My second returning guest is Peruvian Formula Regional driver Matias Zagazeta! The 2021 British F4 runner up has answered another 10 Questions for my "10 More Questions to a Racing Driver segment!"
When I spoke to Matías last year he was embarking on his first year in FRECA, the European edition of Formula Regional racing championship, which saw him end the year 32nd as he competed ably with G4 Racing alongside Axel Gnos, as well as Owen Tangavelou, Gillian Henrion and Tereza Babickova. To round off his year nicely, he joined up with Charouz Racing System, now monikered 'PHM Racing by Charouz', for the end of season FIA Formula 3 test at Jerez.
📸 Matias in the Formula Regional car(top) and F3 car(bottom).
This year so far Matias has featured in Formula Regional Middle East for R-ace GP, completing three rounds and scoring a point to end the campaign 17th.
Onto the questions!
1.Who’s your racing hero or heroes? Racing hero has to be Ayrton Senna! Definitely someone I aspire to be.
📸 Senna in Williams trim.
2. What’s the first memory you have of racing? My first memory was when I first jumped into a rental kart for the first time alone, I felt like I was going so fast but then I saw the videos and thought it was super slow!
3. What’s the best car you’ve driven so far? Definitely the FIA F3 car, it was such an amazing experience to drive it especially around Jerez a track with a lot of high speed corners so it made it even better!
📸 Testing with Charouz.
4. What’s your proudest moment so far? I think my first win in F4, after a year like 2020 where I really was going through tough times and then bouncing back in 2021 that first win felt very special and something I’m very proud of.
📸 Matias in F4.
5. Your favourite overtake you’ve ever done? Very difficult to remember! I think looking at the most recent ones it has to be the overtake I did around the outside of T1 in Brands Hatch to take my first win in single seaters.
6. Would you rather race on a street course or on an oval? For sure on street races! These tracks always have something special and there’s no margin for error, the feeling of trying to push to the limit and no margin for mistakes is unique.
📸 On the streets of Monaco.
7. If you could pick any teammate, past or present, who would you choose? Fernando Alonso was someone I looked up to when I watched Formula 1 growing up too, seeing him in F1 until now is amazing and to be his team mate would be fantastic, he’s someone with a lot of experience and I’m sure I would be able to learn a lot from someone like him.
📸 Matias visiting the Alpike garage, complete with Fernando Alonso's car.
8. No gym, no sim, no travel, no racing; how would you spend a whole day off? That’s not fair! 😂 If that was the case I always love to go to the beach and enjoy the sun or the pool!
9. If you could drive any race car, past or present, what car would you choose? There was many cars that crossed my mind but I think the W11 is one that I would absolutely love to drive!
📸 The W11 from 2020, which saw Lewis Hamilton take title No.7 for his career.
10. What’s the strangest thing to happen to you while you’ve been in the car? Nothing really strange has happened to me but whenever you have to sneeze while driving its definitely a strange feeling! 😂
📸 Ready for action.
Thanks to Matias for another good chat! Hopefully we can do something else again sometime! Best of luck to him for whatever this year may bring!
📸 Image credits: Matias Zagazeta, Williams Racing, Mercedes Petronas AMG F1 Team, Formula Motorsport Limited.
Comments