Arjun Maini

Arjun Maini (born 10 December 1997)[1] is an Indian racing driver, currently competing in the Asian Le Mans Series for RLR MSport team. He has previously also competed in FIA Formula 2 Championship with Trident Racing, as well as Campos Racing.[2]

Arjun Maini
Maini in 2017
Nationality Indian
Born (1997-12-10) 10 December 1997
Bangalore, India
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season2018
Current teamCampos Racing
Car number14
Former teamsTrident
Starts29
Wins0
Poles0
Fastest laps0
Best finish16th in 2018
Previous series
2016-17
201516
GP3 Series
FIA Formula 3 European Championship

Early life

Maini comes from a family of racers. His brother Kush is also a racer competing in the Formula Renault Eurocup, and his father, Gautam, raced in the National Racing Championship in the late 1990s, at the Formula India Single Seater Maruti Engine.[3][4] The teenager first fell in love with motorsport when his father gave him an electric car. Maini received his first go-kart, an 80cc Comer Kart at the age of 5.

Maini's uncle Chetan Maini is an Indian business magnate best known for building India's first electric car, REVA,[5] and as the Founder of Reva Electric Car Company Ltd, now Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited, where he served as an advisor.[6]

The teenager idolises Sebastian Vettel and in his free time enjoys wrestling, cycling, fitness activities and video editing.[7]

Career

Maini received his first go-kart, an 80cc Comer Kart, at the age of 5.

2007

At the young age of 8, Maini won his first two championships, the MRF Mini Max Championship in both the Rotax class and the 4-stroke Cadet class in his first year of racing. After his first titles, Maini raced on foreign soil for the first time in the Asia Max championship, which led to immediate success.[8]

2008

Maini became the youngest Indian to win a kart race abroad by winning the Malaysian Royal Kelatan Kart Prix held in 2008.[3]

2009

Maini was the youngest driver to take part in the J.K. Tyre Rotax Max Junior Max National championship at the age of 11. He was selected by the Red Rooster Racing Team in 2009.[8]

2010

Maini took part in the Rotax Max Challenge India - Junior in 2010 and finished in 2nd place. He finished with the most number of fastest laps.[9]

2011

Maini's major breakthrough came in 2011 where he won the J.K.Tyre Rotax Max National Karting Championship title in the Junior Max category and followed this up by becoming the Sahara Force India team's One from a Billion winner. He was also the winner of AKOC race in Macau as well as the Ask KF3 Race in Elite, Malaysia. He finished second overall in the AKS Malaysian Championship 2011.[8][9]

2012

Maini finished a creditable fifth in the ROK Cup International Final in Junior ROK category, at Lonato Italy against 72 of the best drivers from over 20 countries. Maini was awarded the best rookie at Rowrah while racing in the MSA British Karting Championship. He also finished a brilliant second place in Junior category in the Indonesia Kart Prix 2012 along with a first place in the Junior max category in Rotax Invitational Karting Race held at Kuala Lumpur.[8]

2013

Maini then stepped up into cars in 2013. He finished runner up in the J.K.Tyre Racing Series championship, winning two races at the Buddh International Circuit as well as winning the Malaysian Super 6 Series. He also competed in the WSK Euro and Master karting in the KF category.[8]

2014

He then went on to compete in the BRDC Formula 4 championship; finishing second overall and missing out on the championship by 3 points to teammate George Russell. He finished the championship with 8 wins and 9 podium finishes. He was also the highest ranked Indian driver in the Driver Database [7]

2015

Maini at the GP3 race at the 2017 Belgian GP

Maini showed remarkable pace in the Toyota Racing series in New Zealand en route to a 4th overall in the championship with two wins, five podiums and 3 poles. He also finished 4th overall in Race 2 of the Pau Grand Prix. However a learning year in the FIA European Formula 3 series meant he could only manage 18th overall and 9th in the rookie class. Maini did manage to end the season on a high finishing 10th at the prestigious Macau Grand Prix.[10]

2016

Maini with the Russian Time team at the Abu Dhabi F2 post season test

In 2016, Maini raced for Jenzer Motorsport in the GP3 series, he finished the season in 10th position in the championship despite missing the first 4 races. He also became the first Indian to secure a podium in the GP3 series at Hungaroring, after finishing 2nd.[11] Maini also raced in the Macau GP for Team Motopark.

2017

Maini signed for Jenzer Motorsport again, for his second stint in the GP3 series.

In May 2017, it was announced that Haas F1 team signed Maini as development driver.[12]

Maini did a post season test in Abu Dhabi with F2 teams Trident and Russian Time.[13]

2018

Maini signed for Trident Racing in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship and he also remained in his role as Haas's development driver.[14]

2019

Maini changed from single seaters to Endurance racing in the European Le Mans Series with RLR M SPORT. He also competed in the prestigious 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as competing in the Asian Le Mans Series where he won the First race at Shanghai International Circuit. Aside from this Arjun Maini also competed in the 2019 FIA Formula 2 Championship with Campos Racing for three rounds.

Racing record

Career summary

Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position
2013 AsiaCup Series Meritus.GP 12 0 ? 1 4 108 4th
JK Racing India Series Euro International 12 2 4 3 10 198 2nd
2014 BRDC Formula 4 Championship Lanan Racing 24 4 0 6 9 480 2nd
2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship Van Amersfoort Racing 33 0 0 0 0 27 18th
Macau Grand Prix T-Sport 1 0 0 0 0 N/A 10th
Toyota Racing Series M2 Competition 16 2 3 2 5 732 4th
2016 GP3 Series Jenzer Motorsport 14 0 0 0 1 50 10th
FIA Formula 3 European Championship Threebond with T-Sport 12 0 0 0 0 3 21st
2017 GP3 Series Jenzer Motorsport 15 1 0 1 2 69 9th
2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship Trident 23 0 0 0 0 24 16th
2019 Formula 2 Championship Campos Racing 6 0 0 0 0 0 24th
European Le Mans Series - LMP2 RLR MSport 6 0 0 0 0 5.5 21st
2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series - LMP2 RLR MSport 2 1 1 2 1 26 5th
2020 European Le Mans Series - LMP2 Algarve Pro Racing 2 0 0 0 0 8 22nd
2021 Asian Le Mans Series Racing Team India

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 DC Points
2015 Van Amersfoort Racing Volkswagen SIL
1

Ret
SIL
2

14
SIL
3

16
HOC
1

15
HOC
2

Ret
HOC
3

13
PAU
1

12
PAU
2

4
PAU
3

5
MNZ
1

10
MNZ
2

20
MNZ
3

20
SPA
1

17
SPA
2

23
SPA
3

16
NOR
1

Ret
NOR
2

14
NOR
3

17
ZAN
1

13
ZAN
2

15
ZAN
3

17
RBR
1

21
RBR
2

15
RBR
3

22
ALG
1

28
ALG
2

24
ALG
3

16
NÜR
1

8
NÜR
2

12
NÜR
3

16
HOC
1

29
HOC
2

14
HOC
3

17
18th 27
2016 Threebond with T-Sport Threebond LEC
1

Ret
LEC
2

13
LEC
3

16
21st 3
NBE HUN
1

14
HUN
2

15
HUN
3

15
PAU
1

18
PAU
2

10
PAU
3

9
RBR
1

Ret
RBR
2

Ret
RBR
3

18
NOR
1
NOR
2
NOR
3
ZAN
1
ZAN
2
ZAN
3
SPA
1
SPA
2
SPA
3
NÜR
1
NÜR
2
NÜR
3
IMO
1
IMO
2
IMO
3
HOC
1
HOC
2
HOC
3

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points
2016 Jenzer Motorsport CAT
FEA
CAT
SPR
RBR
FEA
RBR
SPR
SIL
FEA

8
SIL
SPR

19
HUN
FEA

8
HUN
SPR

2
HOC
FEA

7
HOC
SPR

5
SPA
FEA

Ret
SPA
SPR

16
MNZ
FEA

14
MNZ
SPR

6
SEP
FEA

4
SEP
SPR

7
YMC
FEA

14
YMC
SPR

14
10th 50
2017 Jenzer Motorsport CAT
FEA

7
CAT
SPR

1
RBR
FEA

10
RBR
SPR

16
SIL
FEA

6
SIL
SPR

5
HUN
FEA

Ret
HUN
SPR

8
SPA
FEA

4
SPA
SPR

6
MNZ
FEA

16†
MNZ
SPR

C
JER
FEA

17
JER
SPR

12
YMC
FEA

3
YMC
SPR

6
9th 72

Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 DC Points
2018 Trident BHR
FEA

15
BHR
SPR

14
BAK
FEA

Ret
BAK
SPR

5
CAT
FEA

Ret
CAT
SPR

13
MON
FEA

5
MON
SPR

5
LEC
FEA

10
LEC
SPR

13
RBR
FEA

14
RBR
SPR

10
SIL
FEA

14
SIL
SPR

13
HUN
FEA

12
HUN
SPR

14
SPA
FEA

14
SPA
SPR

8
MNZ
FEA

Ret
MNZ
SPR

9
SOC
FEA

15
SOC
SPR

15
YMC
FEA

Ret
YMC
SPR

DNS
16th 24
2019 Campos Racing BHR
FEA
BHR
SPR
BAK
FEA
BAK
SPR
CAT
FEA
CAT
SPR
MON
FEA
MON
SPR
LEC
FEA
LEC
SPR
RBR
SPR

DSQ
RBR
SPR

15
SIL
FEA

13
SIL
SPR

13
HUN
FEA

Ret
HUN
SPR

16
SPA
FEA
SPA
SPR
MNZ
FEA
MNZ
SPR
SOC
FEA
SOC
SPR
YMC
FEA
YMC
SPR
24th 0

Complete European Le Mans Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points
2019 RLR MSport LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC
8
MNZ
Ret
CAT
13
SIL
Ret
SPA
14
ALG
15
21st 5.5
2020 Algarve Pro Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC SPA LEC MNZ
8
ALG
8
22nd 8

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2019 RLR M Sport/Tower Events John Farano
Norman Nato
Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 295 NC NC

References

  1. http://www.mso.net, MSO.net -. "Arjun Maini | Young Drivers | British Racing Drivers' Club". www.brdc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  2. "Arjun Maini - GP3 Series". www.gp3series.com. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  3. "Maini siblings on fast track". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  4. "Arjun and Kush Maini: India's answer to Schumacher brothers? - Firstpost". Firstpost. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  5. "Formula 1: How Arjun Maini went from talented rookie to Haas F1 Team's development driver - Firstpost". www.firstpost.com. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  6. "Chetan Maini: Back in the electric mobility business | Forbes India". Forbes India. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
  7. "Arjun Maini - JK Tyre Motorsport". www.jktyremotorsport.com. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  8. "Arjun Maini". Archived from the original on 23 August 2017.
  9. "Rotax Max Challenge India - Junior 2010 standings | Driver Database". www.driverdb.com. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  10. Achal, Ashwin (7 June 2015). "On track to Formula One". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  11. "Driver Database".
  12. "Haas sign Indian racer Arjun Maini". Formula1.com. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  13. "Arjun Maini tests with Formula 2 champion team Russian Time". hindustantimes.com/. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  14. "Maini to continue in Haas development role". Formula1.com. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
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