Quotes About Karting

I always wanted to race but I never thought it would be possible. My dad put me in a cadet kart when I was seven years old and I wasn't strong enough to hit the brake pedal.

I turned away from bikes when I got a bambino kart for my seventh birthday and started doing some karting, just around some cones at home, but I didn't think at that point I knew I wanted to go into F1, it was more just for fun.

When I was 7-years-old I, discovered Go-Karts and started Karting, since then I thought to be an F1 driver, that was pretty much buried into my head.

I did suffer a lot since karting, with my size and everything, not really having a clue what to do when I started karting. So I suffered in every category: F4, F3, F2. Not so much F2 but I've had to kind of play catch-up quite a bit and in some ways, F1 was a bit nicer with power steering.

I've had a lot of support from back home, starting way back in karting and since then I have been lucky to have been supported by some great Finnish companies.

I used to go to work with Dad on the weekend. We'd drive past an indoor go-kart track every now and then, and we went there a few times. I was never tall enough, so I always left upset. I think I was seven when I was the right height, and I was like, 'Please let me have a go.' It was love at first sight.

My plan was to put him on a go-kart track when he was six years-old but he was with his mum at a track in Genk and he called me up crying because he saw a younger guy driving on the track. He said to me 'Daddy, I want to do this,' so when I got home from the Canadian GP, I bought him a go-kart and that's how he started.

When I jumped in a go-kart at three or four, with my friends, I was super fast without anyone really teaching me.

I can't remember what made my dad take us karting for the first time, I can't remember really. I was into motorsport by then and I knew everything, and every driver, it was around 2009, 2008. That's when I first properly knew about Formula One. Those were the days.

In karting, in the European races, you have the cameras and the film crews and you do interviews. At around 13 I'd already started doing bit of media and it just increases more and more with every level you take, especially when you get into cars - and when you hit F1 it's an even higher step up. It's something you get used to over time.

When you are a kid racing karts, you want to be an F1 driver.

I became a real racing nerd - I knew all the drivers and talked about karting all the time. I wanted to have a go, but when I got into a kart the noise scared me. I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to control the brake with my foot.

In karting, you turn up and drive, look at the data and go home. But I like doing more, learning about the engines and how to make them go even better.

In my city of Maracay, there is a go kart circuit about five minutes from my home. When I was about three or four years old, I said I wanted to race, but I was too young; then, when I reached the age of seven, my father gave me a kart and we started from there.

I was three years old. I had a go-kart that my dad had on a leash so I would not go too quick.

I was always fascinated by speed... My father was always an enthusiast and once I found a passion in racing, I had something in common with him, so from my childhood onwards we spent a lot of time going to karting tracks and racing in the various categories.

I have spent a lot of time in Italy throughout my career - especially when I was karting, because it's kind of the world centre of that sport - and I love it.

When I was very little, my dad had his own go kart team as well while he was still in F1, so I always joined and riding through the paddock on my bicycle.

We have two issues - not enough young girls starting in karting at a young age and no clear role model. Sometimes you just have to see it to believe it.

Surely, early in my karting career it was tough because many people were jealous and thinking I had special treatment from the stewards and was getting special treatment. But generally I'm just happy to be a Magnussen.

I definitely wasn't anything special when I first started but I think I adapted quite quickly into racing and it became a bit better slowly. All of cadets, the first four years of karting, I only won one proper race, one! Which was the British Open Championship at PFI and I started 21st and I won.

You always have to believe in yourself, and I had that from karting.

After karting in Venezuela, I came to Europe in 1998 to compete in international kart races, which was great for me to get experience racing outside my country. After consistently being at the top, I decided to move to Italian Formula Renault.

You do a period of go-karting until you're at the age of qualifying for a ride in a 'school-kart,' then you qualify for driving school. And several of the driving schools have a competition series for their own students.