LMP3 has always been a category that draws the best young talent looking to further their career in ACO rules racing and 17-year-old Kai Askey scored a podium finish on his ELMS debut in Spain.
After a season in the 2021 British F4 Championship, where he scored 5 podium finishes with Carlin, the young British/Singaporean driver raced for TS Corse in the 2022 Michelin Le Mans Cup before joining Inter Europol Competition for the 2023 season.
Askey raced for the Polish team in the Asian Le Mans Series, finishing 11thoverall. However, his ELMS campaign got off to a great start after being classified 2nd in Barcelona alongside his teammates Miguel Cristovao from Portugal and American Wyatt Brichachek.
Q) Hi Kai, tell us a little about yourself please, what you like to do away from the circuit, who you are and how you approach your racing career?
Kai Askey: “Well, for starters I’m 17 years old and live in the UK, was born in the UK and am half Singaporean. I’m in my first year of college and I am doing a Creative Media L3 Diploma (Film & Arts Etc), which would be Year 12 in school terms.
“I really enjoy playing games on my PC at home with my schoolmates, games such as Valorant and Trackmania. I also spend quite a lot of my time on my simulator, typically using Rfactor 2 to get some good practice in before the season.
“Music wise I’m all over the place: D&B, Hyperpop, Pop, J-Pop. Enjoy watching anime in my free time too, one of my favourites: CYBERPUNK Edgerunners. Obviously, I spend time at the gym as well with my trainer Danilo who has really helped me physically in the past few years and has prepared me extremely well for the season. Typical 17 year old to be honest, nothing special!”
Q) You have just had your first race in the European Le Mans Series with Inter Europol Competition, and you and your teammates Miguel and Wyatt secured a great second position in the #13 Ligier. How did the pre-season testing, and Asian Le Mans Series help you prepare for this, summer series?
KA: “As a whole, we have worked extremely well in pre-season to get to the pace we are at now. Wyatt, Miguel, and I have been on the simulator a lot which has helped big time going into the race weekends, allowing us to be on the pace of the guys that have been doing it for years. I did two races last year with TS-Corse in Le Mans Cup which helped me quite a lot with getting used to the car, and mostly the atmosphere. It was a huge change to get used to everything compared to F4 as it’s a very different ecosystem, and I have to say I quite enjoy it! These two races were productive, working with my teammate Pietro and the TS-Corse team really helped introduce me with the LMP3 car and the normal procedures.
“A few months later we entered the Asian Le Mans series, where I first met my teammates Wyatt and Miguel. The whole Inter Europol Competition team was very welcoming and extremely professional from the get-go. In our first few races in AsLMS we made quite a few mistakes here and there but this allowed all of us to learn as a team what our weaknesses were and fix it. I’ve learnt a lot working with my teammates so far and I’m really looking forward to the next few races with them! The Inter Europol Competition team has been doing an amazing job throughout, and we’re all working together to produce amazing results, such as the most recent one!”
Q) The #13 was a championship challenger in 2022, and the results in Spain confirm that it is once again. How do you now approach the next few rounds knowing that you are in contention?
KA: “I think we just need to keep this momentum up that we have now, and especially with the pace that we had in Barcelona shows the pace of our car. I’m confident that we have a potential championship-winning car and will prove this with the help of my teammates and the whole Inter Europol Competition team.”
Q) If there was one thing you could change from the Barcelona race weekend, what would it be?
KA: “I think our tyre situation was a bit different with the rest, with myself and Wyatt running the opposite tyre configuration as the other teams, which may have made a difference, but I think it was a right call anyway. The only thing we could have hoped for was myself to somehow pit just before FCY like the other teams, but this was impossible with the amount of fuel I had left in the car!
“This allowed the other teams to gain a significant advantage and was extremely frustrating for us as we knew we were in the clear beforehand. We all did an amazing job with very good points on the board, so everything is positive for all of us going into round two.”
Q) With the cancellation of the Imola race, there is a gap now until the next round of the European Le Mans Series, tell us about your test programme and what else you will be up to before the Le Castellet round in mid-July.
KA: “We have been testing in Motorland Aragon, preparing for round three of the series. This will be good to prepare for more night racing, similar to what we did in the Asian Le Mans Series. Lower temps may come into mind which could be interesting with the tyre wear situation and maybe other aspects too. Always better to get some track time in before race weekends, the more the better!
“With this long break, we will also be on the simulator quite a lot, testing out many situations such as qualifying runs and high-fuel race runs, giving us a better understanding and feeling of the car under those scenarios.”
