Life On The Red Line

Professional race car driver Sean Hudspeth tells Farhan Shah he believes he can be in Formula One, if he only had the funding.

- Farhan Shah

Sean Hudspeth once had current Formula One champion Max Verstappen's number in his phone book. The two used to compete in the karting circuit. Sometimes I beat him and other times, he won, Hudspeth shares. But they lost touch when Verstappen changed his contact details and social media handles after entering the big league.

Hudspeth rattles off the names of a few more notable drivers - Antonio Giovinazzi, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon- and says confidently that if he had the funding, he too would race in Formula One. A day's practice in an Fi car can cost up to a million Euros, and the only way to get better is to put in the hours. Unfortunately, Hudspeth knew his pockets weren't deep enough.

The young professional driver fell in love with racing, thanks to his late grandfather.

He would teach me about racing lines and how to take a corner. We would watch the races, F1, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and even MotoGP, together on TV, the 28-year-old recalls fondly.

At 12, Hudspeth went karting for the first time with his friends at Kart World, a defunct track in Jurong with overgrown grass and karts stacked haphazardly at different corners. He emerged victorious and then returned time and time again to clock better times. A mechanic noticed Hudspeth's rapid improvement and mentioned to his father that he had potential. So the senior Hudspeth bought a second-hand race kart.