Race and classic pictures

The day Narain Karthikeyan became a Formula 1 driver!

It was on this day in 2005 that "the fastest Indian in the world", Narain Karthikeyan, formally joined the Formula 1 show. He was unveiled as the Jordan team's new driver for the forthcoming season.

"My aim has always been to compete in F1. It is where no Indian driver has been before," said the 28-year-old. "I've got the hopes of a nation behind me so I've no choice but to succeed now."

The announcement came just a week after Jordan had been bought by the Midland Group run by Canadian businessman Alex Shnaider. Karthikeyan subsequently completed the mandatory testing distance of 300km at Silverstone to gain his superlicence.

He joined fellow rookie Tiago Monteiro on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix. Starting from 12th place, a poor start dropped him to 15th by the finish.

He finished in the top ten only once all year. That was in a controversial United States at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was fourth, after the Michelin-shod teams withdrew due to safety concerns.

The team didn't retain his services after 2005, and he became a Williams test driver instead. However he got a second shot at a race seat with the short-lived Hispania Racing Team (HRT) in 2011 and 2012.

In total, Karthikeyan made 46 Grand Prix starts before calling time on Formula 1. He subsequently turned his hand to competing in the Auto GP World Series. He picked up 5 wins and 4 poles with Super Nova Racing

More recently he's been a fixture in the Japanese Super Formula championship, and also took part in the 2016-17 MRF Challenge Formula 2000.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.