Jehan Daruvala: Profile | Net worth | Honours

Bio

Nationality: Indian

Date of Birth: 1 October 1998

Hometown: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Race Starts: 247

Wins: 16

Podiums: 60

Pole Positions: 14

Fastest laps: 17

Race win percentage: 6.5%

Podium percentage: 24.3%

The stats provided here are accurate as of 21 June 2022 

Childhood and family

Jehan Daruvala comes from Mumbai, Maharashtra. Born on 1 October 1998, the 23-year-old Indian driver hails from a Mumbai-based Parsi family. Apart from his own reputation as a regular driver, Jehan comes from a background of intellectuals. His father, Khurshed Daruvala, is the managing director of Sterling & Wilson, a Shapoorji Pallonji Group affiliate firm. 

Having idolised Fernando Alonso while growing up, Daruvala was a passionate motorsport fan from his early childhood years. When he was only nine years old, his interest in racing drove him to casual karting where he found his fire to compete in motorsport as a profession. When he was still in primary school at Bombay Scottish School in Mahim, Mumbai, he began pursuing his dream of becoming a racing driver with the blessing and encouragement from his family. 

Formative years

Daruvala came through the ranks at the now-defunct Force India F1 team, having been one of the three winners of the “One in a Billion” hunt organised by the team in 2011. That same year, he started his karting career at the age of 13. He won the 2012 Asia-Pacific Championship and the 2013 Super 1 National Championship titles, while also finishing runner-up in many other series across Asia and Europe. 

Having recognised his talent early on, Rayomand Banajee, a well-regarded former Indian racing driver, was instrumental in guiding Daruvala and laying the foundations for his future success, as he finished third in the 2014 Karting World Championship. 

2015 saw Daruvala make the jump to single-seaters with Fortec Motorsport in the Formula Renault 2.0 Championships. Three podium finishes and a string of consistent points finishes meant he ended the campaign ranked fifth in the Northern European Cup. He also partook as a guest driver in the Eurocup and Alps Series. 

The following season, Daruvala joined reigning champions Josef Kaufmann Racing alongside the talented pairing of Lando Norris and Robert Shwartzman. He had a pretty decent season as he registered his first Northern European Cup win in Hungary while also registering five more podium finishes to end the season ranked 4th in the Drivers’ standings. In the Eurocup, Daruvala started off brightly, taking home a podium finish in the opening round, but failed to produce a similar level of performance throughout the campaign as he ended the season placed 9th in the standings. 

Before the start of the 2016 season, Daruvala took part in the Toyota Racing Series. Three race wins and three more podiums meant he finished the campaign as a distant second to eventual champion Lando Norris. He returned the following year as well and registered more pole positions than any other driver on the grid. However, he failed to translate this one-lap pace to full race distances as he managed to win just two races en route to finishing 5th in the Championship. 

By November 2016, Daruvala had made his intentions clear about making a switch to the European Formula 3 Championship for the 2017 season. The young Indian driver signed for Carlin Racing, a team he would get to know very well throughout the rest of his junior career. It was a dream start as he took pole position in the opening round and led the majority of the race before having to settle for second. He would go on to register another podium finish before taking his maiden F3 win at the Norisring as he finished 6th in the Drivers’ Championship, a pretty strong season considering that was his rookie season, although his teammate at the time, Lando Norris, won the Championship. 

2018 didn’t turn out the way Daruvala would have hoped for, however, considering that, despite winning the first race at Spa-Francorchamps followed by five more podiums, inconsistent performances proved to be his major shortcoming as he could only manage to push himself to 10th in the Drivers’ standings. 

Formula 2 and Formula 3 days

2019 marked the start of the inaugural edition of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. Daruvala competed in the series for Prema Powertrain alongside the exciting duo of Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong. He was consistent throughout the season and put on some impressive displays as he won two races, bagged seven podium finishes, took two fastest laps as well as a pole position at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. 

Daruvala ended the season 3rd in the Championship behind his teammates Robert Shwartzman (Champion) and Marcus Armstrong (2nd), though it is important to note that he was firmly in the running for the Drivers’ title until back-to-back outside-the-points finishes at Silverstone and Hungaroring, followed by non-scoring finishes in Monza and Sochi, meant he even lost the second place to Armstrong by a single point. Overall, though, it was a very strong showing from the Indian driver. 

Following a great season with Prema Powertrain, in February 2020, Daruvala reunited with Carlin Racing alongside Japanese sensation Yuki Tsunoda while also being appointed as a junior driver for Red Bull. However, unlike the previous season, his season got off to the worst of starts as he regularly struggled to fight for points, let alone podiums and race wins. And it wasn’t until the very last race of the season in Bahrain on the outer track layout where he took his maiden Formula 2 victory in the Sprint Race as he ended the season 12th in the Drivers’ standings. 

For the 2021 season, Daruvala stayed with Carlin Racing, this time alongside Dan Ticktum as Yuki Tsunoda made the jump to F1 with the Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri. Daruvala took 2nd place in the first sprint race in Bahrain before following it up with fourth- and sixth-place finishes. However, Monaco was a rude awakening for the Indian driver as he failed to finish inside the points in both the Sprint and Feature races. Baku wasn’t any different either as he struggled for race pace despite being quick over one-lap pace. He could only muster 3 points from the two Sprints and one Feature race. 

However, things improved dramatically at the Temple of Speed as Daruvala registered his first win of the season in the second Sprint race in Monza. But, as it turned out, there was more pain to follow as Daruvala found himself quite a lot on the wrong side of many on-track incidents, decisions and subsequent penalties, which undid all the good work he had done gaining those positions. He did, however, register another race win in the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi. Eventually, he ended his second season in the F2 category with 113 points, two race wins, five podium finishes, a fastest lap and a 7th-place finish in the Drivers’ standings. Not quite the marked improvement many would have hoped for, but it was progress made nonetheless. 

Ahead of the 2022 season, Jehan reunited with former employers Prema Powertrain, partnering with fellow Red Bull junior and 2021 FIA Formula 3 Champion Dennis Hauger with the added pressure of this season being a “make or break” year for the Indian driver. However, unlike his F3 season with them earlier, Prema were behind the likes of ART Grand Prix and MP Motorsport in terms of true race pace. Thus, after the first six rounds of the 12-round calendar, Daruvala finds himself 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship, 10 points behind 2nd-placed Théo Pourchaire and already 59 points behind the runaway leader Filipe Drugovich. While Prema have clearly been the third fastest car on the grid, seven Top 5 finishes in 12 races, including five podium finishes means it has been a very productive season for the 23-year-old thus far, which has also earned him a drive for McLaren at Silverstone this week. 

Honours and records

Karting career

Single seater career

(? season still in progress)

Net worth

The 23-year-old Indian driver has a net worth of US$1.5 million, while he earns close to US$90,000–110,000, variable on various performance-related bonuses, in the form of salary racing in the Formula 2 Championship for Prema Racing.