‘One in a billion talent’ Jehan Daruvala gets pulses racing in F1 pursuit-Sports News , Firstpost

Jehan Daruvala grabbed his fifth podium in six Grands Prix in the ongoing F2 season. James Gasperotti

There is an air of excitement among Indian motorsport fans, largely Formula 1 fans, with the nation’s ‘one in a billion talent’ Jehan Daruvala turning the heat on for the 2022 F2 season. Switching to defending champions Prema Racing — with whom he raced in the inaugural 2019 F3 Championships to finish third in the drivers’ standings — meant the expectations of him to deliver after two impressive seasons with Carlin Racing were high.

Before we look into his ongoing expedition, let there be no doubt that the 23-year-old Mumbaikar thoroughly deserved another seat with an improved 113-point haul for a historic seventh place in the 2021 drivers’ standing after a 72-point finish in his maiden season. His performances, in turn, made him the most successful Indian driver in the F1 feeder series that had featured the likes of Karun Chandok and Arjun Maini in the past.

For the record, Chandok amassed 57 points over three seasons for his best top 10 finish in 2008 standing in the then GP2 series while Maini finished 16th with 24 points in his sole F2 season in 2018.

Sitting third in the championship with 61 points (on Saturday after Jehan narrowly missed out on a sprint race win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix), Jehan has surely become the first Indian to fight for the F2 title as he gets faster than ever in his Prema Racing car.

However, for someone as ambitious as Jehan, is he satisfied to be the best Indian racing driver ever in the F2 series?

Certainly not says the Red Bull Junior driver after his blistering start of the season with three consecutive podiums as he aims for his lifelong F1 driving seat.

“In terms of Formula 2, this is most likely or definitely be my last season,” Jehan told Firstpost ahead of Azerbaijan GP in Baku. “But my goal is to get to Formula 1 and I definitely have to keep on getting good results and fight for the championship and hopefully put myself out there to get a F1 seat.”

Being part of Red Bull Junior drivers since 2020, Jehan has a fair chance of finding a seat in the F1 with the racing giants prioritising performance and consistency over controversial paid seats; resulting in the advent of talented drivers in Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda among many others into F1 through their teams Red Bull and AlphaTauri (previously Toro Rosso).

In the current F2 season, the Indian racer is competing with four Red Bull Juniors — Ayumu Iwasa, Liam Lawson, Juri Vips, and Prema teammate Dennis Hauger — to impress their constructors. Jehan leads the pack with a 13-point lead over closest rival in Vips.

Landing a spot in Red Bull, however, is easier said than done, especially when their F1 seniors are adamant on keeping their seats. While a spot in the Red Bull senior team is unrealistic with World Champion Verstappen and Sergio Perez already having contracts till 2023 at least, it’s the AlphaTauri seats that interest the Juniors. The team’s major figure Helmut Marko has already hinted that drivers Gasly and Tsunoda are likely to keep their spot in 2023. However, Jehan has no reason to sweat five GPs into the season as a roller-coaster ride like F1 never guarantees anything with things often changing; sometimes as quick over one weekend. It’s, in fact, Tsunoda, who could be facing the heat with no 2023 contract in his hands yet.

Jehan, however, is not bothering himself with external factors at play and feels confident with the pace of his car, he understands fighting for the title is a necessity for him to impress his bosses or any other F1 constructor for that matter.

“Delivering good results is all I can do. The rest of it is out of my control but I need to keep pushing and keep trying and make it difficult for the rest of them. I already have achieved 11 podiums in F2 (before Azerbaijan) and I hope to achieve at least 20 by the end of the season. Hopefully, that proves I am consistently fighting at top positions or fighting for the title. I really hope that on merit I can make it to Formula 1 and fight with the best teams. I understand, F1 is difficult with seats opening but if I am at the right place at the right time I can achieve my lifelong dream. With the market in F1, you never know,” said Jehan, who got into the European racing circuit after finishing third in now-defunct F1 team Force India’s ‘One in a Billion Talent Hunt’ along with winner Maini.

Despite his best start of the season, five podiums in six GPs, it hasn’t been an ideal beginning with luck often being not in his favour during the Feature race, which has maximum points on the offer (25+1). Barring Jeddah, where he finished third (15 points), Jehan picked seven points in the remaining four feature races.

More recently was a chance of victory slipping out of his hands in Barcelona, where he started fourth from the grid, only to drop out of the race in the fourth lap due to an electrical fault. Jehan did bag five points from the sprint race a day before but slipped further away from eventual race winner and championship leader Felipe Drugovich, who pulled a 60-point gap from him with another win in Monaco GP two weeks ago.

“This season so far has been pretty mixed. From a personal point of view, I am very happy with the way I am driving but with a lot of unlucky situations with safety cars hampering our race strategy. The biggest hit was in Barcelona, where I had the right strategy for victory (starting on hard tires to gain an advantage in the long run with other competitors on medium rubber) but instead of gaining points, we ended up giving away a lot. I know there’s a big gap at the top but this season has a long way to go (eight GPs to go after Azerbaijan) and I am pretty confident of catching up.

“There’s no point in looking at the gap every weekend. From the way I see it, it’s important for me to be at the podium of the feature races. After four-five races, there will be summer break and I think by that time we will have a clearer picture of where we stand in the feature races,” concludes Jehan.

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