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The first Indian to lead at a FIA  (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) Formula 3 (F3) championship, 20-year-old Jehan Daruvala accomplished the feat when racing at the Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain over the second weekend of July 2019. The final outcome of the FIA F3 Championship will be determined after the eighth event in September. Competitors are awarded cumulative points depending on their performance at the feature race and sprint race at each event. The F3 events and the F2 events are the support events to the main Formula 1 (F1) Grand Prix races, as explained by his mother Kainaz. While F1 events are held over 20 weekends, F3 events that coincide on eight of those weekends serve as "the perfect training ground for the world’s best upcoming talents… and offer an opportunity to prove themselves to all the F1 teams,” noted a write-up from Daruvala’s coach Rayomand Banajee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier this year, Daruvala was selected by Prema Racing, one of the world’s most successful junior racing teams to drive for them at the FIA F3 Championship. The only Indian on the ultracompetitive 30-car grid (the starting formation of a race, generally in rows of two for cars), Daruvala won the inaugural round in Spain and was on the podium when the Indian national anthem rang out. Half way through this Championship, at the end of four events, he had won five podium finishes after racing at events at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain in May, Circuit Paul Ricard in France and Red Bull Ring in Austria in June, and the Silverstone Circuit in July. In the next two months he will be competing at Hungaroring in Hungary, Circuit De Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium and Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy before racing at the final event at the Sochi Autodrom in Russia from September 27 to 29.
"This is my fifth year with Formula cars and I have won multiple races along the way. But definitely this one is my biggest achievement so far,” Daruvala was quoted in the Bombay Times of June 10.
After different events Daruvala thanked Prema Racing for giving him "a fantastic car.” As he noted in an interview with Mid-Day of May 13, 2019, "If you are not in the best car you’re not going to beat them.” Emblazoned prominently on his single-seater car is Sterling & Wilson (a Shapoorji Pallonji Group company dealing in power and energy), the firm where his father Khurshed is managing director. His racing attire additionally features the name and logo of Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Private Limited. Taking pride in Jehan’s accomplishments, a family member from Bombay is invariably present to cheer him at the races. At the first three events, his parents and sister Delna were in attendance while for the UK event, along with his father, his paternal grandmother Zarine Daruvala and maternal grandmother Pervin Madan had flown down.
The only Indian to have won the New Zealand Grand Prix (see "In the Grand league,” Parsiana, April 7, 2017) over the years Daruvala has won the Malaysian Junior Yamaha Karting Championship, the FIA CIK Asia Pacific KF3 Championship and the British Superone National Karting Championship. He now lives in London due to the demands of professional racing but at his homes in London as also Bombay he has two state-of-the-art Formula race car simulators for practice sessions as racers get to practice on Formula cars only six days in a year due to the prohibitive costs.