One in a Billion: Jehan Daruvala From Mumbai to Red Bull F1

Jehan Daruvala was discovered by the Force India F1 team after he won the  ‘One in a Billion Hunt’ organized by the team in 2011. He was the junior driver for Force India F1 team from 2011 until the team changed ownership in 2018.

Last season he had an impressive run and stood 3rd in the FIA Formula 3 championship. Jehan was the only driver in the top 5 of the Drivers’ Championship to not have a functioning junior driver relationship with a Formula 1 team.

After months of speculation, he was recently signed by the Red Bull F1 Junior Team and will be competing in Formula 2 with Carlin for the 2020 season.

If it wasn’t for the Red Bull Junior team it would have been very difficult for him to proceed to Formula 2 and hopefully, Formula 1 (in 2021 or later). It requires either huge support from a team or strong sponsorship to get a seat. Hence the second option was out of his reach this is his only opportunity to prove himself and make it to Formula 1.

Jehan Daruvala Interview Highlights

Jehan Daruvala recently talked about his goals for Formula 2, excitement about the Red Bull association, targets for 2020 and more in an exclusive interview with Kunal Shah for Firstpost.

He said in an interview, “I am actually very, very excited. It’s a big opportunity in my career. My aim is to get to Formula 1 and now the platform is there for me. It is a big deal for me. I am one step away, I hope to have a very good season this year.”

Talking about his competition in the Formula 2 series this year he said that that his competitors from last year’s F3 grid will be his main competitors this year as well. That includes his former Formula 3 team-mates, Robert and Marcus Armstrong.

Other than them he will be competing with some more experienced drivers on the grid, like Callum Ilott, Luca Ghiotto, Nobuharu Matsushita, Louis Deletraz and Mick Schumacher.

Jehan will be pairing with Honda backed fellow Red Bull Junior driver Yuki Tsunoda.

He said, ” I expect him to be a surprise out of the box. Yuki only did Formula 3 last year; he used to race in Japan (before that). He seems to be a really fast driver and Honda as well as Red Bull seem to believe in him.”

Jehan’s Motosport Career

Daruvala started his motorsport career with karting in 2011, winning titles across Asia and Europe. After this, he moved to single-seater in 2015 with Fortec Motorsport in the Formula Renault 2.0 championships. And after racing across Europe in regional championships he moved to FIA Formula 3 last season.