Tamil Nadu’s Mahaveer Raghunathan looks to have strong season in Italy

CHENNAI: Racer Mahaveer Raghunathan, representing the AF Corse team, has had a good season so far at the Italian GT Championship. AF Corse are second in the overall sprint championship standings, just two points off the leader, and third in the endurance championship (until round 4).

In his debut season with AF Corse, Tamil Nadu’s Mahaveer has been a key member of the team. “The preparation we did before the season was very good and it has paid off. The team and my co-drivers are also very happy. I am looking forward to keeping the momentum going. Personally, I am quite satisfied with my performance, especially my qualifying pace in the last two rounds,” Mahaveer told TOI.

Mahaveer’s short-term goal is to win the Italian Championship and be with the AF Corse team, as they compete in several other championships and offer a good career path.

Mahaveer shares driving duties with Italian racers Lorenzo Ferrari and Riccardo Ponzio in the endurance cup. “My teammates are very experienced drivers in the GT3 cars and they have won championships before. Ferrari is good compared to the other GT3s that I have driven before. So, it is up to me to drive well and prove myself.”

Mahaveer had endured a tough F2 season in 2019, where he had accumulated 24 penalty points. “I had a tough F2 season because the year before that, I did not race in a competitive championship. So it was a very big jump to F2. Maybe, if I had competed in F2 after a year or two, it would have been much easier,” said Mahaveer.

“I did a lot of simulation racing during the Covid period, as I had not done much simulation before. I raced against many F1 drivers and it was beneficial. Before Covid, access to simulators was limited. But during the pandemic, there was a long break, so we had to use simulators to keep ourselves in shape.”