Karthikeyan admits frustration with HRT situation
May 11 (GMM) Narain Karthikeyan has played down reports he could lose his seat at HRT because of a lack of sponsorship.
An Indian newspaper this week said the 35-year-old is a million euros short of guaranteeing his place at the struggling Spanish team through November's Brazil finale.
"Right now, everything is as it should be," he is quoted by France's autohebdo.fr.
"Early in the season, (team boss) Luis (Perez Sala) said that if I was not close enough to my teammate, there is a chance I will not finish the season.
"That was put into my contract, but for now I respect all the conditions. There is no reason that I will not be driving (the rest of) this season," added Karthikeyan.
He admits, however, to some frustration about HRT's continuing rear-of-the-field position.
"To be honest I wasn't expecting the start of 2012 to be on the same lines as last year," the Indian driver told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
"Yes I expected teething problems but not to this extent."
He also admits he expected the team to test at Mugello last week.
"Personally speaking, I would've preferred some seat time at Mugello since I didn't get any pre-season testing compared to my teammate who did the Jerez test with the old car," said Karthikeyan.
"I was originally told that we would do the Mugello test but we decided to focus on putting the car together instead."
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