Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan is widely known as the first Indian in Formula 1. Born in Coimbatore, India on January 14, 1977, Karthikeyan started his career in 1992 by becoming a semi finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars.

Karthikeyan started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten. In the same year, he became the first Indian to ever drive a Formula One car, testing for the Jaguar Racing team at Silverstone on 14 June. Impressed with his performance, he was then offered a test drive in the Jordan-Honda EJ11 at Silverstone in September. Karthikeyan again tested for Jordan, at Mugello in Italy on 5th October, finishing just half a second off the pace off Jordan's lead driver Jean Alesi.

His F1 debut with Jordan in 2005 finally put India on the Formula 1 map. Although provided with an under par machine compared to rivals, Narain proved that he was quick. The controversial US GP saw his best performance ever with Karthikeyan finishing 4th. Despite the promise, he was unable to continue in the sport for the following season subsequently taking up a role as a test driver for Williams in 2006 and 2007.

From 2008, Formula 1 saw the absence of Narain with him competing in the A1GP in 2008, LeMans in 2009 and the NASCAR Camping World Truck series in 2010. Narain saw relative success finishing second at Brands Hatch. He is the only driver to have won at Brands Hatch in every series he has competed in.

With his re-entry in 2011 with the relatively underperforming HRT, the world has high expectations for 'The Fastest Indian in the World' to improve the team standings.