Louis Foster is a 19-year-old British racing driver who competed in the United States for the 2022 season and will do for the 2023 season. Foster raced in the Indy pro 2000 championship for 2022 season with Exclusive Autosport and won the championship. Following this, Foster announced he would be racing in Indy Lights for the 2023 season. Foster has competed in Ginetta Juniors (2017:19th-2018:2nd), Ginetta Junior Winter series (2017:6th), British F4 championship (2019:3rd), MRF Challenge Formula 2000 (2019-2020:10th), BRDC British Formula 3 (2020:3rd), Euroformula Open (2020:12th-2021:2nd), Indy Pro 2000 (2022:1st).
My first questions to Foster were what age he started Karting and what was his first car championship he competed in. He explained "I started Karting when I was 5 years old and started competing in Karting when I was 8 so I just did testing from the age of 5 to 8." Foster then cleared up "when you turn 8 in the UK, you can get your first competition license." He then moved onto my second question about his first car championship which was the Ginetta Juniors championship. He gave me an explanation of his years in the championship saying, "I did 3 rounds in 2017... and did my first full championship in 2018 and won the rookie championship."
Furthermore, before his move to the States, Foster raced in the EuroFormula Open championship. I asked him what the main reason was behind his move to the United States from Europe. He said, "The main reason was because of the Road to Indy and the package that it offers for young drivers and the scholarship money for the champion is something that nobody else in the world is doing." Foster then explained the financial impact of racing and how "difficult to support" racing is and revealed the Road to Indy system is "really, really helpful" and "Indy car is also a great championship."
My next question to Foster was regarding his time in the EuroFormula Open Championship. All of his wins were at Spa-Froncachamps and I asked him if this was his favourite track. To my surprise, he said "It was a little bit bitter for me as I feel we should have had other wins... I wouldn't say it was my favourite track, I enjoyed it because I did well, but it wasn't a track that I was super looking forward to driving." Foster also added that "In EuroFormula because there isn't much horsepower in the car, the straights are very, very long so you just sit on the straights for a while."
Following his move to America this year, I wondered if Louis preferred the tracks in America to the ones he raced at previously in Europe. He answered, "You can't really compare them super closely, the European tracks are quite big and open and obviously F1 spec, so they have to be quite wider and safer." Foster explained that the tracks in America "tend to be a little bit smaller but also can be bigger than British tracks. There is a bit of a mix." He explained how he has "enjoyed the tracks this year 100% especially the ovals have been a challenge and I think it was cool being on the F1 circuits so I would probably say I preferred the European tracks."
When I asked Foster about the transition to America he said, "at the end of the day it's racing... sure there are some slight differences and approaches but it's you and a team."
He concluded by saying, "it was a pretty easy transition." I followed this question up by asking his favourite moment of the 2022 season and he revealed "It would probably be winning the oval race at IRP [Indianapolis Raceway Park] that was quite a special moment as it was very out of the blue and unexpected and a serial moment for myself, it reminds me of Spa 2020 in EuroFormula when I won race 2 and its one of the moments where you don't really believe it because it was so unexpected."
As a result of his experience racing in Europe, I asked Foster if there was a track in Europe, he would like to drive his Exclusive Autosport 2022 car. He replied, "I would probably say Oschersleben in Germany which is quite a small track and we tested at it for pre-season testing and the main reason is a lot of the European tracks are quite big and wide and I definetley enjoy the more twisty and narrow type tracks." Also having raced in the UK for a few years, Foster added, "Oulton Park as its quite a small track whereas somewhere like Spa in the Indy Pro 2000 car wouldn't be amazing."
Finally, I asked Louis if there was a driver who he is inspired by and he revealed, "One who always stands out to me is someone like Prost and Button as I relate to them quite heavily with their style of driving and especially the thinking aspect and they are quite thinking drivers which I have been told that I am." My final question to Foster was what his ultimate goal was in racing, and he concluded, "The end goal is pretty clear which is to be in Indy Car full time as a full-time driver that's the goal to be earning a living racing in Indy Car and living in America."
Thanks again to Louis Foster for allowing me to ask my questions especially as I'm a big fan of his and have been for several years.