Britain’s youngest racing driver is a four-year-old who can drive a go kart at 34mph before he can read and write.
Little Raef Virdee has only just started school, and is already being tipped to become a future racing star.
Raef takes driving lessons every week at MPH Karting Academy, Solihull, West Mids., watched on by his proud parents Lionel and Armadeep.
The pint-sized speedster got into racing after watching F1 on TV with Lionel, 35.
The property developer said: “I think racing is in our DNA. My dad worked at Jaguar developing engines and I’ve always loved cars.
Little Raef Virdee has only just started school, and is already being tipped to become a future racing star.
Raef takes driving lessons every week at MPH Karting Academy, Solihull, West Mids., watched on by his proud parents Lionel and Armadeep.
The pint-sized speedster got into racing after watching F1 on TV with Lionel, 35.
The property developer said: “I think racing is in our DNA. My dad worked at Jaguar developing engines and I’ve always loved cars.
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm Rafe, I'm four years old, and I race go-karts.
00:09My name's Lionel, I'm Rafe's father.
00:11And I'm Amadip, and I'm Rafe's mother.
00:13We started Rafe at two years old in an electric kart that we just bought online.
00:18We started driving it around the dining table, didn't we?
00:21Yeah.
00:22And then you wanted to race, so we had to get another one.
00:25And then we all started driving around together, didn't we?
00:29The table one was like NASCAR.
00:32A little bit like NASCAR, yeah, it goes round and over.
00:35And then from then, we built a track outside and, yeah, upped the speed on the kart so it was a little bit quicker.
00:42And then that was too slow, so then we bought another one, which was bigger, a bit more powerful.
00:47And then, yeah, eventually when he was able to get into a proper go-kart, we got in touch with Harry at MPH Academy.
00:55And, yeah, started at the beginning of the year.
00:58Satin?
00:59Yeah, I think Satin Hill was the track we sat on.
01:01Lionel's much better at handling it.
01:03I think it took me a little bit of adjustment, but when I see him on the track and how well he responds to his coaches, his training,
01:12and, you know, just generally he listens to instructions so well, I think with all of that it's made me feel a lot more at ease and confident.
01:21I think at the start I was definitely a little bit nervous.
01:24But when I looked at how professional the training was with the coaches at MPH, they put health and safety right at the top, so that put me at ease.
01:34And I feel like he understands that, you know, when he's in the kart, that safety is very, very important and that he listens.
01:42All of that combined has just made me feel a lot more confident when he is in there because I feel like he actually takes the knowledge in properly.
01:50What's your favourite thing about racing in the go-karts?
01:54The go-karts are really fast.
01:57How fast can you go?
02:0040 miles an hour.
02:02Wow.
02:04What was it like on the track today?
02:07The go-kart was fast, and I didn't know how he did the understeers, and I don't know how I speeded.
02:16And what do you think of your coaches?
02:20They're nice.
02:23Would you like to be a racing driver when you grow up?
02:26Yes.
02:27Yeah? Who's your favourite racing driver at the moment?
02:29Charles Leclerc.
02:30Who?
02:31Charles Leclerc.
02:33Charles Leclerc.
02:34You know, you never know what to expect with your children, what they're going to be into, what they like, what they enjoy.
02:41You know, we've started Rafe with racing, and he's really enjoying it.
02:45He's really showing a lot of promise and talent and commitment.
02:50And, yeah, really, really excited for his future.