Interview: Tijil Rao- "All I want to do is win. You have to give your 100%, there are no excuses."

Tijil Rao is the new talk of the town. The 15-year-old participated in the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship and has won the Rookie Cup Formula F4 race. He finished the round in second place and was later promoted to first due to a disqualification. Before racing in the JK series, the teenager karted for a year and finished seventh in the Rotax Max Championship.

Upon being asked about his race, the Bangalorean said, “It was pretty competitive today. The first lap, everyone was fighting really well but luckily everyone kept it clean. From the start of the race, I had a little bit of contact at the parabola. I somehow managed to keep it on track and from there on I kept pushing the car even though it had some damage to it. I was struggling with the handling. Eventually, two guys crashed out and I was able to finish second.”

What makes his journey more admirable is the fact that Tijil had to undergo several corrective surgeries to be able to walk properly. A condition named clubfoot, in which the feet are twisted out of shape or position, has affected Rao since birth.

Speaking about how he has to adapt his racing style to his physical attributes, the 15-year-old commented, “I am short and then my feet. Other drivers can push their limits whenever they want to but I can’t. I have to push myself very calculatedly. I can’t do extraordinary things. I have to be a bit careful about my feet. Last time I crashed in Chennai, I blanked out in the car because of my physical fitness. The brakes are really hard [on the feet].”

The race win did not come easy for Rao. The youngster had just one practice session’s worth of testing before he had to go out and compete. Come race day, Tijil had to use a spare engine after the original one cropped up mechanical problems.

He explained, “My old engine had some really bad issues which they were not able to figure out in four days. They gave me a new chassis and a completely new engine. We had to do some running-in and I did running-in the whole practice session so I did not even get one lap of flat out practice.”

The maturity and never-say-die attitude shown by Tijil is well beyond his years and it shows both on track and off. “I don’t mind a challenge, if you give me a challenge I’m ready. If it’s gonna hurt, it’s gonna hurt! All I want to do is win. I don’t want to keep complaining, ‘Oh, my leg is hurting.’ You have to give your 100%, there are no excuses.”

The Bangalorean shed some light on his journey into racing, “I have been karting for some amount of time, just for fun. I was pretty good at it. I used to always like it, always tell my dad I want to be a race car driver. At that time, we didn’t know you had some championships going on in India. We didn’t have so many contacts but then we met a few people and they told us.

Tiji Rao winner of the Rookie Cup - JKNRC 2018

“We went and tested for a proper professional team called BPC Racing. We did one season with them and they were really happy with us, they said I was pretty competitive. It was in Bangalore and Hyderabad.”

The youngster has his plans for the future sorted out and he knows where he wants to be headed next. He elaborated, “I don’t think I’m so interested in driving saloon cars, I like single-seaters. Really exciting. It’s always wheel to wheel, bumper to bumper, really close, so I think I’ll just stick to single-seaters because I want to go all the way to Formula One. I think single-seaters give you a better experience, you have to be right on the limit. You don’t have any of the electronic help, it’s all just plain racing.”

Tijil still has a long road ahead but it seems that he has already mastered the art of determination and a will to persevere.