December 6, 2020. A day Jehan Daruvala will never forget. The gutsy overtake against his now Carlin teammate Dan Ticktum on the final lap of the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain and then having to defend right away on the final few corners, to take his first chequered flag as a Formula 2 race winner, he became the first Indian to do so.
“I’m not an emotional guy in general but hearing the national anthem made me feel really proud. But also, my goal isn’t just to have one podium finish in a year.” said the 22-year-old Carlin driver.
Daruvala, who was born in Mumbai in a Parsi family, started his karting career in 2011 when he was snapped by the Force India F1 team, as he was one of the three winners of a nation-wide competition called One in a Billion hunt. Until then, he was a regular on the national karting scene, but being a protégé of Force India, now he was able to compete across Asia and Europe, where he was always there and thereabouts on top of his game, being either a champion or a runner-up. After having a few successful seasons in the karting circuit, he finally got an opportunity to move to the single-sitters in 2015 in Formula Renault 2.0 with Fortec Motorsport. Formula Renault isn’t an easy task, some of the biggest names in F1, with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, and Kimi Raikkonen, who was able to fast-track his career by directly progressing to f1, back in 2001.
In his two seasons in Formula Renault 2.0, he managed a fifth and a ninth-place finish in the championship. He also managed to get his first pole and a win to finish fourth overall in the Northern European Cup. He later signed with one of the top teams in the junior racing in the UK, Carlin for the 2017 European Formula 3, where he was very impressive throughout, and finished sixth in the overall standings. That led to getting acquired by the Italian powerhouse Prema, for the 2018 Formula 3 season. He won a sprint race and a feature race each and was second in the standings for most of the season, before eventually finishing just a point shy of his teammate Marcus Armstrong, in the third position.
Red Bull Junior Team
After a few months of negotiation, Jehan was announced as one of the recruits in the Red Bull Junior Academy. He also reunited with Carlin to race with the Japanese wunderkind Yuki Tsunoda. As of today, Carlin announced that they have decided to retain Daruvala for the 2021 FIA F2 season and he’ll drive alongside the Brit Dan Ticktum.
Being a part of the Red Bull Academy isn’t easy, it comes with immense pressure and you’re always compared with fellow drivers in the academies. It’s a team who always demands their drivers to compete for the wins, championships and why won’t they? Currently, they are one of the big boys in F1 along with Mercedes and Jehan knows, a good performance in his second season in F2 followed by some luck could make him just the third Indian to ever compete in the pinnacle of the motorsport that is Formula 1.
A good performance isn’t just finishing within the top five or six in the championship, Jehan will be expected to challenge for the championship and consistently outperform not just his teammate but also other drivers on the circuit. Which he obviously is capable of doing, and he knows that as well.
How his success matters to us as fellow Indians
I would be lying if I say I wasn’t thrilled to see the Indian national anthem being played on the Formula 2 podium. I remember when the national anthem finally started, and as the Indian flag went up amongst a Japanese and a British flag, it was a proud moment for I’m sure all of us in India. I even screenshotted the moment, as I was watching it live on YouTube, sent it to a friend who’s also a big motorsport fan. The hardcore Indian F1 fans like me, who have followed Jehan’s journey race by race, have been waiting for a moment like this right from the start of the F2 2020 season. Jehan also faced a lot of engine and technical issues in the first half of the season which marred his progress, but a new engine for the latter half of the season meant he was competitive again, and he capped the season off perfectly in Bahrain with a third-place finish and a win to his name. There is a general feeling that he only gets better after every race and usually, he’s the strongest in his second season. So, going ahead, hopefully, he can emulate what Mick Schumacher did this year, that is to win the championship in his second year after finishing his rookie season in the 12th position. Also bagging one of the seats in Haas F1 Team for the 2021 season.
2021 prospects and the Potential Road to F1
As previously said, Jehan has been retained by the Carlin racing team for the 2021 Formula 2 season and he’ll be partnered by Dan Ticktum who is a Williams Junior and test driver. With the kind of trust and relationship Jehan has had with the engineers and the team and also have gotten much more used to the car, it’s fair to say he has a good chance to go all the way this year if everything falls in the right place car and the performance-wise.
After having enjoyed the sweet taste of victory in Bahrain, where he was also the fastest driver in the post-season test, he has a good chance of starting the season on a high note in Bahrain, where the opening GP of the season will take place in March.
Jehan participated in the Asian F3 at the start of 2021 with the Indian-based team called Mumbai falcons and partnered alongside Kush Maini. It was a competitive field with the likes of Alpine academy driver Guanyu Zhou, upcoming F3 talent in Pierre-Louis Chovet, and to finish in the 3rd position in the championship behind those two who were backed by big teams in Prema and Pinnacle racing, Jehan has had a strong start to the year. What’s the most important thing is he garnered 12 crucial super license points which take his tally to around 33 and makes him eligible to drive in the fp1s (free practice). Hopefully, he can have a good season and completes the points total required to drive in f1 which is 40, by the end of the 2021 season.
Competitors in F2 this season
Prema Powerteam:
When you talk about Formula 3 and Formula 2, one name always pops up and that is of the Prema Powerteam. The Italian team has produced several champions post GP-2 era with the likes of Charles Leclerc, recently crowned F2 champion Mick Schumacher and have always had a strong roster. They have acquired the services of newly-crowned F3 champion Oscar Piastri who’s an Alpine Academy driver and Robert Shwartzman, the Russian who beat Jehan and Artem Markelov to glory in the 2019 F3 season. Shwartzman finished his rookie year in the fourth position and also bagging 4 wins and 6 podiums in total. He remains the biggest title contender for this year looking at the overall field.
UNI-Virtuosi:
The British racing team has one of the strongest grids for the upcoming Formula 3 season. They have the experienced Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou, who recently won the Asian F3 championship in Dubai, and this is going to be his third season in Formula 2. To partner with him, they have the Brazilian sensation Filipe Drugovich, who was impressive in his rookie season with MP Motorsport. UNI Virtuosi only finished 40 points behind Prema in 2020 so they’ll be eager to go one step closer this year.
ART GP:
Christian Lundgaard and Theo Pourchaire, make for a strong lineup for ART GP for this season of Formula 2. Lundgaard had a good rookie season last year and showed some glimpses of his talent winning 2 races. Theo on the other hand is coming from a strong showing in Formula 3, finishing as a runner-up behind Oscar Piastri, and also drove for the BWT HWA Racelab for a final few races in Formula 2. George Russel, the Williams driver who’s tipped for the coveted Mercedes F1 seat in the coming years, won gp3 and Formula 2 championships driving for ART GP.
Hitech GP:
They have an inexperienced lineup in Liam Lawson and Juri Vips. Lawson who’s coming off of a good season in Formula 3 and is also going to compete in the DTM series alongside Alex Albon and Vips who drove in Formula 2 in the absence of Sean Gelael for DAMS. Though it’s interesting to see how they go about their business, as far as Jehan is concerned, these will be the guys to beat apart from his teammate obviously, since Lawson and Vips are both parts of the Red Bull Driving Academy. Vips also served as a reserve driver for both Red Bull and Alpha Tauri in 2021.
Looking ahead
The only question that the fans of Jehan and Carlin would be having is, can Jehan drive them to glory season? Will we get to see many more moments of pride like the one in Bahrain?
Well, we will have to wait and see how the season unfolds and which driver and the team can put in consistent performances and maintain the car right till the end. One thing’s for sure, we are in for yet another cracker of a Formula 2 season in 2021.