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	10 December 1997 Bangalore, India
FIA Formula 2 Championship career
Debut season	2018
Current team	Campos Racing
Car number	14
Former teams	Trident
Starts	29
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	16th in 2018
Previous series
2016-17 2015–16	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.

External links

• Website
• Arjun Maini career summary at DriverDB.com