A fight for Asian honours too
Stan Rayan
Takuma Sato of Japan is Asia's big F-1 hope.
EVEN AS Narain Karthikeyan attempts to focus on the task at hand, looking at the light, working on the buttons, let's distract ourselves with a few Asians who've made a mark in Formula One.
Well, who was the first Asian?
Thailand's Bira was the first, and he had a royal connection too. Prince Birabongse Bhanutel Bhanubandh, who competed as Prince Bira, was a member of the royal family of Thailand, then known as Siam, and was a grandson of King Mongkut who was made famous by the 1950 musical comedy `The King and I.'
Like many Asian princes, Bira moved to England at the age of 13 to study at Eton and then Cambridge.
An accomplished racer in many part of Europe, Bira drove in the first-ever Formula One World Championship race in Silverstone, Britain, on May 13, 1950. Driving a Maserati, Bira was an impressive fifth on the grid but was forced to retire after the 49th lap when he ran out of fuel.
The 70-lap race, which had 21 drivers, was won by Giuseppe Farina in an Alfa Romeo, Formula One's debut World Championship had seven rounds and Farina topped the drivers' standings that year. Meanwhile, Prince Bira was an impressive fifth the next week in Monaco. His best came a few weeks after at the Swiss Grand Prix where he finished fourth. He raced in four of the seven rounds that season and finished eighth in the drivers' standings. He was on and off the World Championship the next three years but was a regular in the 1954 Formula One circuit. He was fourth once again, this time at the French Grand Prix, Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio, a five-time Formula One world champion and one of the legends of the sport, topped the drivers' championship that year. Later, Bira won non-championship Grand Prix races in Belgium and New Zealand and retired in 1955.
Satoru Nakajima, who raced between 1987 to 1991, was the first Japanese F1 regular. And thanks to Japanese car giant Honda, he drove alongside the legendary Ayrton Senna at Lotus. A wet-weather specialist, Nakajima was fourth at Silverstone, behind Senna in 1987, and repeated the position in 1989 at Adelaide. Japan's next F1 regular, Aguri Suzuki was the country's first to get onto the Formula One podium with a third-place finish in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
It took another 14 years for Japan to jump back on to the podium. Bar-Honda's Takuma Sato, one of the most promising Asian drivers in recent years but also known for his wild and wacky driving in the Formula One circuit, was third, behind Ferrari superstars Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello at the United States Grand Prix last year.
The colourful Sato, finished the 2004 season with a career-best eighth spot in the drivers' championship, which is the best by an Asian in the last 50 years, Prince Bira's 1950 season-ending ranking being the big landmark. The last time two Asians figured in the Formula One season was in 2002 when Minardi's Malaysian Alex Yoong, who made his debut in 2001, figured in the circuit along with Sato. But while Yoong turned out to be a big flop, Sato, despite gaining a reputation in the circuit as a car wrecker, climbed up the ladder and the popularity charts with his daring overtaking manoeuvres.
Narain and Sato were teammates at Carlin Motorsport a few years ago. The Indian has even beaten the Japanese a few times. And as he learns the ropes of Formula One and crosses small milestones, he will sure to come across a big challenge from Sato. It will be a fight for Asian honours.
Formula One 2005
