Toby. wrote:
Though he appears to struggle at times, I've little doubt in my mind he'd have been able to challenge the likes of Senna if he was born 20 years earlier. The man is one of the quickest things on four wheels. He's cool, calm and collected, hiding his fierce determination and mind-blowing ability behind an unassuming smile. If Vettel is only successful because of Red Bull's designers, then Karthikeyan is only unsuccessful because of the designers of the EJ15 and the F111 and '12 failing to meet competitive standard. One of the true losses to motorsport is that Karthikeyan never received a position in a top-tier team. The Vettel incident in Malaysia last year was caused by a clash of egos: two great men battling it out for the ultimate prize; two gladiators of the modern Colosseum vying for supremacy over the other. Unfortunately I fear that, much as with Senna and Prost, and Hamilton and Alonso, top teams have not yet hired Karthikeyan because of the likelihood of him upsetting the balance of power in their squad. He's a commanding figure and though the long-term gains may be bountiful, few teams can risk a championship or two now in order to try and win five in the hands of Narain. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes Narain Karthikeyan, the pride of India, will be back. The powers that be may believe they have finally rid the grid of this bad boy, but few obstacles can hold back the fastest thing this side of Delhi.
You should write a novel mate. You’re good at it.
But on the topic of Karthikeyan, I don’t know how to rate his performance these days, but I do recall him showing a lot of promise back in the Jordan days battling with Monteiro. So you maybe right, if he has a good car - he (the old Narain, that is) probably can perform better than any of the middle order lot to say the least. Yes, he did have talent; nobody questions that. He used to beat Button back in British Formula 3 racing? But the question is how much he has slipped off now. Lack in confidence and all that. Just like in any other sports, F1 drivers too have their highs ‘n lows. You only need to ask Felipe Massa. In Massa's case he lost confidence of his
ability to perform once the realization set-in that he was to be treated as the
2nd driver at Ferrari. So automatically a psychological realization sets-in that the world sees that there is somebody
better than you. I think the same holds true for Karthikeyen, when even the so-called Indian F1 team on the grid don't want to take him on board. Didn't Hamilton even suggest that? So how can he genuinely believe the world sees him anymore than a back-marker joke?
So it's not the same case as Vettel - who is right now at the top of his performance.