Formula One news
An interview with Ho-Pin Tung
24 September 2004 |
| Tung at Shanghai posing with Ecclestone |
While the world's gaze will be on the likes of champion driver Michael Schumacher at the Shanghai Formula One Grand Prix, local interest will be fixed on a young man who will not even be taking to the wheel this weekend. Tung Ho-pin is the 21-year old wunderkind tipped to be the first world-class Chinese racing driver.
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Already a star of the junior circuit, he made history as the first Chinese to take the wheel of an F1 car when he test drove for Williams last year. Now in Shanghai to help with promotions for his sponsors and to give a hand in the garage with the Williams team, he says he is getting almost as much publicity locally as the stars he aspires to race against. "It is quite odd being the centre of attention here, there are lots of people who want to speak to me -- and lots of girls," says the Holland-born son of Chinese immigrants. "Girls keep coming up to me. If I had time for a girlfriend, she would certainly be jealous."
Although he is based in Holland and races Formula 3 in Germany, Tung lives part of the year in Shanghai, 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of his parents' hometown of Wenzhou. They left China 25 years ago and have struggled on the modest income from their Chinese restaurant to put Tung through college and to see him progress through the various motor racing classes necessary to give him a shot at his dream to race Formula One cars. "It's an expensive sport and my parents have made sacrifices so that I can take part in it -- they have been very supportive," Tung says in perfect English with a thick Dutch accent.
Tung's rise through the ranks of the junior circuits has been comparatively meteoric considering he began at the lowest rung -- go-karting -- at the relatively late age of 14. "Most of the big-name racers began when they were four or five," Tung offers modestly. "I have still a long way to go and a lot to learn."
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His first taste of Formula One glory -- the Williams test drive in Jerez, Spain -- came as a reward for his convincing win in last year's Formula BMW championship. He won 10 of the competition's 14 races, took pole position for 12 of them and holds the lap record for almost all the circuits he raced on. "It was just incredible," he says of the Williams drive. "For every racing driver, Formula One is the final target. Just that one drive reminded me all the more of why I wanted to become a racing driver in the first place. It made me more determined to succeed."
Tung insists his success will not go to his head. He has set himself on a course that he hopes will see him progress over the next few years within Formula 3 before he makes the move up into the big league. "There are some drivers who manage to make the leap from the junior circuit to Formula One. That would be nice but I am just going to take it gradually, one step at a time."
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Much has been made of Tung's ethnicity in a predominantly rich Western sport. As China begins to flex its sporting muscles and athletes like basketball player Yao Ming are elevated to the status of national heroes, Tung anticipates the sort of media exposure he has been getting at events like this weekend's grand prix to increase. "It makes me very proud when crowds of people come up to me an tell me they like what I am doing, especially because I love racing and everything that surrounds it. It is an honour to be considered so highly by Chinese -- and it's an honour to be the first Chinese driver, but I am in this for the sport -- I'm in it to win, to beat everybody, not just other Chinese."
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