Louis Sharp, a rising star in motorsport, shares his journey from a rugby background to karting and his ambitions of becoming a Formula One driver. He discusses the challenges and successes he's faced, including his competitive spirit and determination to excel. Sharp reflects on his experiences in New Zealand's racing scene and the importance of mentorship from established drivers. The episode also touches on his recent win and the unique challenges of racing at different tracks, as well as his adrenaline-seeking adventures outside of racing.
The 18-year-old Kiwi is back home for an awesome summer of racing before jetting back to Europe for a big year in F3.
We spoke with him at Taupo International Motorsport Park ahead of round 2 of CTFROT - Toyota’s ultra competitive single seater series.
Louis won the opening race of the season last week as the Next Gen NZ Championship launched into four straight weeks of events.
Where he gets his inner drive (lets just say he’s very determined), how he’s framed an at times difficult season in 2025 and some thoughts on the year ahead with Prema.
Plus his adrenaline addiction and sky diving while he’s here with last week’s pod guest Ryan Wood.
Hope you enjoy getting to know a young racer with a great personality who would love to add his name to the prestigious list of winners of the New Zealand Grand Prix before he jets back out to Europe for the year.
Head to Rusty's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and give us your feedback and let us know who you want to hear from on Rusty's Garage
"...since the age of five or five or six when I got into kart racing..."
Kart racing involves racing small go-karts on tracks. Many professional drivers start in karting before moving to bigger racing cars like those in Formula One.
Kart racing is a form of motorsport where drivers race small, open-wheel vehicles called karts. It's often seen as a stepping stone for young drivers aspiring to compete in higher levels of motorsport, including Formula One.
"...I want to be a Formula One driver and I'm fully committed to making that happen."
Formula One is a top-level car racing series where the fastest cars compete on special tracks. It's very popular and features many famous drivers and teams.
Formula One is the highest class of single-seater auto racing, governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features a series of races known as Grands Prix, held on various circuits around the world, and is known for its high-speed cars and advanced technology.
"...we were driving home after a rugby game and happened to drive past the local go kart track down in Christchurch... one of the local club members came up to me and asked you know do you want to have a go..."
Go-karting is a fun racing activity where you drive small cars called go-karts on a track. It's a popular way for beginners to learn how to race and improve their driving skills.
Go-karting is a form of motorsport where participants race small, open-wheel vehicles called go-karts on a track. It's often seen as an entry point into motorsport for many drivers, allowing them to develop their racing skills in a controlled environment.
"...to be honest the push to pass apart from that has actually been really cool you know it's uh it's another another tool for the drive to be thinking about..."
Push to pass is a system in racing that gives drivers a short burst of extra power to help them pass other cars. It's like a turbo boost that they can use when they need it most.
Push to pass is a feature used in some racing series that allows drivers to temporarily increase their vehicle's power output, providing a boost for overtaking other competitors. This feature is often strategically used to gain an advantage during a race.
"...single-seaters can be pretty tough nowadays to to overtake especially on our our tracks here they're quite narrow they're quite tight so passing opportunities isn't isn't uh they don't come all the time..."
Overtaking is when one car passes another car during a race. It's an important part of racing, but it can be hard to do, especially on narrow tracks where there's not much space.
Overtaking refers to the act of passing another vehicle on the track. In racing, it is a critical skill, especially on narrow or tight tracks where opportunities to pass can be limited. Drivers must use strategy and timing to successfully overtake competitors.
"if we look at it just a kind of report card on I mean you're changing teams this year in Formula 3 and so on your career particularly"
Formula 3 is a type of car racing where drivers compete in small, fast cars with open wheels. It's often where young drivers start their careers before moving to bigger racing series like Formula 1.
Formula 3 is a class of open-wheel motorsport that serves as a stepping stone for drivers aspiring to reach higher levels of racing, like Formula 1. It features single-seater cars that are designed for high performance and competitive racing.
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It's the second of four straight weeks of racing as a part of a brilliant summer of
motorsport here in New Zealand and today I thought we'd talk to a bright young star
making his mark on the world stage.
Like what he rusty with you with another edition of the Motorsport Brief shortly to Louis
Sharp here at Topor International Motorsport Park, just a reminder about Ryan Wood who
joined us on the short cast last week, some great stuff in there, he's enjoying his summer
here in New Zealand and what we know is CT Frott, the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania
trophy and we're also going to be talking to Will Davison, the supercars driver is on
the road with Rihanna Cree and his wife who is a part of the broadcast so in a bit of
downtime we're going to catch up with him for a feature episode which should be out
next week as well.
Great to kind of introduce you to in a broader sense but you Louis have lived motorsport
all your life, it's fundamentally all you know and do mate isn't it?
Yeah definitely you know since the age of five or five or six when I got into kart racing
you know this has been my life, this is what I've you know 100% devoted all my years to,
I mean I'm pretty young so I haven't necessarily been doing it a long time but no this is my
dream really, I want to be a Formula One driver and I'm fully committed to making that happen.
Tell me a little bit more about how the move into karts came about because your dad Jason
is with you on the tour here but he's not necessarily from motorsport background is
he?
Yeah no my journey into the motorsport world was completely by accident so my dad was a
professional rugby player so his dream I guess for me was to be an all black you know rugby
was the first sport I took up you know at the age of four I started playing and my first
thing I wanted to do was I did want to be an all black but I'm just funnily enough one
day we were driving home after a rugby game and happened to drive past the local go kart
track down in Christchurch where I grew up and you know I thought this looked really
cool so me and my dad we pulled in we stopped and had a look and one of the local club members
came up to me and asked you know do you want to have a go so I came back the following
week they had a kart ready for me I jumped in this little thing I barely fit over the
steering wheel I had massive pedal extensions about this long to try and reach the pedals
but you know I drove this kart and I instantly fell in love with the sport and ever since
then I you know I kind of said to myself this is what I want to do with my life.
When you look at your CV and we're only doing a short cast with you because I feel like
you have so many pages Louis so many chapters to write in your career but in giving an introduction
if you will fundamentally since you got going there's been success mate every step of the
way did it come naturally was there a settling in phase what was it like?
Yeah I think you know luckily enough I think it came quite naturally to me as I said when
we first got into this motorsport world we had no idea what we were doing we were pretty lost
my dad was my mechanic, I had tyres falling off, I had engines falling off, I had carburetors
falling off but bloody every race almost so no we were very very unaware but I think kind of
the people from day one that kind of knew a bit about motorsport kind of said to us you know
I think you've actually got some talent here so then we got on with some good people
started taking a bit more seriously and right from day one really just the success came to me
but I think it's you know although it came naturally it didn't mean I didn't work for I
think ever since I started I've devoted every life every hour of my day to this motorsport journey
and to making it happen so no the success definitely came early on obviously all throughout
Karting in New Zealand and then obviously translating then into cars I think a lot of people
can be really fast in a go-kart but then sometimes getting a race car and it doesn't translate
but but again thankfully for me it did and right from the very first time I started racing cars
as well that that success that success followed me and then over over moving to Europe that again
that success kind of kind of came came with me there as well. Your dad gave me a little window
into your very determined you've got a you know an affable very easygoing personality you're great
in a media sense here but he gave me a window into your determination and he can recall you at
kind of like age one and a half maybe two jumping out of the pram or you know you're walking home
as a family or whatever from somewhere and he says you were like I want out I want out I want to
walk I am determined to walk home and they're like no no no no stay in there stay in there well
you know in the push share the pram whatever you and he said you'd more or less come into the
driveway or whatever at at home and you jumped out and went back to where you were arguing with
them and said no no I am walking from here that is that a bit you know does that is that Louis
Sharp the same person today? I think I think it is I think that's that stuck with me my whole life
you know I can be quite stubborn um but I am I'm very motivated I'm very determined when if I have
my mind set on something I won't I won't let go until until I make that happen so I think uh
no it's obviously something that I I picked up quite young um there's a there's a lot more
stories I think similar to that if you had if you asked my parents but um that that that determination
that that drive and that kind of hunger is is very much with me now even even more so.
My daughter's a a fan of the sport mate and in coming here today um the youngest she was the
oldest said to me hey where does that drive come from where does it come from is it a natural
thing for you what where is that from? Um I think it comes from many places um a lot of it is natural
but I think for me the the drive comes from the the fact that I want to be the best I want to
be I want to be an F1 driver and I want to be I want to be the best I want to be a world champion
and in order to do that you know you need to you need to be you need you need to want it the most
because uh I think especially in kind of in my background where I've come from I haven't necessarily
had uh had had an easy time I haven't necessarily had a lot of these opportunities just given to me
I've had to work really hard for them and I think that a lot of it comes comes from that the fact
that I haven't just you know been given been given a drive just just because I I can afford to
to do it so I think um the fact that I've had to work so hard to to get to where I am now obviously
there's still a long way to go and I need to work even harder to get to the top but I think that
that drive comes from having to work for it and the the fact that I want to I want to be the best
I want to I want to beat everyone else. Greg Murphy we spoke to him before the the podcast as well
and he says he can recall chatting with you it might have been like age eight or quite young
you're in carting at this stage and it was for the sky speed program and what has struck him the
whole way along is that you have been I don't know whether it's by choice or just natural passion for
it but you've fundamentally been a student of the sport mate haven't you you love every aspect of it
definitely um you you have to love it not not even just the driving you've got to love everything
else that comes with it you know the the training the the long hours the flying the traveling all
the stuff you gotta you gotta love it because I think um you know the actual physical driving
aspect is such a small percentage of of what we do um but no I am I I'm just I'm I'm keen to learn
I'm keen to learn everything everything the rest and all about the sport because you know the more
you know the better the better I'll be for it because I'm able to have more skills and I'm able
to go out there and practice so um and I think I definitely am a am a student you know I watch I
watch pretty much all the racing under the sun I like to I like to just you know look from from
every different perspective every different angle and really just you know ask people and and see
how can I make myself a better racing driver Liam Lawson was with us on the tour last week he
joined us for the broadcast and so on have there been maybe like Murph or others have there been
some mentors some people that have helped along the way yeah there definitely has been um Liam's
definitely been one of them um when I first moved over uh to Europe we were both racing for Carlton
at the time so he kind of uh he helped me out a bit early on um obviously Murph has been a huge
a huge mentor for me but um no there's been there's been many many people along the way actually a
lot of the Kiwis overseas as well like the likes of Scott Dixon and and Nick Cassie they've also
been been mentors for me so I'm pretty lucky I think I'm surrounded by some some pretty cool people
some pretty cool names but also people that have been in my shoes before and and know exactly what
it's like so um no I'm very I'm very lucky with a group of people around I mean I think that's the
big thing about you know the Kiwis that are over there racing professionally they they all just
want to help out other other fellow Kiwis as well so they've been uh pretty pretty cool in my journey
and and helping me out whenever I need it good stuff can we get you to hang around a little
bit longer we're going to take a quick break here on Rusty's garage more with Louis Sharp on the other
side of this you're listening watching the motorsport brief on our youtube channel for Rusty's
garage joined for this episode by Louis Sharp here at Topor International Motorsport Park second
of four straight weeks of racing are you enjoying CT Frodo it must be cool to be home over over
summer and compete in this single-seater championship and it is I mean Arvid Lindblad came through
last year and and won the championship we saw Will Brown, Brock Feeney come and have a play at
the Grand Prix and so on but I feel like the competition here this summer Louis is tough
there's a really good good crop of drivers isn't there 100% um first of all I'm I'm loving every
minute of it it's been a while since I've been back racing racing home in New Zealand so first
of all I'm loving actually being being back racing on these tracks I kind of you know learned to
learn to drive so many years ago um formula forward wasn't it formula forward formula first um yeah
like kind of five five years ago before I moved over so um it's kind of a bit of a trip down memory
memory lane but as you see the competition is it's so strong this year I think I'm not just saying
this because because I'm driving this year but I do think this is probably one of the strongest
if not the strongest grid the the championships had at least for a long time so um you know it's
tough but that's how you want as a racing driver in order to to be better um you need to be going
up against the best competition so um you know you gotta you gotta beat the best to be the best I
think is is what the saying is so um no I'm loving the competition and you know for me as a warm up
to my f3 campaign in in Europe this year it's it's perfect because I'm already going up against
you know a lot of the guys I'll be racing overseas so um it's a it's a real you know kind of kick
starter for for my for my main campaign there is a staggering amount of f3 drivers that you're
going to be um spending a lot of time with over someone that are here um and we'll be taking
part in f3 this year let's come to the fact that you opened the accounts superbly at at Hampton
Downs by taking the the first race when what did it mean to kind of put that mark in the sand
straight up yeah I mean getting the first win in a new series is always tough so I think to get it
done at the first go at it was was definitely a a good way to start um saying that you know
it's only one when I want to I want to be I want to be winning more races and I want to
be at the front more often so it's nice to to take that box early on but um you know I still
haven't had a pole position yet um I was p2 and p3 in qualia hampton so that's that's
another one I need to check off but um you know I need to I need to be you know on the podium
more and be be winning more races for the rest of the campaign pushed pass is a new thing and I'm
probably asking this is a bittersweet topic that you and I are talking about because the officials
clamped down on some of that that last week what's that been like that advent have you
what's the learnings been like and so on there's there's been a lot of learnings unfortunately
I was on uh I was on the learning side of things in race two I uh I uh managed to give myself a 30
second penalty by using the push to pass uh when I probably wasn't wasn't supposed to so that was uh
that was a big learning but um to be honest the push to pass apart from that has actually been
has been really cool you know it's uh it's another another tool for the drive to be thinking about
it's another thing to to kind of strategize throughout the race so um that's awesome and
anything that improves racing for me is a bonus you know single-seaters can be
can be pretty tough nowadays to to overtake especially on our our tracks here they're
quite narrow they're quite tight so passing opportunities isn't isn't uh they don't come
all the time so um yeah any any aid as a driver that can help overtake for me is a is a big bonus
topor is such a different venue to Hampton Downs how I mean um as we record this on the Friday
we've just had the first session of practice a couple of sessions of testing if you will on
Thursday how's it all going yeah it's been it's been good so far yesterday was wet so um a bit
hard to to kind of dial in the balance um but yeah it's it's such a unique track I don't think I've
driven a track quite like it with the surface being so so slippery really um when I when I drove it
for the first time I uh I genuinely thought there was something wrong with the car in the first
session because it's that it's that difference so it's definitely a a big kind of um challenge
challenge but um it's it makes it so unique which I actually quite like because it's so
different to anything else so as a driver you've got to be so adaptable to to learn to learn not
only where where the circuit goes but um actually how to how to get the best out of it so um it's
it's very different I think for the guys that have probably raced here in the past it's probably
going to be a a bit of a you know a head start for them but there's no reason why we can't you
know close that gap so um no I'm loving it so far but obviously still it's a bit to go this weekend
but um yeah I think it's as I said it's just so unique which which for me is a big is a big
plus this is an adventure playground in the middle of the north island now they tell me
David Tonacliff our producer on the tv coverage tells me you are a bit of an adrenaline junkie
so this week there's been what some skydiving I think you enjoy your mountain biking from
from time to time and some and this what was the skydiving like firstly and did what did Ryan would
jump he did um his eyes his eyes got it was uh skydiving have you done it rusty
I've done it once yes it's it's insane um I woke up this morning I didn't actually know I was doing
it um and then Murph Murph woke me and Ryan up and he's like we're going skydiving so I'm like okay
let's let's do it um and I think I kind of didn't really think about it much and then it wasn't
until I was actually on the plane going up it kind of hit me I'm like what am I doing like this is
this is pretty surreal it was um I think that that moment they kind of they sit you off the
end of the plane before you jump and you're waiting to go you know like the wind's blowing in your
face and you're looking down you can't see the ground um and then that first kind of feeling
when you first jump out the plane it's so hard to describe it was completely insane um have you
seen the video of Ryan doing it it's so funny um it was it was so fun but Ryan especially he was
I've never seen him so scared he normally talks so much he did not say a single word
oh god but uh no it was it was a lot of fun I am definitely an adrenaline junkie I enjoy
as you said my mountain biking I love skiing I've been out on the jet skis the last couple
days as well I love anything that gets the the heart racing great stuff you'd seem to do this
media stuff um so naturally made has there been a bit of training in that has Europe changed you
do you feel like you're the same person in these sorts of environments has it come naturally to
yeah I think it comes naturally I've never done necessarily any media training or anything a lot
of drivers I think um do a bit but for me the the talking side of things is kind of just just
pretty natural you know um for me I just treat it like a normal conversation really so um no I've
I think definitely being over in Europe and doing a lot in front of the camera obviously helps for
for your confidence but um no for me it's never really been an issue from day one it's always been
it's always been a natural thing cool last year if we if we look at it just a kind of report card
on I mean you're changing teams this year in Formula 3 and so on your career particularly
from the moment you embarked on the European journey there's been success at every post along
the way last year a little bit tougher how have you framed that and and are you looking tell us
about the the new move for 2026 yeah so 2025 was definitely I think from from the year I started
racing the the toughest year in motorsport I've had I came off a lot of success in 23 and 24
winning back-to-back British F4 and GB3 championship so I think you know kind of expectations were
high going into 2025 obviously stepping up to the FIA F3 championship was going to be a challenge
but um you know I think I was definitely expecting expecting a bit more saying that with how tough
the air was I think I learned a lot about myself you learn you learn more in defeat than I think
you do when you're when you're winning what you learn what you learn I just learned I think I I
learned what I learned a few things I think I won I learned how much it actually means to me
because as I said before I'm a very competitive person I like I like to win but um I hated I
hated the feeling of not winning and I said to myself this this needs to stop after after the
season I don't want to be be feeling like this again but I learned how to deal with a lot of um
I guess a lot of mixed emotions you know I learned a lot a lot a lot about myself I think
when when things aren't going right how I respond to to the to the issues and how I how I um you
know how they translate to actually on track driving so um it's been tough it's definitely been a
learning experience but I think now being in a different environment for 2026 having learned
having learned a lot this this past year I think I'm now in a in a good place to go out there with
the Premier Racing team and really really go for it and fight for their three championship I now
think I'm in a in a really good environment to make that happen and you literally from the moment
the Grand Prix wraps up on the Sunday at Highlands I think you're on the plane on Monday is that right
uh Sunday night Sunday night after Highlands I'm straight to Queenstown and I'm flying back
to back to Milan um and then heading over to the Premier Factory I've got a week with them and then
we're straight into preseason testing so there's not not a lot of downtime I think after this it's
pretty full-on I think my month of February I'm either racing or traveling every day so it's
going to be uh pretty hectic but um I like that I like to I like to keep busy this has been fabulous
mate and we look forward to catching up with you um along the way in 2026 first though have a great
summer of racing at home here we hope it's a success and a great launching pad for you for the
year to come thank you for talking to us thank you very much for having me there you go Louis
Sharp that is it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief as we said at the beginning we'll be
talking to Will Davison during the week as well for a new feature episode of Rusty's Garage so
keep an eye out for notifications on that we'll catch you next time bye for now
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