Narain Karthikeyan is the son of a former Indian Rally Champion. Karthikeyan stated his racing career in 1992; when he attended to the Elf Winfield Racing School in France, former pupils include Alain Prost.

In 1994, Karthikeyan competed in the Formula Ford Zetec Championship. He made history, by becoming the first Indian to win the British Formula Ford winter series; he also made it to the podium in the support race for the Portuguese F1  Grand Prix.

1996 he competed in the Formula Asia Championship, he won the Championship and became the first Indian to do so.

In 1997 he moved to Britain and competed in the British Formula Opel Championship; he lead from start to finish at the Donington round.

In 1998, Karthikeyan moved into Formula Three and finished third at Spa-Francorchamps and  at Silverstone, from theses finishes, he got the nickname of the ‘Fastest Indian in the World.’

In 1999, he was driving in British Formula 3 Championship, he had five podium finishes and won at Brands Hatch twice, he finished sixth overall in the championship. 

In 2000, Narain continued to compete in the British Formula 3 Championship and finished fourth overall and won at Spa-Francorchamps and he also, won the Korean F3 Super Prix.

In 2001, he had his first Formula One test with Jaguar and Jordan; Jordan was so impressed they asked him to do a second test. He also, competed in the Formula Nippon Championship, in Japan.

In 2002, the Indian was racing in Telefonica World Series, were he claimed pole position and set the fast time at Interlagos, Brazil.

In 2003, he raced in Super Fund World Series were he finished on the podium five times and finished fourth overall. In addition to competing in the Super Fund World Series, he tested for Minardi; he impressed Minardi, so much he was offered a race seat but, he was unable to provide Minardi with the required funding that they needed.

In 2004 he raced in the Nissan World Series; he won at Valencia; Spain and Magny-Cours; France.

2005, is the year that Karthikeyan made Formula One history by becoming the first Indian to race an F1 car with Jordan. In the first half of the season he was out shinning his teammate; Tiago Monteriro but, in the latter part of the season Karthikeyan performance has dropped off but, he did score his first World Championship points thanks to the Michelin shod runners dropping out of the US Grand Prix.

But is Karthikeyan going to be another F1 reject in 2006?