success in karting in India and in the CIK Asia-Pacific Karting Championship in Macau last year too.

Banajee is, however, quick to credit the resources made available to Daruvala by Sahara Force India for his further development into what even Karthikeyan believes is “India’s best ever karter.”

“Hats off to Sahara Force India for giving him such extensive training and this tremendous opportunity,” said Banajee. “Even when he showed up in Macau, I could tell that he had benefited a lot from the training made available to him.”

But Banajee believes that there is a lot that Daruvala has going for him naturally that has helped him stand out to the extent that even ex-F1 drivers like Johnny Herbert admit to have heard of his exploits.

“Jehan never loses focus and is the only karter I have seen who doesn’t mind studying when he has to,” said Banajee.

However, Banajee believes that even more competition in European series would help before a switch to single-seaters. At his age, Daruvala certainly has nothing to lose.