Latest / Rusty's Garage / The Motorsport Brief | Meet Louis Sharp 🏎️

Transcript

The Motorsport Brief | Meet Louis Sharp 🏎️ · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:04
  It's the second of four straight weeks of racing as a part of a brilliant summer of motorsport here in New Zealand.
• 0:10
  And today I thought we'd talk to a bright young star making his mark on the world stage.
• 0:18
  Hi, buddy.
• 0:18
  Rusty with you with another edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 0:21
  Shortly to Louis Sharp here at Topor International Motorsport Park.
• 0:24
  Just a reminder about Ryan Wood, who joined us on the short cast last week.
• 0:28
  Some great stuff in there.
• 0:30
  He's enjoying his summer here in New Zealand.
• 0:32
  And what we know as CT Frott, the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.
• 0:37
  And we're also going to be talking to Will Davison, the supercars driver,
• 0:40
  is on the road with Rihanna Cree and his wife, who is a part of the broadcast.
• 0:44
  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.
• 0:50
  Great to kind of introduce you to, in a broader sense, but you, Louis, have lived motorsport all your life.
• 0:59
  It's fundamentally all you know and do, mate, isn't it?
• 1:02
  Yeah, definitely.
• 1:02
  You know, since the age of five or five or six, when I got into kart racing, you know, this has been my life.
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  This is what I've, you know, 100% devoted all my years to.
• 1:12
  I mean, I'm pretty young, so I haven't necessarily been doing it a long time.
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  But no, this is my dream, really.
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  I want to be a Formula One driver, and I'm fully committed to making that happen.
• 1:21
  Tell me a little bit more about how the, I mean, the move into karts came about.
• 1:26
  Because your dad, Jason, is with you on the tour here, but he's not necessarily from a motorsport background, is he?
• 1:31
  Yeah, no, my journey into the motorsport world was completely by accident.
• 1:35
  So my dad was a professional rugby player.
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  So his dream, I guess, for me was to be an All Black.
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  You know, rugby was the first sport I took up.
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  You know, at the age of four, I started playing.
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  And my first thing I wanted to do was I did want to be an All Black.
• 1:47
  But 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...
• 1:54
  where I grew up and I thought this looked really cool.
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  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, do you want to have a go?
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  So I came back the following week, they had a cart 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 I drove this cart and I instantly fell in love with the sport and ever since then I kind of said to myself, this is what I want to do with my life.
• 2:21
  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.
• 2:29
  But in giving an introduction, if you will, fundamentally, since you got going, there's been success, mate, every step of the way.
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  Did it come naturally?
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  Was there a settling in phase?
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  What was it like?
• 2:41
  Yeah, I think, you know, luckily enough, I think it came quite naturally to me.
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  As I said, when we first got into this motorsport world, we had no idea what we were doing.
• 2:49
  We were pretty lost.
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  My dad was my mechanic.
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  I had tires falling off.
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  I had engines falling off.
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  I had carburetors falling off bloody every race.
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  almost so um no we were very uh very unaware but I think kind of the people from 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 some talent here so then we uh we we got on with some some good people um started taking a bit more seriously and right from the day from day one really just this is the success came to me um but I think it's you know although it came naturally it didn't it didn't mean I didn't work for I think ever ever since I've
• 3:22
  Ever since I started, I've devoted every life, every hour of my day to this motorsport journey and to making it happen.
• 3:30
  So, no, the success definitely came early on.
• 3:34
  Obviously, all throughout karting in New Zealand and then obviously translating then into cars.
• 3:38
  I think a lot of people...
• 3:40
  It can be really fast in a go-kart, but then sometimes getting a race car and it doesn't translate.
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  But again, thankfully for me, it did.
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  And right from the very first time I started racing cars as well, that success followed me.
• 3:51
  And then over moving to Europe, again, that success kind of came with me there as well.
• 3:57
  Your dad gave me a little window into your very determined... You've got an affable, very easygoing personality.
• 4:04
  You're great in a media sense here.
• 4:06
  But he gave me a window into your determination.
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  And he can recall you at kind of like age one and a half, maybe two...
• 4:14
  jumping out of the pram or you're walking home as a family or whatever from somewhere.
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  And he says, you were like, I want out.
• 4:21
  I want out.
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  I want to walk.
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  I'm determined to walk home.
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  And they're like, no, no, no, no, no.
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  Stay in there.
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  Stay in there.
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  Well, in the push chair, the pram, whatever.
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  And he said, you'd more or less...
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  come into the driveway or whatever 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.
• 4:45
  Is that Louis Sharp, the same person today?
• 4:47
  I think it is.
• 4:48
  I think that's stuck with me my whole life.
• 4:50
  I can be quite stubborn, but I'm very motivated.
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  I'm very determined.
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  If I have my mind set on something, I won't let go until I make that happen.
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  So I think, no, it's obviously something that I –
• 5:02
  I picked up quite young.
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  There's a lot more stories, I think, similar to that if you ask my parents.
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  But that determination, that drive and that kind of hunger is very much with me now, even more so.
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  My daughters are fans of the sport, mate.
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  And in coming here today, the youngest, actually was the oldest, said to me, hey, where does that drive come from?
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  Where does it come from?
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  Is it a natural thing for you?
• 5:25
  Where is that from?
• 5:26
  I think it comes from many places.
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  A lot of it is natural, but I think for me the drive comes from the fact that I want to be the best.
• 5:33
  I want to be an F1 driver and I want to be the best.
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  I want to be a world champion.
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  And in order to do that, you need to want it the most.
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  Because I think especially in my background where I've come from, I haven't necessarily had an easy time.
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  I haven't necessarily had a lot of these opportunities just given to me.
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  I've had to work.
• 5:52
  really hard for them and I think 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 the fact that I've had to work so hard 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 fact that I want to I want to be the best I want to I want to beat everyone else.
• 6:15
  Greg Murphy, we spoke to him before the podcast as well, and he says he can recall chatting with you.
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  It might have been like age eight or quite young.
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  You were in karting at this stage, and it was for the Sky Speed program.
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  And what has struck him the whole way along is that you have been –
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  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?
• 6:39
  You love every aspect of it.
• 6:41
  Definitely.
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  You have to love it.
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  Not even just the driving.
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  You've got to love everything else that comes with it.
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  You know, the training, the long hours, the flying, the travelling, all this stuff, you've got to love it because I think, you know, the actual physical driving aspect is such a small percentage of what we do.
• 6:59
  But no, I am.
• 7:00
  I'm just...
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  I'm keen to learn.
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  I'm keen to learn everything, everything there is to know about the sport, because, you know, the more, you know, the better, the better I'll be for it.
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  So I'm able to have more skills and I'm able to go out there and practice.
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  So I think I definitely am a student.
• 7:13
  You know, I watch I watch pretty much all the racing under the sun.
• 7:16
  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 see how can I make myself a better racing driver.
• 7:25
  Yeah.
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  Liam Lawson was with us on the tour last week.
• 7:27
  He joined us for the broadcast and so on.
• 7:30
  Have there been, maybe like Murph or others, have there been some mentors, some people that have helped along the way?
• 7:35
  Yeah, there definitely has been.
• 7:36
  Liam's definitely been one of them.
• 7:38
  When I first moved over to Europe, we were both racing for Carlton at the time, so he kind of...
• 7:43
  He helped me out a bit early on.
• 7:45
  Obviously, Murph has been a huge mentor for me.
• 7:48
  But, no, there's been many people along the way, actually.
• 7:51
  A lot of the Kiwis overseas as well, like the likes of Scott Dixon and Nick Cassidy, they've also been mentors for me.
• 7:58
  So I'm pretty lucky.
• 7:59
  I think I'm surrounded by some...
• 8:01
  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
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  You're listening, watching the Motorsport Brief on our YouTube channel for Rusty's Garage.
• 8:33
  Joined for this episode by Louis Sharp here at Topo International Motorsport Park.
• 8:38
  Second of four straight weeks of racing.
• 8:41
  Are you enjoying CT fraud?
• 8:43
  It must be cool to be home over summer and compete in this single-seater championship.
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  And it is...
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  I mean, Arvid Lindblad came through last year and won the championship.
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  We saw Will Brown, Brock Feeney come and have a play at the Grand Prix and so on.
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  But I feel like the competition here this summer, Louis, is tough.
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  There's a really good crop of drivers, isn't there?
• 9:01
  100%.
• 9:03
  First of all, I'm loving every minute of it.
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  It's been a while since I've been back racing home in New Zealand.
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  So first of all, I'm loving actually being back racing on these tracks.
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  I kind of, you know, learned to drive so many years ago.
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  Formula Ford, wasn't it?
• 9:17
  Yeah, Formula Ford, Formula First.
• 9:19
  Yeah, like kind of five years ago before I moved over.
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  So it's kind of a bit of a trip down memory lane.
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  But as you said, the competition is, it's so strong this year.
• 9:28
  I think, I'm not just saying this because I'm driving this year, but I do think this is probably one of the strongest, if not the strongest,
• 9:35
  the championship's had, at least for a long time.
• 9:38
  It's tough, but that's how you want it.
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  As a racing driver, in order to be better, you need to be going up against the best competition.
• 9:44
  You've got to beat the best to be the best, I think is what the saying is.
• 9:48
  No, I'm loving the competition.
• 9:50
  For me, as a warm-up to my F3 campaign in Europe this year, it's perfect because I'm already going up against a lot of the guys I'll be racing overseas.
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  It's a real kick-starter for my main campaign.
• 10:02
  There is a staggering amount of F3 drivers that you're going to be spending a lot of time with over summer that are here and will be taking part in F3 this year.
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  Let's come to the fact that you opened the account superbly at Hampton Downs by taking the first race win.
• 10:15
  What did it mean to kind of put that mark in the sand straight up?
• 10:18
  Yeah, I mean, getting the first win in a new series is always tough, so I think to get it done, the first go at it, was definitely a good way to start.
• 10:27
  Saying that, you know, it's only one win.
• 10:29
  I want to be winning more races, and I want to be at the front more often, so it's nice to tick that box early on, but, you know, I still haven't had a pole position yet.
• 10:37
  I was P2 and P3 in Qualia-Hampton, so that's another one I need to check off, but, you know, I need to be, you know, on the podium more and be winning more races for the rest of the campaign.
• 10:46
  Push to pass is a new thing, and I'm probably asking if this is a bittersweet topic that you and I are talking about because the officials clamped down on some of that last week.
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  What's that been like, that advent, have you?
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  What's the learnings been like and so on?
• 10:57
  There's definitely been a lot of learnings.
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  Unfortunately, I was on the learning side of things in race two.
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  I managed to give myself a 30-second penalty by using the push-to-pass when I probably wasn't supposed to.
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  So that was a big learning.
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  But to be honest, the push-to-pass, apart from that, has actually been really cool.
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  You know, it's another tool for the driver to be thinking about.
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  It's another thing to kind of strategize throughout the race.
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  So that's awesome.
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  And anything that improves racing, for me, is a bonus.
• 11:24
  You know, single-seaters can be...
• 11:26
  It can be pretty tough nowadays to overtake, especially on our tracks here.
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  They're quite narrow, they're quite tight.
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  So passing opportunities, they don't come all the time.
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  So any aid as a driver that can help overtake, for me, is a big bonus.
• 11:39
  Topor is such a different venue to Hampton Downs.
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  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.
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  How's it all going?
• 11:50
  Yeah, it's been good so far.
• 11:51
  Yesterday was wet, so a bit hard to kind of dial in the balance.
• 11:56
  But, yeah, it's such a unique track.
• 11:58
  I don't think I've driven a track quite like it, with the surface being so slippery, really.
• 12:04
  When I drove it for the first time, I generally thought there was something wrong with the car in the first session because it's that difference.
• 12:11
  So it's definitely a big kind of...
• 12:14
  Challenge, isn't it?
• 12:15
  Challenge, but it makes it so unique, which I actually quite like, because it's so different to anything else.
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  So as a driver, you've got to be so adaptable to learn not only where the circuit goes, but actually how to get the best out of it.
• 12:27
  So it's very different, I think, for the guys that have probably raced here in the past.
• 12:31
  It's probably going to be...
• 12:32
  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 still 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 Tunnicliffe our producer on the TV coverage tells me you are a bit of an adrenaline junkie
• 12:55
  So this week, there's been, what, some skydiving?
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  I think you enjoy your mountain biking from time to time.
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  What was the skydiving like, firstly?
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  And did Ryan Wood jump?
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  He did.
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  He was nervous, wasn't he?
• 13:11
  God, it was skydiving.
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  Have you done it, Rusty?
• 13:14
  I've done it once, yes.
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  It's insane.
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  I woke up this morning.
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  I didn't actually know I was doing it.
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  And then Murph woke me and Ryan up, and he's like, we're going skydiving.
• 13:23
  So I'm like...
• 13:24
  Okay, let's do it.
• 13:26
  And I think I kind of didn't really think about it much.
• 13:28
  And then it wasn't until I was actually on the plane going up, it kind of hit me.
• 13:31
  I'm like, what am I doing?
• 13:33
  This is pretty surreal.
• 13:35
  I think that moment, they kind of 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.
• 13:44
  And then that first kind of...
• 13:46
  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 that whole thing 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 um i've been out on the jet skis the last
• 14:15
  Great stuff.
• 14:16
  You seem to do this media stuff so naturally, mate.
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  Has there been a bit of training in that?
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  Has Europe changed you?
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  Do you feel like you're the same person in these sorts of environments?
• 14:28
  Does it come naturally to you?
• 14:29
  Yeah, I think it comes naturally.
• 14:30
  I've never done necessarily any media training or anything.
• 14:33
  A lot of drivers, I think, do a bit.
• 14:35
  But for me, the talking side of things is kind of just pretty natural, you know.
• 14:40
  For me, I just treat it like a normal conversation, really.
• 14:43
  So, no, I think definitely being over in Europe and doing a lot in front of the camera obviously helps for your confidence.
• 14:49
  But, no, for me, it's never really been an issue from day one.
• 14:51
  It's always been a natural thing.
• 14:54
  Cool.
• 14:55
  Last year, if we look at it, just a kind of report card on your changing teams this year in Formula 3 and so on.
• 15:01
  Your career, particularly from the moment you embarked on the European journey, there's been success at every post along the way.
• 15:09
  Last year a little bit tougher.
• 15:10
  How have you framed that?
• 15:11
  And are you looking, tell us about the new move for 2026?
• 15:15
  Yeah, so 2025 was definitely, I think, from the year I started racing, the toughest year in motorsport I've had.
• 15:21
  I came off a lot of success in 2023 and 2024, winning back-to-back British F4 and GB3 championships.
• 15:26
  So I think, you know, kind of expectations were high going into 2025.
• 15:30
  Obviously, stepping up to the FIA F3 championship was going to be a challenge.
• 15:34
  But, you know, I think I was definitely expecting a bit more.
• 15:38
  Saying that, with how tough the air was, I think I learned a lot about myself.
• 15:42
  You learn more in defeat than I think you do when you're winning.
• 15:45
  What did you learn?
• 15:47
  I just learned...
• 15:48
  I think I learned what...
• 15:51
  I learned a few things.
• 15:51
  I think, one, I learned how much it actually means to me.
• 15:54
  Because, as I said before, I'm a very competitive person.
• 15:58
  I like to win.
• 15:59
  But I hated the feeling of not winning.
• 16:02
  And I said to myself, this needs to stop after this season.
• 16:05
  I don't want to be feeling like this again.
• 16:07
  But I learned how to deal with a lot of...
• 16:11
  I guess a lot of mixed emotions.
• 16:12
  You know, I learn a lot about myself, I think, when things aren't going right, how I respond to the issues and how they translate to actually on-track driving.
• 16:23
  So it's been tough.
• 16:25
  It's definitely been a learning experience, but I think now...
• 16:28
  being in a different environment for 2026, having learnt a lot this past year, I think I'm now in a good place to go out there with the Premier Racing team and really go for it and fight for the F3 Championship.
• 16:40
  I now think I'm in a really good environment to make that happen.
• 16:42
  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?
• 16:48
  Sunday night.
• 16:48
  Sunday night, okay.
• 16:49
  Sunday night after Highlands, I'm straight to Queenstown and I'm flying back to Milan and then heading over to the Prima Factor.
• 16:56
  I've got a week with them and then we're straight into pre-season testing.
• 16:58
  So there's not a lot of downtime.
• 17:00
  I think after this it's pretty full on.
• 17:02
  I think my month of February I'm either racing or travelling every day, so it's going to be pretty hectic, but I like that.
• 17:09
  I like to keep busy.
• 17:09
  This has been fabulous, mate, and we look forward to catching up with you along the way in 2026.
• 17:14
  First, though, have a great summer of racing at home here.
• 17:17
  We hope it's a success and a great launching pad for you for the year to come.
• 17:20
  Thank you for talking to us.
• 17:20
  Thank you very much for having me.
• 17:22
  There you go, Louis Sharp.
• 17:23
  That is it for this edition of the Motorsport Brief.
• 17:26
  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.
• 17:31
  So keep an eye out for notifications on that.
• 17:33
  We'll catch you next time.
• 17:34
  Bye for now.