THE W L
INTERVIEW
Cheshire born Oli Webb, 25 is a British professional racing driver. Oli began his career in karting at the age of nine and has since gone on to win the European Le Mans, Dubai 24 hour championship and the Asian Le Mans. In an exclusive interview, Oli talks to Wirral Life about his career, dream cars and plans for 2017.
You began your racing career aged 9 when you started karting, how did you get into it?
I started karting as a child whilst I was away on holiday and at karting parties with friends. I then progressed up to karting at Daytona Manchester regularly before qualifying for a licence to compete on a Pro Level. I won the championship in my first year of main stream competition.
It looks like your motor sport career followed the popular pattern of moving up from karting to Formula 3( like Lewis Hamilton) but you then switched to serious endurance racing at a young age and you’ ve become very successful – what made you choose this road?
I loved the single seater route, it was fantastic to get spotted as a young talent and BMW helped fund my young racing career before being with Mercedes in F3, much like Lewis. But then as the F1 world changed and financial situations with sponsors became the focus it was time for me to look elsewhere into a career that was long lasting and substantial. Endurance racing seemed the key and Le Mans being the main focus.
Amazingly, so far you have won 2014 European Le Mans championship, 2015 Dubai 24 hour championship and in 2016 you were the Asian Le Mans champion, which of these victories meant the most to you?
For me 2014 was my best year. Winning my first ever year in endurance racing for the French brand Renault Alpine. It was my first time I had ever been there and to stand on the podium at Le Mans was truly amazing, I’ ll never forget it and I can’ t wait to get back up there.
Apart from motor sport, you are a keen athlete and keep yourself ultra fit- What is your fitness regime and how disciplined are you?
I love to keep fit. Whether it be specifically for racing where I do gym training for the neck and upper body exercises, all the way through to triathlons that I try to compete in regularly. I actually did my first ever triathlon having never ridden a proper clip in bike, that was interesting! I train every day for 2 hours with one rest day most weeks. With the amount of travel I have to do, it’ s very hard to keep up the routine but we have trainers at the tracks and a lot of help along the way! wirrallife. com 13