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Karun Chandhok at World Series

Chennai, March 21, 2005

KARUN CONFIRMED FOR 'WORLD SERIES'

'India's fastest rising star' signs with RC Motorsport for 2005 campaign

Following in the footsteps of colleague Narain Karthikeyan, India's next Formula 1 hopeful Karun Chandhok has signed up with RC Motorsport to contest the 2005 'World Series'.

At the end of last year, Karun joined Narain at RC Motorsport to contest the last 4 rounds of the 'World Series', and despite very limited practice time, he finished in an impressive 4th place at the final round of the series in Jerez, having qualified in the top 5. This was enough to prompt offers from several of the top teams in the 'World Series' but in the end, the Madras born driver chose to stick with the Italian squad for the season.

Speaking about his new deal Karun said, "I'm very happy to have finally signed with RC. After the limited program I had with them last year and especially after the final weekend in Jerez, I had discussions with all of the top teams in the 'World Series' and also had offers from teams in Japan, America and Euro Formula 3000 to contest in various championships. I chose to stick with the 'World Series' because it is a recognized place for drivers on the route to Formula 1, and in fact, 4 out of the top 6 from last year have been rewarded either F1 race or test contracts so it's definitely the place to be. It's a fantastic atmosphere within the team at RC and I really enjoyed working with them last year."

RC Motorsport's team boss Francesco Ravera was also pleased to continue his association with Indian drivers "I'm very happy to have Karun with us for the season. He did a good job at the end of last year and was closer to the front than we expected. The 'World Series' is a very tough category, with some very strong drivers and teams so you cannot expect a young driver to come in and win straight away. We are happy that we were able to give Narain his first wins after 2 years in the 'World Series', which he used as a successful launch-pad to F1 and we will try to do the same with Karun."

Karun's long-term sponsors JK Tyre, TATA, and UCAL have continued to back his efforts this year. "It's been a very hard winter sorting the budgets out, and while we're still not fully there, I feel confident about a couple of potential sponsors that are in the pipeline."

Because of the delays in sorting out budgets, the team and driver have missed the first few test sessions which could put them on the back foot to start with, but will surely expect to make rapid progress. " The calendar for this year is awesome ! We are racing at Monaco on the same day as the F1 race, on the streets of Bilbao in Spain, as well as at legendary circuits like Le Mans and Monza. It'll be my first season of pan-European racing and I'm am really looking forward to it;" said an obviously excited 21 year old. "It's a new car for the year powered by a new 450 Bhp, 3500 cc engine and will be using an F1 style gearbox, with the gear paddles on the steering wheel for the first time" Karun added.

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