Karthikeyan Hopes To Continue Testing In 2007

[Shadow 0]

Finally, constanty slating a driver and his country is bound to upset those forum members that originate from that country. How sensitive are the American guys when they get similar treatment It is the psychology of patriotism that a native will defend his country from outside abuse/ridicule

let me assure you that i am used to this so much that it does'nt even bother me anymore.....got no time to see the same rant over and over and over again....

[Fed up 0]

Oh the irony! Your incessant arguing with no regard to fact is one of the principle reasons that the much-loved Senna left the forum. If only we could negotiate a trade of you and the rest of your like to get him back...

TBH bajo, everything was fine on here until you returned I like your views on F1 and missed you when you took a sabbatical. That said, there is no coincidence that all this NK/India stuff has only resurfaced on your return.

I joined this forum for the F1 chat and bailed out for a few months when the NK stuff started to get heavy and personal. The only common denominator here is you.

Why you just cant keep it real is beyond me

Each to their own I guess.

[Max Mosley 2]

Dan sure spices things up! This thread brings back happy memories of a distant time when logic ruled the forum. That "dark market" comment was hilarious - I totally missed it. Seriously though, there's no racism here. NK doesn't deserve to even test for williams. What annoys us is not his skin colour but the way in which he has twice bought seats that he didn't deserve. He isn't the first to do that and we criticise all the others too.

[narain fan 0]

Dan sure spices things up! This thread brings back happy memories of a distant time when logic ruled the forum. That "dark market" comment was hilarious - I totally missed it. Seriously though, there's no racism here. NK doesn't deserve to even test for williams. What annoys us is not his skin colour but the way in which he has twice bought seats that he didn't deserve. He isn't the first to do that and we criticise all the others too.

i will fight some other day

[Max Mosley 2]

A wise choice, my friend!

[bajo39 0]

Dan sure spices things up! This thread brings back happy memories of a distant time when logic ruled the forum. That "dark market" comment was hilarious - I totally missed it. Seriously though, there's no racism here. NK doesn't deserve to even test for williams. What annoys us is not his skin colour but the way in which he has twice bought seats that he didn't deserve. He isn't the first to do that and we criticise all the others too.

Indeed Murray, thank you for stepping up to the plate and taking a whack for the anti-pay driving camp. Clearly, our respect for the sport is not widely shared on this board; even more important then that we stand up and voice our distaste for this most perverted practice at every opportunity.

[AutoRacer5 0]

Just because we don't support Narain does not mean that we hate the people of India or that we are racist. Do not judge us on something so base as this.

[bajo39 0]

Just because we don't support Narain does not mean that we hate the people of India or that we are racist. Do not judge us on something so base as this.

It's absurd!

[Jean Todt 4]

I apologise if I misconstrued the comment above.

I dont think Narain had that bad a rookie season, here are the stats;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narain_Karthikeyan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Formula_One_season#Drivers

If I recall Narain was being lauded as the next best thing in the first half of last season, only to fall away sharply towards the end. His poor relationship with the Jordan team manager was partly to blame, but then again, Nico Rosberg has fared no better in his rookie year.

Alot of guys are very objective and knowledgeable on this board, I dont get why they continue to slate this guy when his performances were as good or better than other rookies in F1 over the last 10 years. It's time to get some perspective.

Finally, constanty slating a driver and his country is bound to upset those forum members that originate from that country. How sensitive are the American guys when they get similar treatment It is the psychology of patriotism that a native will defend his country from outside abuse/ridicule

Peace not war, I say

bajo! this is for you!

you some times start the bull$hit! if you didnt give any importance to narain why the hell did u start this thread? did you start this thread to make the other members hate that driver? you say that sato was measured against drivers like fisi..u know what? fisi didnt have anywhere else to go and ended up in jordan, meanwhile sato got his seat becasue of honda. all that money saved by giving sato the driver seat only got spent by bills made by sato after crashing!

none of the indian members workship narain, and we know he is not the best driver in the world, but we know that he deserves a chance, why do you argue with us? how would you feel if someone started a thread just to blast sato? if he wants to continue testing, let him continue. why do you repeat blasting him?

[stopkidding 0]

Ok for long I have stayed quiet on topics regarding Kathikeyan, but as someone who followed his career since his Formula Asia days I can definitely vouch for the fact that he is good enough to drive in Formula 1. He is not a potential world champion, but only 3-4 people on the grid today are potential world champions. Sure he has had tons of Indian companies backing him, but whats wrong with that? I can say he is more worthy of a seat than Scott Speed or people like Nico Rosberg or drivers with big last names. This is a man from a country with little or no motor sport heritage and has risen through the ranks in a country taht has the probably the worst motor sport infrastructure of all the nationalities that have been represented in F1. Motorsport in Asia itself isn;t well developed outside of Japan and Malaysia. So this is driver who made a name for himself where no one cared about motorsport without the help of any big names or companies backing him. It was only after he started getting F1 tests that people started investing in his future.

So to knock him off as just a useless pay driver only shows how much you know and understand the sport.

Go Narain!

The evidence does not support this prediction...

It is sad that any team has to take on a pure pay driver/tester to support its serious racing operations. That being said, it is nothing new to F1 and this driver in particular has very generous sponsors.

I wonder if this argument will persuade Tata, HK Tyres et al to ante up another $30M or so for a race seat...

its JK Tyres, trust Bajo to promote Hankook Tyres over JK tyres at every opportunity he gets.

And I don't think the money put up by Tata and JK tyres is more than a couple of million. $30 Million is a lot of money in F1 sponsorship, For example Intel spends about $40 million a year to get a corporate technology partner deal with BMW. so quote your sources or go bust!

[Fed up 0]

Ok for long I have stayed quiet on topics regarding Kathikeyan, but as someone who followed his career since his Formula Asia days I can definitely vouch for the fact that he is good enough to drive in Formula 1. He is not a potential world champion, but only 3-4 people on the grid today are potential world champions. Sure he has had tons of Indian companies backing him, but whats wrong with that? I can say he is more worthy of a seat than Scott Speed or people like Nico Rosberg or drivers with big last names. This is a man from a country with little or no motor sport heritage and has risen through the ranks in a country taht has the probably the worst motor sport infrastructure of all the nationalities that have been represented in F1. Motorsport in Asia itself isn;t well developed outside of Japan and Malaysia. So this is driver who made a name for himself where no one cared about motorsport without the help of any big names or companies backing him. It was only after he started getting F1 tests that people started investing in his future.

So to knock him off as just a useless pay driver only shows how much you know and understand the sport.

Go Narain!

its JK Tyres, trust Bajo to promote Hankook Tyres over JK tyres at every opportunity he gets.

My point exactly

[Fed up 0]

Just because we don't support Narain does not mean that we hate the people of India or that we are racist. Do not judge us on something so base as this.

No one is accusing you of being racist. I for one know that you are equally sensistive when others make scathing remarks about the great USA. Your reactions are natural and so are those that equally find personal attacks on Narain/India offensive.

I challenge anyone out there to provide statistical proof that Narain is significantly worse than any other F1 rookie over the last 10 years. Whoever takes up the challenge please use statistics to prove your point rather than subjective interpretation of his performances based on your own bias.

I can recall Tonio didn't perform to his obviously ability in his first season. Andretti/Zanardi had shocking rookie years. Was NK as bad? prove it or button it forever!

[AutoRacer5 0]

I challenge anyone out there to provide statistical proof that Narain is significantly worse than any other F1 rookie over the last 10 years. Whoever takes up the challenge please use statistics to prove your point rather than subjective interpretation of his performances based on your own bias.

Two words:

Jacques Villeneuve

Statistics not necessary. We all know what happened.

[narain fan 0]

Two words:

Jacques Villeneuve

Statistics not necessary. We all know what happened.

too bad narain couldnt sell his Name and get into a top seat with 9000 km of testing in the winter of 95-96

[stopkidding 0]

too bad narain couldnt sell his Name and get into a top seat with 9000 km of testing in the winter of 95-96

oh come on mate, narain is no villeneuve, big last name or not. narain is an average F1 driver plain and simple

[Jean Todt 4]

too bad narain couldnt sell his Name and get into a top seat with 9000 km of testing in the winter of 95-96

and too bad, narain wasnt driving a williams(top team those days!)

[Ctrl300 0]

Drawing comparisons between JV and Narain is ridiculous.

Ask yourself this question: If NK was good and had the talent for becoming a star of the future why would Willimas chose good old Wurz for a seat over him? Thats right, because NK does not cut the mustard. I bet fans of Chanock Nissany felt the same way about him, but as we all know in the real world he was below crap.

NK has probably done a world of good for motor-racing in India. He has given the sport much needed exposure and will hopefully inspire many a young lad into taking up karting and later racing. The only problem for NK is that he is at best an ordinary F1 driver and the only role he can play is that of an vanguard for Indian racing development.

[stopkidding 0]

Drawing comparisons between JV and Narain is ridiculous.

Ask yourself this question: If NK was good and had the talent for becoming a star of the future why would Willimas chose good old Wurz for a seat over him? Thats right, because NK does not cut the mustard. I bet fans of Chanock Nissany felt the same way about him, but as we all know in the real world he was below crap.

NK has probably done a world of good for motor-racing in India. He has given the sport much needed exposure and will hopefully inspire many a young lad into taking up karting and later racing. The only problem for NK is that he is at best an ordinary F1 driver and the only role he can play is that of an vanguard for Indian racing development.

exactly, i think that sums it all up. we can call it good and end this thread.....

[bajo39 0]

and too bad, narain wasnt driving a williams(top team those days!)

For the moment, let me set aside the fact that it is utterly ridiculous to contemplate a driver as woefully underqualified as Narain Karthikeyan landing in a race seat at a top team. Trading places with Villeneuve in '96, Narain would have been matched against a top talent in Damon Hill and been blown off the track and back to Formula 3. Suspending reason once again, and assuming that the hapless Indian did make it to the next season, he would have been matched with a solid driver in HH Frentzen, a man who matched the great Schumacher in German F3 and was offered Senna's vacated seat at Williams in '94, and he would have been soundly beaten again, perhaps even by a wider margin than Villeneuve beat Frentzen that year.

The reality is that the discerning among us will always take the relative performance of the car/tyre-package into consideration when examining a driver's performances. With this in mind, we generally look to a driver's team-mate as the best indicator of form - for Narain, this means Tiago Monteiro, another pay driver with a weak resume. A Williams ride or even a ride with Ferrari would not have made Narain look good because he would still be measured against his team-mate and at those teams, his likely team-mates, well, let's just say he was lucky he was at Jordan!

[Shadow 0]

oh come on mate, narain is no villeneuve, big last name or not. narain is an average F1 driver plain and simple

bingo!!! you hit the nail on the head.....

[Fed up 0]

NK has probably done a world of good for motor-racing in India. He has given the sport much needed exposure and will hopefully inspire many a young lad into taking up karting and later racing. The only problem for NK is that he is at best an ordinary F1 driver and the only role he can play is that of an vanguard for Indian racing development.

And what is wrong with being an 'ordinary F1 driver' half the grid could be labelled as such. You have finally come to the realisation that NK is no worse that a lot of current F1 drivers and therefore is equally entitled to a drive

[Ctrl300 0]

And what is wrong with being an 'ordinary F1 driver' half the grid could be labelled as such. You have finally come to the realisation that NK is no worse that a lot of current F1 drivers and therefore is equally entitled to a drive

Read my words before you reply monkey man. I said at best.

[Fed up 0]

Read my words before you reply monkey man. I said at best.

Gorilla actually

I deliberately asked that members used statistics to back up their arguements, but the only comparison given, so far, is that of JV the most accomplished Rookie in F1 ever!

You are right, NK is no JV, but equally he is no where near amongst the worst F1 rookies over the last 10 years. If you are capable of interpreting stats you will see that his 2005 performance was not an embarrasment in the way that Yoong or the Japanese driver for Aguri (the name escapes me) were in their F1 debuts.

I am a very objective person and always give credit where it is due.

[Ctrl300 0]

Gorilla actually

I deliberately asked that members used statistics to back up their arguements, but the only comparison given, so far, is that of JV the most accomplished Rookie in F1 ever!

You are right, NK is no JV, but equally he is no where near amongst the worst F1 rookies over the last 10 years. If you are capable of interpreting stats you will see that his 2005 performance was not an embarrasment in the way that Yoong or the Japanese driver for Aguri (the name escapes me) were in their F1 debuts.

I am a very objective person and always give credit where it is due.

I am sorry, Gorilla

Well, if one are to compare a driver with the absolute worst drivers of the past five years that leaves the driver in question looking decent but with little credit. Ide and Yoong are ofcourse worse than NK, but that does not make NK a deserving driver. Comparing him to Monterio will give us the best picture, but then again he is yet another totally undeserving driver whom has forced his way in through the weight his money has with his short-funded Midland.

Really, I think we need to end this topic. I revert to my former post where I concluded that NK is not much of a driver but a good champion for motorsport in India.

[Wez 0]

Ever heard of Marc Gene, or does your limited F1 knowledge not extend beyond one Spanish driver?

Even someone as shockingly biased towards the pathetic excuse for a driver NK has to admit the the VERY average Gene was even better!