The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Narain confident of giving his best

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 01, 2005

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Narain confident of giving his best

NEW DELHI: As the fleet of Formula One teams returns to Europe for seven races with the French Grand Prix on Sunday, India's Narain Karthikeyan showed optimism to get back to give his best when he takes to the Magny-Cours track here.

``I am glad we are back in Europe and that the next two races in Magny-Cours and Silverstone are tracks that I am familiar with. Magny-Cours is one of the circuits that suits my driving style. I always find a good balance and rhythm and enjoy driving here,'' Karthikeyan said.

``Finding the limits of this quite technical, fast-corner circuit seemed not to be too difficult so I hope it will be the same experience driving a Formula One car,'' the 28-year-old Jordan driver added.

Jordan, which has good memories of the track as Heinz-Harald Frentzen won here in 1999, are not in a haste to launch their upgraded version and would continue in their EJ15 model in the next race.

``We have been working really hard in between the last two fly-aways and the next pair of doubleheaders. We tested the new car last week at Barcelona for two days. Most of the signs were very favourable. However, we do have some issues we would like to resolve before we race the car. Therefore, in Magny-Cours, we will stay with the EJ15,'' Jordan Sporting Director Adrian Burgess said in the team's press release.

Reliability

Burgess said reliability of the vehicle would be the primary issue before it is run in a race.

"We will decide after France if we want to race the new car at Silverstone or not. One of our objectives is to keep our very good reliability record and this is why we will not introduce the new car until we are satisfied with its reliability.''

However, another Jordan driver Tiago Monteiro of Portugal, who finished third in the race of six drivers at Indianapolis, said he was motivated but also realistic about his team's chances.

Amazing race

``We are heading to France after an amazing race and opportunity in Indianapolis with my first podium and points with the team. However, we also have to come back to reality, as we know we still have to improve the car a lot. We will have to keep up the good work and our reliability record to maybe hope for some more points later on in the season, but now we are even more motivated.

``France is very important for me. I have raced there at the beginning of my racing career and I have a lot of fans and friends there. I could nearly say that it is one of my home races. I also know the circuit at Magny-Cours pretty well.

``I tested the new EJ15B in Barcelona last week and we experienced some teething problems. It looked very nice and aggressive but we definitely need more running before being able to use it for the race.''— PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport