Former Formula 2 driver Mahaveer Raghunathan joined Alfa Romeo’s testing programme at the Hungaroring this week.
Alfa Romeo ran a 2019-specification C38 chassis at the circuit following the Hungarian Grand Prix for Sauber junior driver Theo Pouchaire, who is currently racing in Formula 2. Raghunathan, who attained notoriety during his single season in the same category two years ago, also participated in the test.
“I have been looking forward to my first F1 test for quite a long time and it turned out to be a great day with the Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen car,” said the 22-year-old, according to his long-time backer Rasheed Khan. “I have been preparing for this with the team for the past one week and I enjoyed a lot.”
Alfa Romeo did not release details of Raghunathan’s run and have not responded to a request for information about his test. He is believed to have covered 71 laps, one more than a race distance at the home of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Prior to F2 Raghunathan’s previous experience included a season of Italian Formula 4 and a point-less 2015 Formula 3 campaign.
He then drove an ex-A1 Grand Prix Lola B05/52 chassis in two different series. He placed second in Auto GP’s final championship in 2016, though only two other drivers contested all six races, and was the secondary class champion in Boss GP the following year.
Raghunathan’s leap up into Formula 2 with MP in 2019 proved a step too far. Although he scored a single point, at Monza, he accrued far more penalties.
Raghunathan was banned from the Austrian round after collecting 12 penalty points on his licence within the first nine races. At the final round he reached 12 again following what the stewards described as “extremely dangerous behaviour”, but avoided another ban as the season had ended.
Images: Instagram
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