In first series of another new segment 'My job, racing and me', I'll be chatting with people who work within racing about the sport, what they do and who they are. I'm absolutely delighted to say my first guest is commentator Chris McCarthy!
Chris has commentated the Formula Regional European Championship for the last two years, but has also covered Formula 1, 2 and 3 along the way, as well as eSports, karting, the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans and much, much more.
📸 At work; Chris speaks with FRECA star Paul Aron.
I was absolutely over the moon that Chris was as keen as I was to have him on!
Anyways. Onto Chris's questions!
Job title: Commentator
How long have you been doing this? Since 2014.
1. I want to start off taking about your early plans; you wanted to be a racing driver, what level did you get to race at? So I was in karting and managed to test some single seaters too with Nick Tandy. I was selected also selected for the UK Motorsport Academy at Loughborough too. I’ve come away from it all with some cool stories and having raced some big names like Jessica Hawkins and Jordan King.
📸 Chris raced against Aston Martin F1 Driver Ambassador Jess Hawkins who had been racing in W Series this year, when he was younger in karts.
2. If my homework is right, you had to give it up because you were diagnosed with epilepsy? Did it take you a long time to kind of wrap your head around the fact you weren’t going to be able to do it? That’s right. I was about 17 at the time so I was mature enough to understand. I had had a seizure and my racing license was suspended for 5 years, and any more racing was going to be hard. I’d say it took me about a month to get over in all, I had just started my TV and Film course at college so my focus soon shifted. From there I had started filming and commentating on races at Whilton Mill and since then I’ve rarely looked back.
3. You found a new passion in commentary, which has taken you to incredible places; what is your proudest moment in your career so far? There’s been so many, but the two that standout are my first F1 call up and the F2 weekend at Silverstone this year. To sit with Tom Gaymor, someone I look up to and had a similar path to commentary as me…that F2 weekend was big for me.
📸 Chris called the action as Carlin's Logan Sargeant became the first American to win in Formula 2.
4. You had a three-race stint as the lead commentator for FIA Formula 3, in place of Harry Benjamin, how much did you enjoy that experience? I’m good mates with Harry so I spoke to him a bit before to get a good idea what I was doing. I’d actually say for the whole thing I was very comfortable, I’d commentated on a number of the drivers in FRECA before so familiar names was good, as well as a few before then too. It was a a very good feeling.
📸 Chris sat in for ''good mate'' Harry Benjamin who had other commitments,
5. F3 was an absolutely blockbuster series too, with many surprises. What was your favourite part to commentate on from your short time there? The last 4 laps of Hungary. Zak O’Sullivan and Juan Manuel Correa put on slicks on a drying track and were ridiculously quick compared to everyone else, it reminded me of watching a karting race. I had actually watched Zak in a karting race in the wet France when he was younger and I got reminded of that. The cadet racers had to race in the wet on slicks for whatever reason and Zak was obviously using that experience and skill in Hungary.
📸 O'Sullivan's gamble caused great excitement in the wet/dry Hungaroring race.
6. Which drivers caught your eye in that time? Zane Maloney, his comeback and form in the back end of the season was impressive. To crash heavily at Spa as well and then win the next day showed great strength. Isack Hadjar too actually, he does not losing well and drives like it too. Oli Goethe also, came in and having never raced in F3 cars, looked very comfortable.
📸 Zane Maloney's late season form coincided with Chris's stint on F3 commentary.
7. You also made your F2 commentary debut for the Silverstone round, what was enjoyable about that? Good question; the sprint was enjoyable, the feature was controversial. Really just being a part of it was a privilege. Alex’s help was great and made me ready for it. Just knowing I was ‘the voice’ of the race was a great feeling.
📸 F2 at Silverstone.
8. There was a scary incident that weekend with Nissany and Hauger and then in F1 with Zhou Guanyu as well - for an outside the cockpit view from someone who has raced before, how important has the halo proven itself to be? It doesn’t need highlighted how important it is. There have been tons of incidents that can justify the good reason to have it on the car. Take away the halo, Roy is no longer with us. Huge credit to whoever came up with the idea, they’ve saved lives.
📸 A life saved; The Halo gets to work at Silverstone in this scary crash with Dennis Hauger and Roy Nissany.
9. Should it be on all the single seaters? Absolutely.
10. You have spent a lot of time commentating on FRECA, what makes that series to good to be a part of? The grid! Gregoire Saucy kind of ran away with it last year but the level of competition over this year and last was very high. The proof is there, we’ve gone to Monaco, drivers have progressed to F3 like Maloney, Saucy and Franco Colapinto and have been competitive right away. We’ve got Gabriel Bortoleto and Paul Aron stepping up next year now too.
📸 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, better known as 'FRECA'.
11. You’ve done a lot in junior category racing, what driver(s) did you commentate on in the early stage of the careers that you knew for certain would get to the top? Ollie Bearman. He was quick from karting and very aggressive. Paul Aron and Roman Stanek are another two. Freddie Slater who’s currently racing Ginetta’s is one to watch.
📸 Paul Aron has just signed with PREMA for the 2023 F3 season, while Bearman and Stanek, below, fought for the title this year.
12. Are there any that you’re surprised never made it? Yes. Harry Thompson was like that. He was just struck by bad luck after he was a Red Bull Junior and for whatever reason, it didn’t work out.
📸 British driver Harry Thompson was very highly rated and backed by Red Bull from karting.
13. What is the best race you’ve personally commentated on? That’s a hard question. There have been so many for different reasons but if I had to pick it’d be the 2017 or 2018 IAME International karting final? We had something like 120 on the grid and only the top 30 were in, Harry Thompson was actually there. Bearman was in the juniors, Ugo Ugochukwu the McLaren junior was there too. We had about 16 fighting for the lead at one stage I think! Crazy.
📣 Ugo Ugochukwu could follow in the steps of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Stoffel Vandoorne in being a McLaren junior and reaching F1.
14. How hard was it to get into full time commentary? Not easy. I had side jobs all the time. This is really my first year doing it full time and it’s been a long road here. I worked at, and then ran Karting magazine before and did a lot of freelance PR work for drivers too.
15. What’s the hardest thing about being a commentator? I can’t really think of anything! The off-season can be tough when you’re wondering what you’re going to be doing the year after.
16. Whats the best thing about it? Travelling, meeting new people, drivers, seeing new places. I got to host the Monaco Historique GP this year which was insane.
📸 Monaco Historique: A bucket list event.
17. Who is your favourite person you’ve shared the booth with? It’s hard to say one but if you’re asking me to pick one I’d say Jimmy Broadbent but more because of the nature of the event we did. Neither of us really were sure what we were doing and were expecting something completely different to what we showed up to. We ended up become good friends from it. I’d also have to mention Alex Brundle and Jordan King though.
📸 Racer, sim racer, content creator and commentator, Jimmy Broadbent has become well known in racing.
18. You’ve watched plenty of lower Formula racing…who are the top 3 drivers in your opinion currently below F3 that are going right to the top? Andrea Kimi Antonelli would be one. The way he started this year, he blitzed everything in his path. Alex Dunne would be another, I’ve known him a long time. The other would be Nikola Tsolov. Good backing from Alpine and Fernando Alonso, and very quick. Honourable mentions for Taylor Barnard and Gabriele Mini too.
📸 From top to bottom, this year's ADAC F4 Champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli, British F4 Champion Alex Dunne and Spanish F4 Champion Nikola Tsolov, all tipped for the top by Chris.
19. Of all the series and championships you’ve commentated on, which has been the most exciting? FRECA. As good as F3 was, FRECA holds a place close to my heart to it beats it. My two years there have been great.
📸 FRECA, a series Chris holds a special place for.
20. As a racing fan, I’ve collected a few items like mini helmets, scale cars and other little things; as a fan yourself, is there anything you collect? I don’t collect much actually, I’ve kept all my passes from all the events I’ve been to, and I always pick up a race programme too. I have however made a space for the Lego Porsche car in my office!
This was a fantastic opportunity for me and I'm so glad Chris was able to do this, I hope you speak with him again soon to talk more about racing!
Take the chance to see the FRECA finale this weekend at Mugello, which Chris will be covering on YouTube! Dino Beganovic will be hoping to seal the title!
Thanks again Chris!
📸 Image credits: Chris McCarthy, Aston Martin F1 Team, Harry Benjamin, Formula Motorsport Limited, Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine(FRECA), Harry Thompson, Goodwood, PREMA Racing, RoKit British F4, Spanish F4 Championship.
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