RACING DRIVERS from India

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Indian Racing Drivers of all time. This list of famous Indian Racing Drivers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Narain Karthikeyan (b. 1977)

With an HPI of 41.75, Narain Karthikeyan is the most famous Indian Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 43 different languages on wikipedia.

Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is an Indian racing driver. He was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One.He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F3, World series by Nissan, AutoGP, Formula Asia, British Formula Ford & Opel series in his single-seater career. He won the British Formula Ford Winter Series in 1994 & Formula Asia Championship in 1996. He also finished fourth overall in British F3 in 2000 & the World Nissan series in 2003. He made his Formula One debut in 2005 with the Jordan team, and was a Williams F1 test driver in 2006 and 2007. Like several other former F1 drivers, Karthikeyan moved to stock car racing and drove the No. 60 Safe Auto Insurance Company Toyota Tundra for Wyler Racing in the 2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. In 2011, he returned to F1 with the HRT team, continued with the team in 2012 and was expected to drive for them in the 2013 season as well. However, HRT was not included in the FIA's 2013 entry list, and thus Karthikeyan was left without a drive. From 2014–2018, Karthikeyan raced in Japanese Super Formula series. In 2019, he ended his single-seater career by joining SuperGT series in Japan. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2010.

2. Monisha Kaltenborn (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 39.11, Monisha Kaltenborn is the 2nd most famous Indian Racing Driver.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Monisha Kaltenborn (née Narang; born 10 May 1971) is the Austrian former team principal of the Sauber Formula One team and held a 33.3% stake in the outfit, until it was taken over by Longbow Finance S.A. in July 2016. She was the team's chief executive officer from January 2010 until 22 June 2017. She was the first female team principal in Formula One.

3. Karun Chandhok (b. 1984)

With an HPI of 34.40, Karun Chandhok is the 3rd most famous Indian Racing Driver.  His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in 2010. Before this, he drove in the GP2 Series for three years, winning two races. In 2013, Chandhok competed in the FIA GT Series for Seyffarth Motorsport. Prior to his time in GP2, Chandhok won the Formula Asia championship in 2001 and was the inaugural Formula Asia V6 by Renault champion in 2006. Since leaving F1, Chandhok has served as an analyst, co-commentator and pit-lane reporter for a variety of British broadcasters. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Sky Sports F1 live coverage team.Chandhok has contributed to several motorsport governing bodies. Since 2021, he has served on the Board of Directors of Motorsport UK, where he has also been a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He is also a member of the FIA Driver's Commission.