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The 17-year old is set to become the first ever Singaporean to secure a seat on the FIA Formula 3 Championship next year
Hokkien Mee, New Jeans, Fantasy Football – those were probably not the topics we would have imagined talking to Christian Ho about. After all, he’s one of Singapore’s brightest motorsport talent to have come through, as he continues to chase his dream of becoming Singapore’s first Formula 1 driver.
He is currently based in the United Kingdom (UK), where he is studying his A levels at St Andrews College in Cambridge. He had made the trip back home for this announcement, which also coincided with the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
Christitan’s Homecoming
Since breaking the news on Monday (16 September), Christian has been the talk of the town. He has had multiple interviews, gone on radio shows and even spoke at a school – amongst his media duties.
“The problem is that I only slept for 2 hours.. and speaking at the school (yesterday) was a bit weird because the guys were only 2 youngers than me!”
Christian was alongside two other Team Singapore racing drivers – Kabir Anurag (17) and Rishab Jain (22) who were at Jurongville Secondary where they shared about their lives on the fast lanes.
Despite his packed schedule, the 17-year old still appeared fresh-faced and had plenty to laugh and talked about when we met him on a Friday morning for our interview.
You’ll Never Walk (and drive) Alone
“You are wearing the wrong shirt!” Christian exclaimed to our photographer Jayden, who entered the studio, donning a 24/25 United blue away kit.
The banter helped to break the ice, as we quickly engaged into an all-too-familiar discussion about football, where he shared that he has been a life-long Liverpool fan. While he has yet to find time to make the pilgrimage to Anfield, he was able to catch the Reds in action at the Singapore Sports Hub over the past 2 years when they travelled over for their pre-season friendly.
Similar to the Liverpool motto of You’ll Never Walk Alone, motorsport was something which he didn’t fall in love with alone.
“I started watching motorsports when my dad was watching F1 just like randomly on the TV and I started to watch from there. And every single weekend I’ll actually watch F1 just so that I could sleep a little bit later” he admitted.
And as they said, the rest is history.
He started karting since the age of 7 and eventually made the move to Italy when he was just 11. Since then, Christian has made stellar progress and made waves in the racing world, where he has consistently been one of the top drivers for his age group.
He has made steady progress earning a promotion to the next category of racing on a yearly basis and his accolades include became the first Asian to win a race in the Deutsche Kart Meisterschaft (DKM) German Karting Championship series; as well as the first Asian since F1 driver, Alex Albon to start on pole in the Final race of the prestigious CIKFIA World Karting Championship.
Getting up to speed
The opportunity for him to make the step up to Formula 3 came about after impressing in the last 2 years.
“I’ve had quite good results and it was just about making the right choice in terms of team for next year because we had a few opportunities and what gave me the best chance to challenge for next year” he revealed.
Christian finished second in the F4 Spanish Championship with his team, Campos Racing last year and is also in another title fight this season where he trails the Championship leader, Javier Sagrera in the Eurocup-3 by 28 points.
With 2 more races to come, anything is still mathematically possible for the Singaporean.
“Looking to the last two races, I think it’s one of my strongest tracks on the grid. Last year I think I won all three races in Barcelona and I think I got pole in Jerez as well. Obviously the last two tracks are home tracks for the guy who’s P1 but I think I can consider them home tracks as well just because of the fact that my team is Spanish.“
All in the mind
While he would normally go up to a speed of 260km/h while racing, Chrisitian is not exactly an adrenaline junkie himself, where he conceded that he is ‘scared of roller coasters’ and absolutely hates it.
But unlike the rides in the theme parks, racing is a whole different game for him.
“When you’re in the seat, you just forget about everything.. when you’re driving everything is really fast but it feels really slow.. and you do feel like driving is really natural and it’s part of your body“ – a paradox which he still finds fascinating, every time he reviews his onboard video after a session.
Racing ahead
Like many young drivers, Christian’s motorsport inspirations shifted over time. “I used to love Alonso, but when he left Ferrari, I started supporting whoever the number one driver at Ferrari was,” he says. His allegiances have changed from Alonso to Vettel and now Charles Leclerc.
Coincidentally, he is currently managed by Morgan Caron who used to be the manager of Charles Leclerc. Unfortunately for the Scuderia Ferrari, they will need face an uphill task at this year’s Singapore Grand Prix where Leclerc & Sainz will be starting from 9th and 10th on the grid.
For the soon to be F3 driver, his goal remains the same and he will be hoping to be racing at home one day.
“I’m sure if I can drive there it’ll be an honour and I’m sure that if I put in the work I’ll be there”.
The FIA F3 championship is part of motorsport’s governing body FIA’s pathway aimed at helping drivers reach the pinnacle of the sport, sitting in between the FIA Formula 4 and Formula 2 championships. Most if not all F1 drivers go through the third-tier championship which serves as a feeder series.
Flying the Singapore flag proud
When asked about his hobbies outside of motorsport, his interests are just like any other teenagers his – listening to K-pop, playing FIFA/EAFC, Fantasy Premier League; not forgetting his rants about his struggle with A-Level mathematics and also concerns on getting his driving license in Singapore.
At the end of our 30-minute conversation with Christian, what struck us the most was how humble and relatable he was, yet displaying a sense of maturity and wisdom well beyond his years.
His advice to young and aspiring teenagers chasing their dream was simple – always be curious to learn.
“Where I really expected to make a really big step with the car (last year), but instead I made a really big step with my driving. And just because of the fact that I was curious to learn.. I felt like before maybe I was not as open to learning and I was more closed in. But I think the most important thing is to be curious”
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