Former Indian karting champion Jehan Daruvala will take his much anticipated next step in his motor sport career when he will embark on a season of racing in Formula Renault 2.0's ALPS and NEC (North European Championship) series from next year.
The 16-year-old Daruvala told autoX that he will be testing with three teams before the end of this year, which will include renowned racing outfit Fortec Motorsport, which participates not only in Formula Renault 2.0 series but also at the Formula 3 and Formula Renault 3.5 level.
Daruvala has already completed a two-day test of a Formula Renault car and said that getting used to the braking characteristics of a car as compared to a kart and how a car handles while cornering were the aspects that took the most getting used to although he found himself being able to acclimatize to it by the end of the test.
The downforce generated by the wings of the Formula Renault 2.0 car was also a novelty for Daruvala over the course of the test. "Apart from the brakes the thing that I had to get used to the most was how much a car moves around while cornering," said Daruvala. "Then there was also the downforce from the wings, which I didn't believe until I actually experienced it."
Daruvala's switch to car racing comes after three seasons of karting in Europe and the United Kingdom where he won titles at the KF3 level in the British Super One Series and the CIK-FIA Asia-Pacific championship. Daruvala will continue to be backed by the Sahara Force India F1 team, which drafted him through their 'One in a billion' scouting program.
This year he finished as runner-up in the highly competitive German karting championship by just eleven points and was third in the CIK-FIA World Championship at the KF1 level.
Daruvala said after finalizing which team he would race with in Formula Renault 2.0, he plans to compete in every round of both the ALPS and NEC series next year with the exception of the first round as both series have scheduled their opening rounds on the same date.
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