Focused Formula for Maloney

With a Formula One dream that has taken root and has beengrowing for years in his heart, Zane Maloney has experienced more success than any boy his age but those achievements only continue to fuel his drive to become one of the best at the pinnacle of open-wheel racing.

Recently Maloney won the Junior Male Athlete of the Year and the President’s Award at the 2019 Barbados Olympic Association and The Barbados Lottery Dinner and Awards Ceremony for his title-winning performance in the British F4 Championship.

“It feels great to be recognised and I will just try to continue to do everyone proud as I have this year and hopefully next year, this time I will be getting the same or more awards.”

Pleased with his achievements at the awards, it was not fully a surprise to Maloney that he was nominated and won because he knew the quality job that the Carlin F4 team had done and lauded the effort of everyone around him.

“If you had asked me at the start of the year, I would have said no, I am notgetting any awards – but ask me now, I would say it was not a surprise because I know how good a job everyone did around me this year. It is just that I am the one that ended up getting all the praise but it is not just me, it is everyone around me.”

Humble in being the British F4 champ and also winning the local awards, Maloney also expressed that his dream is to compete in Formula One. Starting as a karting star in Barbados with circuit-racing thoroughbred Maloney lineage in his blood, the young 16-year-old has risen to higher heights than any local racer at such a young age. He also wants to be the first Caribbean driver to reach Formula One.

“Well the winning feeling – there is nothing like it! Some people when they win they become not that well liked because they think they are better than anyone else. That is what I do not want to be – I do not like to really see it as well. My drive to Formula One is because my family has put in so much effort and my sponsors. The only reward I feel fit to give them is to make it to Formula One and do well in Formula One. It is not winning British F4, or anything else but to get to the pinnacle of Motorsport because they helped me to get that dream.”

Though still on the journey to achieve his dream, young Maloney still believes he can already give back to karting, the sport that started it all for him. He spoke about seeing other local talent making it as he did by setting an example and also going back to Bushy Park and speaking to the drivers.

“For me it is about having discipline to still go to school, train on a day, eat properly and not just want to race and that is it. If that is what you want to do just come out a couple months a year and do it as a hobby, which is fine as well but if you want to become something great then you have to have the discipline.”

Maloney explained that being on track with six-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit in 2016, allowed him to see where he wanted to be in a couple years and it lit a fire under him.

“I do not think he (Hamilton) would forget me, which is always great because in my opinion he is the best to ever do the sport. I have looked up to him my whole life and he has showed me what I possibly need to do to get to where he is. I guess we have things in common – always as a racing driver – no fear, discipline and some things I try to emulate, and some things I see in him that I want to be better than.”

The focus of Maloney is to chart his path to reach the heights of Hamilton and surpass him in certain areas and be the first to do it in Barbados and the Caribbean. Reaching Formula One will be even more special an achievement because so many international drivers already have made it. The future driving legend wants to show young Caribbean drivers that anyone can make it once they grasp the opportunities when they come.