I was seven years old when I first sat in a go-kart.
My mom had brought me to the local kart track, E-zone, for an outing with his friends. I hated every second of it: the noise, the speed, the smell, and especially the dust prominent in the Indian city of Bangalore where I lived. Yet, for some strange and untraceable reason, I chose to celebrate my eighth birthday party at the local kart track. To this day, the most plausible answer is that seven-year-old Nikhil felt that he had something left to prove. To everyone’s surprise, I dominated my friends in every session and, for the first time, truly enjoyed driving. As I came out of the pit lane eager to eat pizza and cut my birthday cake, my father intercepted me and pointed to a young man in a racing suit behind him.
“This is ‘Ali,’ he is a professional driver and wants to drive some laps with you right now to see if you can handle a more powerful kart.”
He then leaned in and whispered.
“He spotted you driving and thinks you have a special talent… I think he is trying to recruit you to his racing team.”
On January 26th, 2013, my life changed forever.
Since then, I have started over 200 competitive race events on 50+ tracks spread across 20 countries worldwide, on innumerable engine and tire configurations. I have won multiple championships and scored dozens of podiums and pole positions in both go-karts and formula. If you were to ask an astute observer about me as a racing driver, they would say that I am quick, technically sophisticated, adaptive to changing conditions, and have a history of winning races. But my story as a racing driver is not all about success. Instead, it is about what I have learned from my mistakes and the resilience that the setbacks and obstacles instilled in me.
My start in motorsports was weekend practice laps with Ali in an unglamorous four-stroke go-kart, trying to beat the track record (set by me) and learn some of the basics of karting. It was only after our inexperienced team entered the five-race JK Tyre Rotax Max India National Karting Championship that my actual racing career began. My debut race was horrible. The team and I were clueless, and my kart could only complete five laps throughout the weekend. Although we completed all the laps in the subsequent two rounds, I was finishing at the back, and there was still no satisfaction. I hated racing. It was hot and confusing, and I felt like I was entering races that didn’t teach me anything other than how much of an outsider I was to karting and how painful logistics are in India. I wanted to quit, but my parents reminded me of my commitment to finish the series and maximize this opportunity. In the fourth round of the season, I scored my first podium. I’ll never forget that feeling; how could I?
For the next two seasons, I started testing more earnestly, challenging myself with more demanding races in the Asian championships, and willingly making more sacrifices of time and comfort by flying around the world to invest in my racing development. I took gold in the first Indian national race of 2015, and at the end of the year, I had the chance to compete in my first World Championship races in Europe. The scene at the world championship was intimidating. Every driver had their own mechanic, they had computers that would show what your mistakes were, and everyone was driving to perfection. I still remember, amidst all the tension, overhearing the Italian team boss talking to my mom:
“Nikhil is very fast for a new driver… he has something that is not possible to teach.”
Racing in Europe at the world level was an eye-opening experience, and I was ready to apply my new knowledge back in Asia.
In 2016, I competed in 27 races, and every time I set foot on the track, I expected to win.
Through rain or shine, through red flags and technical issues, anything other than a podium was unheard of that year. I competed in three separate championships and won all three, an unprecedented feat in the Asian racing scene. That year was my most enjoyable year in racing for one key reason: I was winning. Up until this year, racing was synonymous with setbacks, failure, and insecurity, but 2016 was essentially smooth sailing. I was in my element.
With the wind at my back, I decided to commit to the entire World Championship in 2017 to move toward racing full-time in Europe. Once again, however, my resilience was going to be put to the test. On paper, everything was fine. My results on track were solid, my grades in school were good, and I seemed happy.
Leading my qualifying heat at the 2017 World Championship
Internally, however, I was falling apart.
When I was racing, I was stressing about finishing my school assignments; when I was doing my coursework, I was losing sleep over racing. I missed my friends, I missed my family, and having just moved to Singapore the transition into a new school and country only made it worse. I was alone in Europe with just my coach, and I was not happy. Going into 2017, I expected to pursue racing full-time, and finishing 11th in the world 12U was proof that I was on the right path. There were pressures and expectations put on me by other people and myself, and everyone around me believed I could succeed in racing. But at that moment, I knew that I wasn’t ready to dedicate my life to it.
I stopped racing in Europe after the 2017 World Championships. It was the hardest decision I had ever had to make. From then on, I decided to focus on Asian racing and moved up a category to put a new challenge on myself. Still, I faced issues with my physical fitness, my emotions on the track, and even my emotions off the track. It was a downfall, and to this day, I’m surprised that I stayed in the sport.
Racing under the lights of the Singapore Formula 1 Circuit
In 2018, I moved up to a 2-gear go-kart championship called DD2 to increase my fitness level. This championship was designed for drivers older than 16, but the Singaporean racing committee gave me an exemption to race at 13 due to my track record. Eventually, my increase in fitness allowed me to focus on improving my driving style and racecraft, and by the end of 2018, I had finally found my rhythm again. My racing efficiency improved; I was back at the front and getting results again. I won the first race of 2019, and with this, I moved up to the 15+ category referred to as “Seniors.” With an average age above 18, the driving style in the senior category was very different from what I was accustomed to.
I often overextended due to my immature driving style and my ‘young brain.’ I had to push myself to accelerate my racing maturity and learn to drive while thinking multiple steps ahead, concepts that weren’t necessary for my previous years. Throughout the year, I could see the impact of overcoming these challenges on my race finishes. I finished on the podium in 50% of the races that year and ended the Asian championship fourth as the youngest driver on the grid.
Starting from pole position in the 2019 Asian Championship
2020 was meant to be my last year of dedicated karting and mark the transition to formula car racing. My plans that year were simple: win the IAME Asia Series kart championship, compete in select CIK-FIA races to benchmark against the world’s best, and complete at least 20 days of formula car testing. Everything was laid out, and then the pandemic hit.
Singapore closed its borders. I was stuck.
In 2021, after a long hiatus, an opportunity came up that allowed me to restart my racing career. Less than a week after finishing my Sophomore year of high school, I packed my bags and flew to Germany. I completed a few races in the European Karting Championship and World Championship. Still, my results were not notable, and I was a little too big to be competitive — even though I wasn’t very heavy, my center of gravity was relatively high. In one race in Sarno, Italy, I had a big accident in which my kart flipped over, dragging my head on the pavement for around ten meters. I then stopped competitive kart racing, shifting my focus to formula cars.
In 2022, I completed my debut season in the F4 UAE and Italian F4 championships, the world’s two most competitive Formula 4 championships. It was an honor to race for the German team US Racing, run by master engineer Gerhard Ungar and the Schumacher racing family. Being part of a team with such a prestigious lineage was, and still is, astounding. I completed that season 6th in the rookie standings with one podium, a solid season considering my prior experience.
Podium finish at the Red Bull Ring
At the end of 2022, I competed in the Indian Racing League championship, a team-based series in which four drivers share two cars per team. I shared a car with one of my best friends, Alister Yoong, son of ex-F1 driver Alex Yoong. Our team won the championship, with four wins and three pole positions for Alister’s car and mine.
I simultaneously began a Formula Regional test program with Trident Motorsport. Trident is another fantastic racing team that competes in Formula Regional, F3, and F2 and has won several overall championships. Formula Regional is a step between Formula 4 and Formula 3, with horsepower and downforce numbers between the two categories. I competed in the 2023 Middle Eastern and European Regional championships, amassing three total podiums, fourth rookie in the overall standings, and the highest position of my team in both overall championships.
This year, I am entering my sophomore year in the Formula Regional European championship with 2022 Formula 2 champions MP Motorsport. I aim to fight for the title and secure a spot in FIA Formula 3 in 2025.
My second year in formula cars, after graduating from go-karting
Aside from racing, however, I have always had an academic core.
While most people who pursue racing give up school entirely, I’m still seeking a university education. As a result, I tend to resonate more with “student-athletes,” even though I am a professional sportsman by definition. Medium is a way to put my experience in racing forward for people to read, describe connections between my academic passions and racing, and share my experience as a student-athlete. Balancing two facets of life will never be easy, but knowing that people share your struggles makes it a little less challenging.
I hope you find inspiration in my writing in one way or another, from physicists to psychologists wondering how their domains connect to my sport to parents and guardians looking to help their children balance school with extracurriculars. Through this platform, I aspire to connect with readers from all walks of life; I love learning, I love writing, and I love sharing my learning with the world.
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