This year, the young driver entered the Formula 2 championship with Spanish team Racing Engineering, and at the same time he was invited to become one of Richard Mille’s sporting ambassadors, where he rubs shoulders with tennis players Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev, golfer Bubba Watson, skier Alexis Pinturault, dressage rider Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and his F1 colleague Romain Grosjean, whom he knows well.en.
“The partnership is really quite new,” Louis Delétraz told us a few days ago. “Not everything has been finalised yet. I’m back home from the first test session in Barcelona and I have the Richard Mille decals on my car, helmet and overalls.”
The young man, who turns twenty in April, has deep roots in Geneva and motor racing in his blood. “I was born in Geneva, my parents are from Geneva and my family has lived in Geneva for several generations,” he points out. “My father was a racing driver, and I can’t have been more than two years old when I first set foot on a racing circuit. I was born into a motor racing environment, and I have always wanted to be behind the wheel, ever since I was a little kid.”
He started out in karting when he was eleven, and continued to learn the ropes there until 2011, moving into the monoplace category in 2012, where he finished 4th in the mini-championship. 2013 was his debut year with Formula Renault 2.0 NEC. He stayed with them for three seasons, winning the championship in 2015. The following year, Louis Delétraz signed up with British stable Fortec Motorsport6 in the Formula V8 3.5 category, recording a brilliant season crowned with a championship silver medal.
This year, Louis Delétraz is driving for the Racing Engineering team in Formula 2, and is now devoting himself to motor racing 100%, after having passed his high school diploma.
“Formula 2 is the stepping stone to F1, and I want to get there as quickly as possible,” says Richard Mille’s new ambassador. “But of course that will depend on my results this year, although there are other parameters that will come into play. It’s very rare to do just one season in F2 before moving up to F1, because it’s a difficult championship and new young drivers have a lot to learn. The average age in F2 is between 19 and 26, so there are plenty of experienced drivers there. All of them want to move up to F1, because you can’t make a professional career in F2. I hope to achieve that in one or two years.”
