Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship regular Zaamin Jaffer has confirmed he will compete in the biggest race of his career so far, the 21 year old joining the Formula MRF support event to next month's maiden Indian Grand Prix.
The meeting marks a huge moment in sporting, economical and tourist terms for Jaffer's homeland and it could prove to be a major turning point in Zaamin's career if he can perform well on the big stage. Mumbai-born Jaffer is delighted to have secured a seat in Formula MRF and is looking to make the most of this special opportunity.
Jaffer commented: “Formula One's arrival in India is absolutely massive for the country. The eyes of the world will be on New Delhi and it's going to be a very proud moment for me to not only race at home for the first time in my career, but to be doing so on a Grand Prix weekend for the first time too. I really can't wait – it's going to be huge.”
The confirmation of the Formula MRF race came as good news after a tough weekend for Jaffer in the latest rounds of the 2011 Formula Renault BARC season at Thruxton. After a strong run on the fringe of the opening race, Zaamin was an innocent victim when a driver ahead locked-up coming out o the chicane, with Jaffer unable to avoid him, hitting the back of the car and then the pitwall.
It left a huge challenge for the Hillspeed team to repair his car in time for the second race, but they did so and Active PR-backed Jaffer rewarded them by battling through to a tenth place finish, despite a far from ideal set up on his car.
Jaffer reflected: “Testing went well at Thruxton and I had high hopes after that but qualifying wasn't so good so we had to work hard in the races. In the first race I wasn't that happy with the car on new tyres, we had quite a bit of understeer and I did take a couple of hits early on. We were on course for getting into the top 10 though but then (Jack) Dex wiped me out and put me in the wall.
“There wasn't time to flat-patch the car so there was no set-up on it for race two, the corner weights were out and it was locking-up but the team did a great job to even get me in the race. In terms of pace, it wasn't that bad actually – to take 10th place was as good as we could have hoped for.”
