# 11-year-old racer Atiqa Mir signs JK Tyre sponsorship deal 2026-08-27T09:24:05+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet JK Tyre on Thursday signed 11-year-old karting driver Atiqa Mir to its sponsorship programme, adding the F1 hopeful to a roster that includes former Formula One racers Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok. Atiqa, the first Indian selected by the F1 Academy, is the highest-ranked female driver in the FIA International Karting Ranking in the OKNJ category. She became the first Indian to podium in the European Champions of the Future Academy earlier this year and swept qualifying, heats and the final in Greece. She is also the youngest Indian to record two top-10 finishes in the FIA European Karting Championship. The young driver said she was excited to join JK Tyre, which supported her father during his racing days. She will continue competing in European series with the company's backing. ## Indian Opinion Analysis JK Tyre has backed Indian motorsport for over four decades, sponsoring the national racing championship since 1982 and fielding drivers in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. Karthikeyan and Chandhok, the only Indian Formula One race entrants, both began with JK Tyre support programmes. Atiqa Mir (11) is at an age where the FIA OK category, a junior single-engine karting class, acts as a proving ground before graduation to cars. Her F1 Academy backing puts her in a pipeline that the all-women series created in 2023 to move female drivers towards F3 and F2. The next benchmark: whether she advances from karting to a Formula 4 seat within 12 months, a step no Indian female driver has taken. ## Coverage - hindustantimes.com Narrative led with the signing, framed entirely as an achievement story, no contrary context or criticism included This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Atiqa Mir, F1 Academy, FIA, JK Tyre, Narain Karthikeyan Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/11-year-old-racer-atiqa-mir-signs-jk-tyre-sponsorship-deal/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/11-year-old-racer-atiqa-mir-signs-jk-tyre-sponsorship-deal/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/