by Alex Johnston
My latest guest is commentator, presenter, broadcaster and self proclaimed ‘karaokist’, Jake Sanson! The current voice of the English coverage of Super Formula and Super GT as well as Spanish F4 and much more joined me for a chat a while back.
1. Who's your racing hero or heroes? “This is always a good question. As a child, there was well known greats: Hill, Mansell, Senna, Alesi…great names, driven, top personalities. Any given race they were the ones to watch, immensely exciting guys.
📸 Mansell with ‘Red 5’.
As far as commentary; of course, Murray(Walker), but also Simon Taylor and Charlie Cox on BTCC - absolute master of the one liner. I’d also say Paul Page, his style and delivery was great.
📸 The late, great Murray Walker.
2. What's your first memory of racing? The 1992 British Grand Prix. It was Grandstand on the TV as I sat on my Dad’s knee and had a ‘what is this moment’. “F1”, he said - I was instantly in love with it.
3. What's your favourite racecar of all time? Thats a really good one. I’ve never been asked that before. The FW18. Just for a fabulous moment at age 9, 2:45am with a hot chocolate, watching Damon at the likes of Melbourne - and then of course Suzuka, where he became champ. That one car I become a bit ‘Francis Bourgeois’ about, proper nerd moments.
📸 Hill with the FW18 back in 2014.
4. What's you're favourite racing moment you've seen? My word, that’s tricky. I’ve seen so much. So many great feats and moments…Damon winning for Jordan in ‘98. A true great underdog moment. Not a dry eye.
📸 Hill escaped early carnage to lead a Jordan one-two in Spa, the 22nd and final win of his career.
5. What's your favourite moment you've commentated on? 2023 in the Czech Republic - following Oleksandr Bondarev, who is with Williams now of course. He had 70 days in hospital after an accident and I took the time to visit him over two days. He showed such determination to come back and win races again and a title. I hope to see him do the double this year!
📸 Williams Junior, Oleksandr Bondarev.
6. Who was the first driver you watched and knew immediately that they were something special? Oh that’s a good ‘un! 2012, Oulton Park - a youngster by the name of Matt Parry. Super fast, came through in what was the equivalent of Formula BMW, such a good lad.
📸 Matt Parry finished ninth in the 2016 GP3 series, behind the likes of Charles Leclerc, Jake Dennis, Nyck De Vries and Alex Albon - but ahead of the likes of Alex Palou and Santino Ferrucci.
I’d also have to say Luke Browning - of course now in F3, Macau winner…I watched him in junior saloon racing in a Citroen Saxo. He went from 12th to 3rd and was great. I’ve done some media training with him to, lovely lad.
📸 Macau F3 winner, Luke Browning.
7. Your commentary became a bit of a talking point after this year's Formula Regional Middle East and F4 UAE series, how would you describe your commentary style? Brief! Edge of your seat! I worked it at it. Before, I mimicked other commentators but around 2016/17 I questioned, “how do I find my own voice?”. I felt a need to ‘fit in’ but soon realised I just needed to be my own person and I’m comfortable with that.
What was mad for me was how many people were on my side. I can take the criticism, even when it came from someone I admire.
8. What's your proudest personal commentary moment to date? 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours. A complete honour and privilege, as any comms opportunity at Le Mans is. I wouldn’t have got my F1 shot without it either. Phenomenal.
📸 Late heartbreak for Toyota saw Porsche win the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours.
9. You're the founder of Downforce Radio - what compelled you to start that? In 2012, I started it just as a podcast to promote myself because I couldn’t afford an agency or anything and it was frustrating me.
I waited 3 hours for 10 minutes with Jason Plato and that was a real moment for me. I got to learn what people wanted to talk about and what they wanted to hear.
10. What's been your most enjoyable Downforce moment so far? *Laughs* You know, the year escapes me but we had a Downforce meet up in Birmingham, I think around the time of the Autosport show where we all went out…Karaoke, crazy golf. Was really good to have a sense of community around people I wanted to be around, including one of our commercial partners!
11. Downforce has given opportunities to plenty of people - including myself - to get their start in writing or talking about motorsport- what is it about inexperienced people that you give these opportunities out? It’s important to look outside the regular pool. You end up with the same people, same faces and same voices and it becomes very plain.
I always go back to a quote from Juan Manuel Fangio - “you must always strive to be the best, but you must never believe you are” - how are we going to get new talent if they don’t get a shot? We’ve proved it too, we had Tom Brooks with us, he’s now the voice of Formula E!
📸 Tom Brooks is the current Formula E commentator.
12. What plans do you have going forward for Downforce? A reboot/relaunch is coming on a new server! It’ll all be eventually available on iOS and Android. We’ll have 22 shows, multiple new partnerships, and new projects! We’ll have three featured F1 World Champions, passion has very much become work, it’s been an education, I’m still learning. It’s been easy to do, but difficult to put together!
13. We briefly touched on FRMEC and F4 UAE - what was the most enjoyable part of the two series' this year? The rain in our F4 Abu Dhabi race three! It was a fantastic curveball, we had a lot of gamblers, really great stuff.
14. Who in your eyes was the most underrated driver in either series? There was two or three, Yevan David for one. Full of coincidence for Sainteloc, but he’s always like that. I remember him at the Motorsport Games at Paul Ricard, he told me “I’m getting a medal”. He came home with silver. He’ll be one to watch in Spanish F4.
Quintarelli, Doriane Pin and Emmo Fittipaldi Jr also stood out for me.
15. Who was the surprise start in either series for you? Reza Seewooruthun. I’ll be honest, I thought he’d struggle straight from Ginetta’s. He did really well.
Alex Powell really showed what he can do.
Finley Green too, hadn’t raced since 2019 and was close to pace.
16. What was the surprise moment? Reza and Gabriel Stilp storming in the rain! Give Brits a bit rain and watch them go!
17. Who is your current one to watch across all motorsport? Bella Fairclough. Of all the drivers with none of the money and all of the talent, she is THE ONE.
18. What are you most excited for this year? Super Formula and Super GT. I am full of excitement and anticipation for both, and I can’t encourage people to watch enough!
19. A question from Linus, who also writes for us; you're one of the few people in racing open about being autistic, do you feel is an overall lack of representation for people like yourself? Hi Linus! This is a weird one for me! Good weird! Funny weird! There is definitely an overall lack of understanding about people with disabilities at a time when there’s a push for diversity, be that LGBTQ
20. Is there anything you've managed collect as a racing fan over the years, or anything you've been given that holds a special place in a collection?
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