Jehan Daruvala Biography – An Indian Formula 2 Racing Driver

Jehan Daruvala (born 1 October 1998) is an Indian racing driver currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Prema Racing. He was a protégé of the Force India F1 team after being one of three winners of a ‘One in a Billion hunt’ organized by the team in 2011. He is currently a member of the Red Bull Junior Team.

Jehan Daruvala Biography
Nationality	Indian
Born	1 October 1998 (age 23) Mumbai, India
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2020
Current team	Prema Racing
Car number	2
Former teams	Carlin
Starts	70 (72 entries)
Wins	3
Podiums	13
Poles	0
Fastest laps	3
Best finish	7th in 2021
Previous series
2021 2019 2017–18 2016–17 2015–16 2015–16 2015	F3 Asian Championship FIA Formula 3 Championship FIA European F3 Toyota Racing Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Formula Renault 2.0 Alps

Early life (Jehan Daruvala Biography)

Daruvala was born in Mumbai to Khurshed and Kainaz Daruvala, a Parsi family. He studied at Bombay Scottish School, Mahim. His father, Khurshed, is the current MD of Sterling & Wilson, an associate company of Shapoorji Pallonji.

Career

Karting

Daruvala started karting at the age of thirteen in 2011, participating in many events across his karting career. He won the 2012 Asia-Pacific Championship and 2013 Super 1 National Championship titles as champion and many other series as vice champion across Asia and Europe. Daruvala placed third in the 2014 Karting World Championship. He was coached by Rayomand Banerjee, who recognized his talent early on and was instrumental in laying the foundations for his future success.

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 (Jehan Daruvala Biography)

2015

In 2015, Daruvala stepped up to single-seaters with Fortec Motorsport in the Formula Renault 2.0 championships. Three podiums, including consistent points scoring, helped him rank fifth in the Northern European Cup. He partook as a guest driver in the Eurocup and Alps series.

2016

The following year, Daruvala switched to reigning series champions Josef Kaufmann Racing partnering Lando Norris and Robert Shwartzman. He took an opening pole position at Monza, and in the second race, he took a podium. In Hungary, he took his first Northern European Cup win. Three more third places saw Daruvala rank fourth in the North European Cup. In the Eurocup, Daruvala took an opening podium but was unable to replicate the result again. He eventually finished ninth in the Eurocup standings.

Toyota Racing Series (Jehan Daruvala Biography)

Before the start of Daruvala’s 2016 season, he took part in the Toyota Racing Series. Three wins and three more podiums helped Daruvala become vice-champion to Lando Norris.

Daruvala returned to the Toyota Racing Series for the 2017 season. He claimed the most pole positions of any driver and claimed two wins, one of which was the New Zealand Grand Prix. Despite that, he only ranked fifth in the championship, as the championship fight was more competitive.

European Formula 3 Championship

2017

In November 2016, Daruvala stated his intention to switch to the European Formula 3 Championship for the 2017 season. He signed to race with Carlin the following month. At the first Monza race, Daruvala took his first pole position in the series and would convert it into a second place, having led the majority of the race. He scored another podium at the Hungaroring before finally taking his maiden win at the Norisring, passing polesitter Maximilian Günther on the first lap from the second. Daruvala finished sixth in the championship. He also participated in the 2017 Macau Grand Prix, finishing tenth in the race after starting 16th.

2018

Daruvala remained with Carlin for the 2018 season. He achieved a third place in the opening weekend at Pau during the third race. Daruvala scored his only win of the year in the first race of the Spa-Francorchamps round, taking pole position and the fastest lap. Overall, he claimed a total of five podiums, including one win and a pole position. Despite that, Daruvala only ranked tenth in the standings due to his inconsistent points scoring. Daruvala once again participated in the 2018 Macau Grand Prix. He finished two places lower than the previous year in 12th, having started 17th.

GP3 Series

Daruvala joined MP Motorsport in the Yas Marina GP3 finale, taking Niko Kari’s seat. He finished both races in 19th and 13th.

FIA Formula 3 Championship

In 2019, Daruvala competed in the inaugural Formula 3 season for the Prema Powerteam, alongside Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong. He qualified fourth at the first race in Barcelona but fell to seventh in the first race. He made a good start in the second race to pass polesitter Niko Kari at the start. Despite a safety car, he eventually took his inaugural victory. Daruvala qualified on the front row in Paul Ricard, alongside Jake Hughes. He made a slow start but later passed Hughes later in the race to take his second successive win. This would prove to be his last win of the season. Daruvala pressed hard in the second race to take a third place, his third podium in four races. Daruvala qualified fourth at the Red Bull Ring; he remained and finished in that position in Race one, having nearly taken third place from teammate Armstrong on the last lap. In the second race, Daruvala sat in fourth place heading into the final lap, but ahead his two Prema teammates collided, which saw Daruvala promoted to second place at the flag.

In Monza, Daruvala qualified fourth. However, he has penalized five places for each race due to driving unnecessarily slowly, which saw him demoted down to tenth. But he made a strong fightback, finishing third behind both his teammates. In the second race, Daruvala dropped off the points positions at the start and was unable to recover, eventually finishing in 13th place. At the Sochi season finale, Daruvala qualified in second but made a terrible start, being passed by Armstrong, Niko Kari, and Leonardo Pulcini. He lost another place to Jüri Vips and eventually finished sixth. He was promoted back to fifth after Vips was penalized. Daruvala was set to start in fourth for the second race but stalled during the formation lap. He battled his way through the field to end the race in 14th. Overall, Daruvala scored seven podiums, including two wins, two fastest laps, and one pole position. Daruvala was set to compete in the 2019 Macau Grand Prix but was forced to pull out due to an injury; he was replaced by the 2019 Formula Regional European champion Frederik Vesti.

FIA Formula 2 Championship (Jehan Daruvala Biography)

2020

In February 2020, Daruvala reunited with Carlin to contest the 2020 season alongside Red Bull Junior Team member Yuki Tsunoda. Additionally, he was also named as a Red Bull Junior. At the same time, he was aiming for a Formula One seat in 2021.

Daruvala finally made his debut at the Red Bull Ring round following a delayed start to the season. He qualified sixth on his debut weekend. Daruvala’s hope of points were over following a poor start before being tipped into a spin by Tsunoda. Daruvala was unable to recover and finished in 13th. He finished 16th in the sprint race, his highlight of the race being punting Luca Ghiotto out of the race. Daruvala qualified seventh for the 2nd Red Bull Ring round. However, he had a slow pace compared to the others and slowly dropped out of the points to finish 12th. In the sprint race, Daruvala advanced up to ninth but in the end just missed out on points, finishing just five tenths behind Nikita Mazepin.

Daruvala qualified a season-best second in Sochi qualifying, forming a Carlin front-row lockout alongside Tsunoda. He dropped to third at the start after being overtaken by Mick Schumacher. Daruvala was then undercut by Callum Ilott and Luca Ghiotto to end the race in fifth. Starting fourth in the sprint race, Daruvala dropped to fifth before receiving a five-second time penalty for corner cutting while battling Jack Aitken. With the race red-flagged, Daruvala was re-classified 11th. From eighth in Bahrain, Daruvala had a good start, making up two places in the feature race start. He soon faded down to tenth and pitted early. As a result, Daruvala made an undercut on many drivers and was up to third. He defended hard from Schumacher in the late stages of the race to come through for his maiden Formula 2 podium. Daruvala was up in third during the sprint race opening lap. It was not to last, however; he was soon passed by Mazepin before being hit by Ilott behind, ending Daruvala’s race. Daruvala qualified third for the second Bahrain round but dropped to sixth during the feature race start. He eventually finished seventh. Lining up second for the sprint race, Daruvala was passed by Schumacher on lap 4 but re-passed him back four laps later. He then hunted down Dan Ticktum and overtook him. He then took his first Formula 2 victory ahead of Tsunoda. Following the win, Daruvala stated that he was “really excited for the future.” Daruvala finished the championship with 72 points, in 12th place, far behind teammate Tsunoda in third, who graduated to Formula One.

2021

Before Daruvala’s main campaign, he took part in the 2021 F3 Asian Championship with Mumbai Falcons. Overall, he claimed three victories and eight podiums. This saw him rank third in the championship, behind Pierre-Louis Chovet and champion Guanyu Zhou.

Daruvala continued in the 2021 season with Carlin alongside Dan Ticktum. He finished in second place in the first sprint race at Bahrain after passing David Beckmann and retirement for Théo Pourchaire. He pressured race leader Liam Lawson in the end but could not pass him. Daruvala followed it up with fourth place after a slow start in the second sprint race and sixth in the feature race. During the first sprint race in Monaco, Daruvala ran in tenth place after Christian Lundgaard had retired. However, at the penultimate corner on the final lap, Daruvala was divebombed by Marcus Armstrong and so the lost the reverse pole from him. During the second sprint, Daruvala was again passed on the last lap, this time by Lirim Zendeli for eighth. Fortunately, race winner Lawson was disqualified, and Daruvala was promoted to 8th, scoring a point. He rounded out his difficult weekend with retirement after making contact with Gianluca Petecof after pitting.

At Jeddah, Daruvala qualified tenth. He moved into the final corner during the first sprint, overtaking both Lundgaard and Piastri, eventually finishing in fifth. However, Daruvala was given a five-second time penalty for overtaking Ticktum off-track and gaining an advantage. He was demoted to 10th but was given a reverse pole for the second sprint. Following a safety car restart, Daruvala locked up and went off-track, gaining an advantage on second-placed Piastri. He was given a five-second time penalty for doing so. For the later part of the race, Daruvala was involved in a battle with Piastri in which the Australian won on lap 17. Just a lap later, the safety car was brought out following Lawson’s crash, and the whole field was bunched up. With the penalty applied, Daruvala was dropped to 14th place. His point-less weekend ended in 11th place following a red-flagged feature race. Daruvala qualified in tenth for the season finale at Yas Marina, which gave him a reverse pole for the first sprint race. Throughout the race, Daruvala was pressured by Felipe Drugovich, but as the race neared its end, Drugovich’s challenge faded, allowing Daruvala to score his second win of 2021. Daruvala climbed to fifth in an action-packed second sprint but was overtaken by Drugovich and Lawson towards the end. Daruvala ended the season in 11th place. Throughout his 2021 campaign, Daruvala finished seventh in the standings and was outscored by teammate Ticktum. He achieved a total of 113 points, including two race victories, the fastest lap, and five podiums.

2022

In January 2022, he reunited with reigning champions Prema Powerteam for the 2022 season, partnering with fellow Red Bull Junior Team member and 2021 FIA Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger. It is also expected to be Daruvala’s final year competing in Formula 2, as he faces a ‘make or break year.

In Spa-Francorchamps, Daruvala qualified in the ninth position. He was set to start second in the sprint race. However, a technical issue pre-race brought his day to a close. In the feature race, a collision saw him pit for repairs early on and would cap off his disappointing weekend with the 20th. In Zandvoort, a spin in qualifying saw Daruvala down in 17th, and the lack of overtaking opportunities in the circuit saw him finish 16th in the sprint race.

Formula One

Daruvala was announced as a Red Bull Junior Team member before driving in the 2020 Formula 2 Championship.

On the weekend after the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, Daruvala was announced to have his first taste of a Formula One car with McLaren, testing the McLaren MCL35M at the Silverstone Circuit. He also had another test at the Algarve International Circuit, from July 18-19.

Daruvala is considering Formula E or IndyCar should a Formula One seat for 2023 not appear.

Karting record (Jehan Daruvala Biography)

Karting career summary

Racing record

Racing career summary

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