There are not many racing drivers who can claim to have taken part in motorsport’s ‘triple crown’. Max Chilton is one of the few who can. Formula 1, IndyCar – including being 1.1 seconds away from winning 2017’s Indianapolis 500 – and Le Mans all take pride of place on his resume. And after all this he completed a feat likely even more memorable.
Although Chilton had the inspiration of his six-years-older brother and tin-top ace Tom, he quickly pursued an alternative path in karting then singleseaters. He scampered along a fast-track route through British Formula 3 – making his debut on the literal minimum age of his 16th birthday – and GP2. In both, he reached an ultra-competitive race-winning pitch just before moving to the next level, going all the way to the F1 pinnacle.
He had just shy of two F1 seasons with back-of-grid struggler Marussia. It wasn’t an environment offering much chance to wow on pace, but he established an extraordinary and record-breaking finishing record, reaching the flag in every race of his full debut season, and a few after that. In total he finished his first 25 events.
After the team went bust Chilton in 2015 had a sadly brief flirtation with Le Mans – the Nissan project again not giving him chance to shine – and a more permanent switch to America. After a race-winning Indy Lights campaign he had six seasons of IndyCar, and for the first two earned a ride with powerhouse team Chip Ganassi Racing.
Today he’s largely stepped back from competition, yet has the enviable role as the development driver for the incredible McMurtry Speirling electric fan car, and was behind the wheel when in 2022 it obliterated the Goodwood Festival of Speed all-time hillclimb record. In answering the Motorsport News readers’ questions he confirms this provided “one of the best days of my racing career”.
We’re grateful that Chilton gave time out of his busy schedule to answer the questions, and in this time he demonstrated that – in addition to being a rapid pedaller – he’s one of the most friendly, open and charming motorsport figures around.
So let’s kick off with where it all began.
“I always looked to step up to get to F1”
Max Chilton
Question: Where did your motorsport passion start?
John Potter
Via email
Max Chilton:“My passion started like a lot of people probably born in the early ’90s, on a Sunday afternoon looking up at the TV and hearing Murray Walker go ‘and the lights are out and go, go, go’ and him usually getting the names wrong. But I was always cheering on the red car, because when you’re young all you want to do is win and the red car was [Michael] Schumacher, it was in the era of his dominance. I was born in ’91, so I probably wasn’t very conscious of motorsport until probably ’95, ’96 and that was when Schumacher was coming into his prime.
“So that’s where it started and then my father’s always been a big avid fan of cars and he started to then come up in the business world so he’d then buy a Porsche or a nice car so I always appreciated
