During the last weekend, even as Force India was facing an existential crisis over financial issues, its young driver academy member Jehan Daruvala was flying the national flag high with a dominant win at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium in the FIA European F3 championships.
The Mumbai-based Daruvala, who was selected by Force India in 2011 through a talent hunt, has been slowly making his way through the junior categories, and is currently fifth in the championship, just 42.5 points behind the leader at the halfway stage.
Daruvala scored more points than any driver at Spa with another podium to go with his win.
Speaking to The Hindu , the 19-year-old said, “it was great to have a win finally and things are working out our way. But the season has not gone the way I wanted so far.
“We as a team have been struggling, but the good thing is I have managed to out-qualify and out-race my teammates.”
While Daruvala’s Carlin team is an experienced outfit in the junior categories, Prema Theodore Racing team and Motopark have been the benchmark with three of Prema’s drivers in the top four.
Into his second year in the championship, the Indian feels he has raised his overall game with better consistency scoring at least a podium in four out of five rounds.
“Last year I made mistakes in qualifying, but this year I feel I am faster and also more consistent. However, my starts are not good and that is something we are working hard on. Even in Spa I lost out on the start but managed to take the lead after the restart.”
“In F3, it is important to get the starts right as that is where one can make places as overtaking is not easy.”
The Indian driver has a close working relationship with Force India, visiting the factory occasionally, but said he was insulated from the happenings in the team and prefers to focus on racing while his father and management team sort out the off-track matters.
With five more rounds to go, Daruvala feels while a title shot is difficult considering the strong competition from teams like Prema and Motopark, a top-three finish would be a realistic target.
