Narain Karthikeyan

Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (14 January 1977 - Present): Indian racing driver from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, son of former Indian national rally champion Karthikeyan who won the South India Rally seven times. Competed in Formula 1 for Jordan (2005) and HRT (2011-2012), making 48 starts with 5 career points, becoming India's first Formula One racing driver. After becoming the first Indian to win a European championship (1994 British Formula Ford Winter Series) and the first Indian and Asian to win the Formula Asia International series (1996), Karthikeyan joined Jordan for the 2005 season. He scored all 5 of his F1 points at the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix with 4th place, finishing 18th in the championship.

He served as Williams test driver (2006-2007) before returning to F1 with HRT for 2011, rejoining full-time alongside Pedro de la Rosa for 2012. The Indian government awarded him the Padma Shri (fourth highest civilian honor) in 2010 and the Arjuna Award in 2003. Post-F1, Karthikeyan raced in Japan's Super Formula Championship (2014-2018) and Super GT's GT500 class from 2019, achieving a spectacular win in the Super GT x DTM Dream Race at Fuji.