London, Jan 10 (IANS) India’s Karun Chandhok is among eight drivers in the running to compete in the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship beginning in September.
Chandhok, Sebastien Buemi, Marco Andretti, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Adrien Tambay, Ma Qing Hua, Lucas di Grassi and Takuma Sato have given their official endorsement to the first ever fully electric racing series with their willingness to race in the future.
Being part of the drivers’ club, they will also give them the opportunity to experience track time in new Spark-Renault SRT_01E Formula E car, designed by Spark Racing Technologies together with a consortium of the leading names in motorsport including Dallara, McLaren, Williams, Renault and Michelin.
Switzerland’s Buemi, Chandhok, Italy’s Liuzzi, di Grassi from Brazil and Japanese Sato have all previously raced in Formula 1, while China’s Ma Qing Hua has been a test driver for both HRT and Caterham F1 teams.
American Andretti – son of the legendary Michael Andretti – is one of IndyCar’s top drivers finishing fifth in 2013, while Frenchman Tambay has raced in Formula 3, GP3, Formula Renault 3.5 and more recently DTM. A further 10 drivers will be revealed over the coming weeks.
Chandhok, who raced for HRT in F1, said: “Alejandro Agag (Formula E CEO) has been a friend of mine for a number of years since our time in GP2. I’ve been speaking with him since the early days of Formula E and I’m very happy to be a part of the Drivers’ Club for the series. The calendar looks great, as do the cars and it should be a great new way to go motor racing.”
