Ar Muhammad Aleef, better known as AleefHamilton, is a sim racer for Team Flash as well as Team Singapore whose idol is none other than Lewis Hamilton. At 24, he’s already raced against a few of the biggest names in Formula One like Max Verstappen, Romain Grosjean and Stoffel Vandoorne.
Aleef shared his story with AsiaOne, detailing his journey from humble beginnings where his family struggled with bankruptcy, to the present day where people still doubt his ability to cope with managing an esports career and keeping up with university.
He’s proven his dissenters wrong - not only has he made the dean’s list two years in a row, he’s one of the best sim racers in the world, thriving within his esports scene.
Aleef shared his story with AsiaOne, detailing his journey from humble beginnings where his family struggled with bankruptcy, to the present day where people still doubt his ability to cope with managing an esports career and keeping up with university.
He’s proven his dissenters wrong - not only has he made the dean’s list two years in a row, he’s one of the best sim racers in the world, thriving within his esports scene.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 I always had that fire in me, that attitude where if someone tells me that I can't do it,
00:06 I kind of want to do it just to prove them wrong.
00:08 My name is Arum Hamad Alif. I am better known as Alif Hamilton and I race for Team Flash.
00:27 E-racing is basically motor racing like Formula One that you see out in real life,
00:32 but it's in the game, right? It's on the PC.
00:35 Growing up, my parents were bankrupt, so it was always like a bit of a struggle.
00:48 But my parents were great. We never really felt it, me and my brother.
00:52 I've always wanted to be a Formula One driver, but because of the amount of money that's
00:57 required to become a Formula One driver, I could never go near that. But I think that's
01:02 where e-sports came in and kind of like became another avenue for me to be a racer.
01:07 I entered sim racing back in 2009. I believe I was 10, 11 years old. So when Formula One
01:15 first came to Singapore, there was like a road show, right, going on and where they were,
01:21 they had a lot of simulators over there. So I learned how to drive at these road shows.
01:26 So that's how kind of how I got my first start. And then I turned pro in 2018.
01:31 Everyone has the same equipment and oftentimes more than not, it kind of is the best equalizer
01:44 to show who's the fastest driver. So I really always enjoyed that.
01:50 So right now I'm in university in the States through an e-sports scholarship. People told
01:56 me, like, oh, if you're going there to race and study, you're not going to excel in either of
02:02 them. But I took that same thing personally. And I'm like, now I've got a Dean's List twice in a
02:07 row and I've won three championships. So I feel like it's been working out really well.
02:12 So I've won seven Asia-Pacific championships and I've won three American championships.
02:18 The seven Asia-Pacific championships kind of happened after I turned pro in 2018. So every
02:23 year I kind of won one or two. And then when I got the opportunity to go to the States,
02:28 won another three. I always had that fire in me, that attitude where if someone tells me that I
02:34 can't do it, I kind of want to do it just to prove them wrong. So if like anyone just comes up to me
02:39 and like, you can't go faster than me, I'm like, okay, I'll show you. I just feel the speed,
02:45 the sound, the rawness, the emotions of cars in general. It's just all of it. It just combines to
02:52 make that beautiful symphony of like engineering that man has made.
03:00 So my first competition was in 2011 and it was held at Marina Square. It felt quite special
03:12 because I was what, 11, 12 years old. So all these, and I was going up against all the adults
03:19 at that time. So I'll always like look up and I would barely fit in the rig. So they'd always have
03:25 to shift my pedals back every time I do. But at the same time, it was a good challenge because I
03:31 always wanted to be like, you guys may be taller than me, stronger than me, but I still want to
03:36 beat you guys. So I think that's where it all kind of lit up for me. So my IGN is Alif Hamilton. So
03:44 I've always been a Lewis Hamilton fan growing up. The reason was, I think growing up, he was the
03:49 only one who kind of like resembled, looked like me. And he's always been like super supportive.
03:54 Whenever a kid approaches him, he always makes time for him. So I was that kid back then. It was
04:00 at a hotel, the hotel that he was stayed in. My father figured out where he was staying at by
04:05 looking at all the sponsors, they were at the bottom of the website. So we were like the only
04:09 family hanging out at the hotel lobby at like five in the morning waiting for him. Shook his hand,
04:14 I was like, "Yes, I want to be like you." So that was the first thing that came out of my mouth.
04:18 He was like, "You can do it." He told me that if I can do it, you can do it too.
04:22 And don't listen to anyone else who say you can't. Believe in yourself.
04:28 Every Formula One driver out there has a sim at their homes because of how cost effective it is
04:35 to learn a new track and how close it is to reality. And at the same time, they can compete
04:41 with everyone else and kind of own their own skills. So it's very, very important right now.
04:45 I have raced against a few Formula One drivers so far. For example, Max Verstappen. So I raced
04:52 against him in real life in 2015. Romain Grosjean, Sophe Vandon, a few of these really good drivers.
04:59 I mean, obviously it is a game, but you can still learn so much from it that you can apply in your
05:03 life. So in sim racing, we need to tune our own cars, which means that we have to be an engineer
05:09 literally to understand all the different, different parts of the car, suspension, geometry,
05:13 the engine, engine modes, the mix, whatever. So it kind of forces you to learn a lot of different
05:19 stuff that you kind of can carry on to real life. I've lost way more than I've won. The most painful
05:31 ones are the ones that you put in so many hours in, like a month's worth of training only for your
05:38 PC to die. Or your teammate put the car in the wall in the first lap of the race or the endurance
05:44 race. And it can be like a 24-hour race, right? So all these things kind of plays a part. It's
05:50 part of sport. You know, I think every athlete out there has probably lost more than they've won.
05:54 I always treat my losses as a way of learning. So if I ever lose a race, I never feel like giving
06:03 up. It's more of like, I just love to go back and then reanalyze what I did wrong so that I can be
06:09 better in the next race. It's been ingrained in me, that part of me. I never really treat a failure
06:16 like a total failure. Inspiring the younger generation, that's also pretty cool because I
06:23 have all these kids messaging me on Instagram, like, "What are the steps?" Like, asking for tips
06:29 and advice. So I think that's a pretty cool alternative pathway, I would say. I was at some
06:35 sim racing meet and this little kid just ran around. "Alif, yeah, I want to be like you. Can
06:40 you teach me?" I'm like, "Sure." Then I just kind of set him on the rig and showed him a few
06:45 techniques. That was my first time experiencing that, so it was pretty cool. I want to be a world
06:50 champion. So I think that's kind of what I've been working towards. And hopefully, eventually,
06:56 kind of make it to real life racing. But at the same time, if I don't get that opportunity, I'm
07:02 perfectly fine because obviously that wasn't meant to be. I never want my last win to be my peak.
07:08 I always want to make my peak the next one, and then the next one, and the next one. And then,
07:12 obviously, that's like a staircase, right? Just keeps climbing, climbing, climbing. Obviously,
07:17 perfection is almost impossible to achieve, but it's the chase, the dedication, the work to
07:24 hit that perfection.
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