AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

Turning 22 might not sound too old, but in the ultra-competitive world of junior single-seater racing it’s positively middle-aged when the F1 demand for youth is so high. Gregoire Saucy was the oldest full-time driver on the grid in his title-winning Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine campaign, and of the confirmed drivers on the 2022

FIA F3 grid he is younger only than ART stablemate

Juan Manuel Correa.

But as Sebastien Loeb demonstrated recently on the Monte Carlo Rally by becoming the oldest driver to win a World Rally Championship round at the age of 47, it’s the numbers on the stopwatch that count, not the number of birthday candles you blow out.

“I think age is just a number!” laughs Saucy. “OK, I am a little bit older than the other drivers but the goal is the same for everyone: it is to win.

“If we can win the age is not important. Now in F1 they take really, really young drivers, but not only them. With the experience I have, it is good to do more in lower categories rather than going really fast through the categories like FIA F3 and FIA F2. I think it is better to have more experience when we arrive to F3 and F2.”

While Saucy hasn’t given up on hopes of being picked up by an F1 junior team, he remains pragmatic. But this year, in FIA

F3, he’ll be racing full-time in front of the sport’s elite: “If we win like we did in 2021, every team in Formula 1 will see it…”