New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Indian F2 racer and the Red Bull junior program racer Jehan Daruvala revealed about how he is spending time amidst the lockdown, joining the Red Bulls junior program, and the expectation of being the third Indian racer to be part of the F1 and much more in the latest episode of ‘The Mind Behind.
Talking about how he is spending his time amidst lockdown, Jehan said, “I’m currently back home in Bombay, spending time with my family. So yeah, it’s a difficult situation for everyone but luckily I am home with my family. I’m doing both mental and physical fitness though, I have a trainer who I FaceTime every other day or almost every day and we do our sessions live.
“I have a software issue but yeah obviously because of the lockdown no one is allowed to come in so that hopefully I can get that going in the next couple of weeks and get back to at least feeling the steering wheel and driving a bit but other than that, yeah, I’m just keeping my mind calm spending time with my family is waiting for.”
Going back to his formative years, Jehan was asked to describe his exact moment when he got into karting and consider it as a profession. Jehan replied, “I started karting probably in 2010, so I think I was 10-years-old, then I started in Bombay under Raymond Banerjee sir. I spent my first couple of years in India, it took me time to realize that this sport is not easy. Although, once I started winning in India and doing well I slowly moved on to Asia, and then I won the Asia Pacific championship there. The real turning point was the Sahara Force India One from a Billion Hunt.
“At that point, I was one of the top three winners at the time, and we all three got a chance to go and compete in Europe. That was a real turning point as I made the decision to leave as a young kid, went to Europe and got into a boarding school and pursued my career there and then things got going. I knew it was going to be difficult to compete in Europe although, then in my second year I won the British Karting championship. I had a lot of tough rivals, Daniel Ricardo being one of them. So that’s when I believed that if I work hard I can compete with the top guys here so I was, it gave me self-confidence and belief that I could really pursue this area.”
Asked how one can see more Indians like Karun Chandhok, Narain Karthikeyan and himself at the highest level, he said: “I think when I used to drive in India, there were about, maybe 15 or 20 people max competing at the at the top level, which is far less than, obviously Europe, where we have 130 people or 150 people. I think more than anything, when India had a Formula One race it was really good advertising for young kids; the sound and noise and everything.
“Since that went away, I feel the sport has faded away a bit in India. I feel, India has one of the biggest fan following of watching Formula 1. I think if we have a race or more promotional activities that are just fun activities like go karting for kids, I think that will promote the sport a lot more.”
–IANS
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