Narain Karthikeyan in 2013

Narain Karthikeyan in 2013

Narain Karthikeyan who was racing for HRT in 2012 is not in the F1 grid in 2013 as HRT became bankrupt. Narain Karthikeyan was then in talks with Force India, however, Force India just wanted Narain Karthikeyan's money and wanted him to be the test driver which he refused. Vijay Mallya of Force India is never interested in sharing the limelight with another Indian. So he has never given Narain Karthikeyan even a test drive, but continually berates him as a bad driver. Same case with Karun Chandhok.

Narain Karthikeyan now has decided to race in the Auto GP world series. The first race of this series is in Monza, Italy on this saturday. Narain said "I have decided to accept the invitation of Michael Zele (team owner), as it keeps me driving a high powered single seater. " Narain further added ,"I have worked with Zele racing before, and known Michael for a long time. I am looking forward to the first race, as I know this track very well."

The cars in this are similar and are powered by Zytek engines with Lola providing the chassis. Wish Narain all the best!

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One

Michael Schumacher retires from Formula One racing

Michael schumacher - The God of Formula One - has announced his retirement.  In a shocking move earlier his Mercedes team had announced Lewis Hamilton in his place. http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2012/09/mercedes-shows-door-to-michael.html

Now Michael Schumacher has decided not to drive for any other team and retire from the sport for the second and final time. In 2006 Michael Schumacher had retired when he was driving for Ferrari. Ferrari had announced signing of Kimi Raikkonen as his replacement. It was widely believed that instead of forcing Felipe Massa out of the team, Michael Schumacher gracefully retired. However, his ambitions were burning and when Felipe Massa suffered the accident and Ferrari approached Michael Schumacher, the racing fires within him was stoked. He then came and drove for Mercedes team. With the Mercedes team now showing him the door, he had options of going to Sauber. However, he declined to drive for them and has retired.

Michael Schumacher was very competitive and from his demeanor one could see the fires burning. However, without a drive in Mercedes, he has now decided to call it quits from F1.

Though Michael Schumacher said that I still feel that I am capable of competing against the best but the time sometimes comes to say goodbye and this time it might be forever. And he added for good measure "During the past month I was not sure if I still had the motivation and energy which is necessary to go on. It is not my style to go on if I am not 100 percent with it but with today's decision I feel relieved."

7 Word Titles, 91 Race Victories and 155 podiums. Michael Schumacher still remains the most successful driver ever. At 43 years of age, he still burns bright, as a testament to his super human abilities. However, at 43 years, even The God of Formula One is mortal and has decided to bow away. While appreciating all he has done, Michael Schumacher's retirement from Formula One has broken our heart that we will not see him driving any more after this year.

Spanish Grand Prix: Glory lap by Alonso

It was a bitter and sweet afternoon for the Spanish crowd watching the Friday practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix 2012.

Fernando Alonso who is adored by many of his fellow countrymen, didn't fail to charm the friday crowd in the Spanish Grand Prix and scored the P1 position at a time of 1:24.430. This was achieved in Ferrari's B- specd car. Alonso was 0.378 seconds faster than Sebastian Vettel of Redbul. Alonso's team mate in the other Ferrari, was down in 12th place a massive 1:003 seconds adrift.Michael Schumacher was 6th with a timing of 1:25.187 and his team mate Nico Rosberg was 14th with a timing of 1:25.607.

However, in the second practice Fernando Alonso could only score at 14th fastest lap time and his team mate who is generally struggling for the past two years scored a 11th fastest time. Jenson Button scored the P1 in the second practice followed by Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg was third, Hamilton fourth, Raikkonen fifth, Grosjean sixth, Webber 7th followed by Schumacher at 8th position. Interestingly Schumacher drove 36 laps whereas his team mate Nico Rosberg drove 41laps ie. 5 laps more than him. With tyre degradation to become a major factor, it is important to see how the drivers cope up tomorrow as well as in the race day on Sunday.

The Indian fans were disappointed, as in the morning session Narain Karthikeyan didn't drive as Dani Clos - a spanish driver was given the drive to have an all spanish drive - as per earlier plan. In the second practice Narain Karthikeyan's car had developed an electrical problem and when he ventured very late in the second practice his car promptly stopped in turn three. We have to watch the impact of this lack of driving on Narain tomorrow. For the record, Dani Clos was a massive 2.511 seconds slower than his team mate Pedro de la Rosa, both of them driving 19 laps each.



The timings in First Practice:

	First Practice
Sl.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:24.430		20 laps
2	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	1:24.808	0.378	18 laps
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	1:24.912	0.482	28 laps
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:24.996	0.566	24 laps
5	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:25.120	0.690	24 laps
6	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1.25.187	0.757	15 laps
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:25.217	0.787	16 laps
8	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	1:25.252	0.822	20 laps
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	1:25.285	0.855	29 laps
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:25.339	0.909	24 laps
11	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1:25.367	0.937	22 laps
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:25.433	1.003	21 laps
13	Mark Webber	Red Bull	1:25.539	1.109	23 laps
14	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:25.607	1.177	20 laps
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1:25.918	1.488	19 laps
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1:26.226	1.796	24 laps
17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1:26.297	1.867	18 laps
18	Jules Bianchi	Force India	1:26.630	2.200	21 laps
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	1:27.475	3.045	20 laps
20	Timo Glock	Marussia	1:28.267	3.837	21 laps
21	Alexander Rossi	Caterham	1:28.448	4.018	25 laps
22	Charles Pic	Marussia	1:28.633	4.203	22 laps
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	1:29.107	4.677	19 laps
24	Dani Clos	HRT	1:31.618	7.188	19 laps

The Timings in Second Practice:

Second Practice Sl. Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1 Jenson Button McLaren  1:23.399 38 laps 2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull  1:23.563 0.164 38 laps 3 Nico Rosberg Mercedes  1:23.771 0.372 41 laps 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren  1:23.909 0.510 32 laps 5 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus  1:23.918 0.519 32 laps 6 Romain Grosjean Lotus  1:23.964 0.565 37 laps 7 Mark Webber Red Bull  1:24.065 0.666 34 laps 8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1.24.080 0.681 36 laps 9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber  1:24.214 0.815 41 laps 10 Nico Hulkenberg Force India  1:24.365 0.966 22 laps 11 Felipe Massa Ferrari  1:24.418 1.019 35 laps 12 Sergio Perez Sauber  1:24.422  1.023 32 laps 13 Pastor Maldonado Williams   1:24.468 1.069 40 laps 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari  1:24.600 1.201 33 laps 15 Paul DiResta Force India  1:24.688 1.289 30 laps 16 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso  1:24.733 1.334 34 laps 17 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso  1:24.769 1.370 37 laps 18 Bruno Senna Williams   1:25.047 1.648  42 laps 19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham  1:26.296 2.897 36 laps 20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham  1:26.740 3.341 35 laps 21 Timo Glock Marussia  1:27.314 3.915 27 laps 22 Charles Pic Marussia  1:27.664 4.265 30 laps 23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT  1:28.235 4.836 26 laps 24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 2 laps

All Spanish Driver Lineup for HRT in FP1

HRT which is a Spanish team, has decided to opt for an all Spanish driver lineup in the First Practice in Spanish Grand Prix.

Dani Clos, a Spanish driver, who was earlier taken by HRT as a reserve driver, is given the opportunity