Now the year is 2011 and at his own country it must be his dream come true at the Airtel grand prix of India . He is not representing his country club but the enthusiasm to participate in ones own country is there .Narain started his career with a bang. He reached the podium in his first ever race, at Sriperumpudur in a Formula Maruti.Thereafter he decided to train himself in a regular racing school. He joined the Elf Winfield Racing School in France.Narain Karthikeyan signed the preliminary deal with Jordan Formula One team on February 1, 2005, making him first Indian F1 driver. However, he was a rookie driver, meaning he paid for his place in the team. In the Australian Grand Prix, his first race, Karthikeyan qualified in 12th position. He had his first points in the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
Narain Karthikeyan says Formula 1 will find India an 'eye-opening' experience when the grand prix fraternity comes to race in the nation for the first time.Everyone is expecting me to do well, but it's going to be hard to explain to the Indian public why you're at the back of the grid because they don't understand like the Europeans. But nevertheless, I think they'll enjoy it.It will be very difficult [to explain]. The easiest way is to say that we can't compete with Ferrari or McLaren because we don't have the resources, and that's absolutely true.But what they do realise is that equipment is important in Formula 1, because Michael [Schumacher] has a huge following in India, and they realise that he was dominating and now he has come back and since then he hasn't even had a podium, so people do realise that it's not only about the drivers, in Formula 1 it's also the cars."
