Narain Karthikeyan joins HRT F1 team for 2012 season

Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan has joined Pedro de la Rosa at HRT, completing their line-up for the 2012 Formula 1 season.

The Spanish team announced the appointment on Friday, giving the 35-year-old a second year with the team.

HRT replaced him with Red Bull-backed Australian rookie Daniel Ricciardo midway through the 2011 calendar.

"Narain's a quick, intuitive and secure driver - he'll contribute continuity," HRT boss Luis Perez-Sala said  .

"Of the eight grands prix he contested in 2011, he only failed to finish on one occasion and had a great performance in the last race he took part in."

HRT, a team based in Murcia in south-east Spain , are under new ownership for the forthcoming season and have a new technical co-ordinator in Jacky Eeckelaert.

F1 ON THE BBC IN 2012

  • All the grands prix will be shown on BBC television
  • Ten will be live - China (15 Apr); Spain (13 May); Monaco (27 May); Europe (24 Jun); Britain (8 Jul); Belgium (2 Sep); Singapore (23 Sep); Korea (14 Oct); Abu Dhabi (4 Nov); Brazil (25 Nov)
  • The rest will have extended highlights - Asian time-zone races will be shown at 2pm; European time-zone races at 5.30pm
  • All races will be live on 5 live and the BBC Sport website
  • The website will have live video of the races that are live on TV and live audio and text commentary for all races

Karthikeyan expressed his delight at securing a drive for 2012. "It has taken a lot of hard work to make this happen but I am absolutely elated to feature on the 2012 grid with HRT," he commented.

"I was pleased with our strong performance at the Indian Grand Prix in front of my passionate home fans, and I look forward to building on this result this year.

"With the new management, Pedro, and the team, there is definite potential for progress."