AGRA: 14-year-old Shahan Ali Mohsin became the youngest to race in FMSCI Indian National Championship’s MRF Tyres-backed MRF F1600 race.With the 2019 series to start later in the year, an invitational round was held as a support event to the international MRF Challenge (F2000) series where plenty of international drivers were racing at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) in Chennai.The race weekend gave Shahan a valuable insight as he made his single-seater debut. Shahan was up against some of the experienced campaigners in the Indian racing scene in the F1600, which is equivalent to Europe’s Formula Renault and Formula 4 level. The idea for the weekend was to gain experience and understand the nuances of a single-seater car.He started off the weekend with the two practice sessions and a qualifying. The initial running was devoted to getting used to the new machine as he went into qualifying with more knowledge and qualified ninth overall ahead of the three races.The Race 1 ended up on a short note when while battling with another car on Lap 2, Shahan spun out and was forced to retire, thereby having an anti-climatic end on his single-seater debut race. The Race 2 was more like it as he finished eighth in the 10 laps.He finished eighth again in Race 3 as he maintained a consistent 1m 41s lap time, which was a stark improvement from the practice session. Overall, it was a fun and learning first weekend for Shahan, which wouldn’t be possible without the help of Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel.“It was an amazing experience in the MRF F1600 series,” says Shahan. “Not only my first time in the Formula 1600 car but also my first competitive single-seater run. I am elated with the conversion from karting to single-seater, which isn’t an easy task as you feel so-so different on the track in a single-seater car than a kart.“It was a weekend of learning and I managed to adapt well with help of my coaches Armaan Ebrahim and Aditiya Patel. It took some laps to get used to the steering wheel and also the power of the car especially in the corners. My lap times got better over the weekend which was the aim and I hope to get stronger by the end of the season.”Following his extensive karting career where he has won five titles in all, Shahan has stepped up to single-seater racing and will compete in the full MRF F1600 championship going forward in 2019 and will also race in the Euro JK (Formula BMW) series which is backed by JK Tyre Motorsport.In addition, Shahan intends to race in selected kart events in India as well. With the Indian National Karting Championship only starting in June, the decision on whether to continue racing full-time in karts hasn’t been taken yet.

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