JUNE 24, 2004
Meanwhile in Minardi-land
All is not rosy in the Minardi garden, despite Zsolt Baumgartner's World Championship point at the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis. The team is reported to be less thn impressed with the efforts of its lead driver Gianmaria Bruni and we have heard a variety of stories about possible replacements.
© The Cahier Archive
All is not rosy in the Minardi garden, despite Zsolt Baumgartner's World Championship point at the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis. The team is reported to be less than impressed with the efforts of its lead driver Gianmaria Bruni and we have heard a variety of stories about possible replacements in the not too distant future. It seems that Bas Leinders is keen to step up from his role as a test driver but we have also heard that Denmark's Nicholas Kiesa is keen to get back into F1 and that India's Narain Kathikeyan is again doing the rounds of the teams at the tail end of the F1 grid, looking to become India's first Formula 1 driver.
Karthikeyan recently won his first race in the Nissan World Series and at 25 hopes to be able to break into F1 after several years of trying. This year he has backing from Red Bull, Indian conglomerate Tata and from Kingfisher beer, another Indian firm. Karthikeyan has tested for Jaguar, Jordan and Minardi in the past but has not had the money to move into F1.