Chch teenager set to become youngest ever Race of Champions driver

Christchurch teenager Louis Sharp is set to become the youngest-ever driver to take on the Race of Champions.

Sharp, 17, moved to England two years ago and has since won the 2023 British F4 Championship and 2024 GB3 titles.

The New Zealand team, featuring Sharp and rally star Hayden Paddon, will take on a star-studded line-up at Accor Stadium in Sydney on March 7-8.

The line-up will include Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastien Loeb, Mick Schumacher, Kurt Busch, Travis Pastrana and Jamie Whincup.

Sharp told speedcafe.com he is looking forward to representing NZ as he prepares for his debut season in FIA Formula 3.

“Teaming up with Hayden Paddon to represent New Zealand in our first-ever Nations Cup at ROC – this is something special,” Sharp told speedcafe.com.

“It’s crazy to think I was born the same year Sebastian Vettel won his first ROC Nations Cup title, and now I get to race against the very icons I grew up admiring.

“With Race Of Champions making its debut down under, I hope we see plenty of Kiwi flags flying high in Sydney.”

When he was just 12, Sharp was a co-driver for Paddon in the 2019 NZ Ashley Forrest Rally Sprint, which they won.

Paddon told speedcafe.com it was "amazing to see his progression and success".

“He looks destined to be F1 if he continues doing what he is doing.”

Said Fredrik Johnsson, Race Of Champions president and co-founder: “Louis has been nominated by critics as an F1 star of the future and I have little doubt that in a few years time we will be saying ‘I saw that kid for the first time at the Race of Champions at Accor Stadium in Sydney’.”