SPEED READ

CIRCUIT
LUIS LEEDS TO RED BULL
Young Australian racer ready to take on his European dream
From spending much of his career in relative obscurity, Leeds’
announcement of joining the Red Bull Junior Team shot the
young Victorian front into the minds of Australian motor sport
fans, media and racing community.
“It’s been a crazy journey so far. I just want to keep it going
and all the support that I get from everyone here is just… it’s
amazing, it’s great,” Leeds said.
“To know that Daniel Ricciardo and other people that have such
a high ranking in Australian motor sport all know my name, it’s
just a great feeling.”
Fifteen-year-old Victorian Luis Leeds is soon to embark on
the opportunity of a lifetime, after signing with the Red Bull
Junior Team in late 2015.
The Victorian racer will be joining the Red Bull alumni featuring
the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz
Jnr., Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo, even Leeds was
stunned to look back at how far he has come in the space of
just one year.
“It all goes so quick. One day I’m testing at Winton, here I am
getting ready to go to Brands Hatch!” Leeds said.
Leeds will race with renowned British squad Arden
International in the MSA Formula, after spending the majority
of 2015 competing in the CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4
Championship.
“I did choose to race [Australian] F4 in definitely the toughest
year,” Leeds said.
“Obviously it was the first one, CAMS have done a great job
to implement F4 here. I was able to gain all that knowledge of
driving F4 cars. I gained all this valuable experience of driving
cars and learning how to control the F4.”
Alongside his Australian Formula 4 programme, Leeds also
enjoyed occasional appearances in Australian Formula Ford,
German Formula 4 and Mexican Formula 4 throughout 2015. It
was at the Mexican Grand Prix Formula 4 support race where
Leeds attracted a personal meeting with Red Bull’s senior
motor sport bosses.
“I went into the Mexican F4 weekend without actually knowing
anyone from Red Bull was there,” Leeds continued.
“I later found out that Dr Helmut Marko (Red Bull Motorsport
Consultant) and Thomas Überall (Red Bull Motorsport Chief)
were sitting there as I got back from the podium, they were
there both sitting in my pit waiting for me!”
Despite the flattery from his colleagues and supporters, Leeds
is aware of the major challenge that awaits him in a matter of
months.
“Now obviously I’ve got the goal of winning the [MSA Formula]
championship, but I’m going to carry the mindset of just taking
it session by session really,” Leeds said.
“I know that if I do the best I can and listen to my engineer,
Steve, then everything should go alright.”
Having already tested the MSA Formula 4 car, of which it is an
almost identical configuration to Leeds’ Australian Formula 4
car, Leeds only needs to adjust to living life as a 15-year-old in
Europe.
“Going over there [to Europe] wasn’t much of a problem, it was
more so just building a family type relationship with the team
– seeing as I’m living there on my own and they’re going to be
taking after me quite a bit,” Leeds said.
“Arden [is] a great team, they’ve looked after me well so far. I’ve
had the one test so far in Valencia and it all went really good.”
Having received advice for much of his junior career, Leeds had
this advice for other young Australian drivers who aspire to one
day be in a similar position to Leeds.
“Always start off with a dream. No matter what anyone says,
just keep following it,” Leeds said.
“It doesn’t matter how young you are or whatever your results
are, people are always watching and everything you do counts.
Just make sure everything you do, every race you go into, put
110% in and you’ll get the best out of it.”
The opening round of the MSA Formula takes place on April
7–8 at Brands Hatch. CAMS wishes Luis all the best in 2016.
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