He can’t yet read or write, but one four-year-old already dreams of becoming Formula 1 world champion – and has the backing of a current F1 star.
Raef Virdee has only just started school and is Britain’s youngest racing driver, looking to follow in the footsteps of Sir Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.
He can’t even race against other drivers competitively until he turns five in January, but Raef from Birmingham is taking karting lessons every week, hitting speeds of 40mph.
‘He’s our fastest bambino [category for six to eight-year-olds] driver that we’ve ever had in the last five years,’ says Harry Darby, who coaches the young racer at the MPH Karting Academy in Solihull.
‘The lap times never lie, and he’s producing some extremely quick lap times, to the point where I’m having to do some practising to make sure that he doesn’t beat me.’
Raef’s infatuation for speed began at a younger age, thanks in part to his motoring obsessed parents Lionel and Armadeep, who introduced him to the word of F1.
‘I think racing is in our DNA. My dad worked at Jaguar developing engines and I’ve always loved cars,’ property developer Lionel said.
‘Raef would always be playing with toy cars and whizzing around in the electric cars he had.
‘When he was just one he was reciting the names of his favourite drivers like Schumacher, [Rubens] Barrichello, [Kimi] Raikkonen and [Felipe] Massa.
‘His interest and ability has grown and he has a real talent for knowing how a kart handles and he has no fear.’
Like Raef, reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen began his karting career aged four and would go onto to make his F1 debut at 17 – the youngest driver in the sport’s history.
Raef has a long way to go to matching the soon to be four-time champion’s achievements, but he’s already got the support of Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti.
Lionel met the Dane at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year and the former Formula 2 star recently took part in a one-to-one session with young Raef.
‘He’s four years old, so he has got a big advantage on me,’ Vesti, who began his racing career aged eight, said.
‘He’s already quite impressive and it’s just cool to see. The next step is going racing against other kids of course, learning to pedal, try to overtake and defend, eventually winning his first race.’
Unsurprisingly, going wheel-to-wheel with Vesti has only fuelled Raef’s love for racing: ‘It was fast. I wanted to overtake him.
‘I want to be a Formula 1 driver and zoom and win the World Championships and all the races.’
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