Narain Karthikeyan insists he is not overly worried about failing to qualify for grands prix this year.<\/p>\n
A year after three new teams entered formula one last season, the sport has re-imposed a 107 per cent qualifying rule for 2011.<\/p>\n
It means very uncompetitive cars and drivers can be excluded from the grid based on their qualifying pace.<\/p>\n
HRT had F1’s slowest car last year, and for 2011 the Spanish team has launched a new car that resembles its predecessor and has not been tested at all.<\/p>\n
But Indian Karthikeyan, who is expecting to take a few races to get up to speed with his 2011 teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, said he is not overly worried about failing to qualify.<\/p>\n
“Based on the 107pc rule, we have to be within 5.8 seconds of the pole time in Melbourne, which I think we are pretty capable of doing,” he told the Hindustan Times.<\/p>\n
Some observers have questioned the 34-year-old’s decision to return to F1 after a five-year absence when he was making money as a NASCAR truck driver.<\/p>\n
“It is true that all the money I made while racing in NASCAR I have already spent this season, but I didn’t want to pass up on an F1 return because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life thinking ‘what if’?” insisted Karthikeyan.<\/p>\n
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