Ultimate Fighting Champions and being the boy from Barbados: Getting to know the real Zane Maloney

27 June 2023

Storming onto the Formula 2 scene with a podium in his maiden Feature Race, Zane Maloney has continued to make waves in his rookie campaign with Rodin Carlin and will be looking to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season.

Before Round 8 gets underway in Spielberg, we got to know more about ‘The Boy From Barbados’. Chatting all about the life on the Caribbean island, the Red Bull junior delved into his love of combat sports, the thrill of racing and why his guilty pleasure food definitely isn’t a fan favourite.

WHERE DO YOU CONSIDER HOME?

“Barbados is my home. I've lived there my entire life and I don't think I will ever call somewhere else home. Barbados is very small, I’m from Christ Church, which is two minutes away from the airport and five minutes from any beach I want to go to, so it’s really nice. Oistins is very close, which is a very nice place to get fish from and go out with the family. I’d say I’m probably from the most touristy area around there on the island.”

OUTSIDE OF MOTORSPORT, WHICH SPORTSPERSON DO YOU ADMIRE?

“I admire quite a few athletes in general, but I would say in terms of making a statement in his sport, it would have to be Conor McGregor. He came into the UFC with no money, worked very hard to make his dream happen, shock the world and made the UFC so much bigger.”

WHO ARE YOU FRIENDS WITH ON THE GRID?

“Of course, I have the little shark as he calls himself - Enzo (Fittipaldi) my teammate and I’d say we’re quite good friends. Roman (Stanek) was my teammate last year, so we get along really well. In general, I would say most drivers get along with each other. Of course, when we get on track we’re trying to beat each other, but there’s a bit of friendship between everyone, but I would say those two are the ones I’m closest with because I know them the best and I’ve been teammates with them.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHEAT MEAL?

“I would have said pineapple on pizza weeks ago, but that one went crazy on social media, so I'll say probably sushi. If I go eat fast food, the next day I don't feel very good. Every time I go home, which is maybe three or four times a year, they have sushi ready for me. I go straight from the airport to Naru and pick up my sushi, I mostly have chicken sushi, which is fake sushi, but it’s still amazing.”

IF YOU COULD GO BACK TO ANY MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

“Anytime you win a race, that moment from when you cross the line until you leave the track are the best two to three hours that you can feel. I have great moments from my life in general, like being with my family on Christmas Day, but to be honest, I’m a racing driver. I feel best when I win a race and the next few hours after that.

"Spa last year is probably the one that stands out. I had the big crash on Saturday, so I wasn’t feeling good with the DNF and a broken car. The team had no sleep and then to come back and win the race was amazing. Two years ago, I would have said Monaco and now I say Spa. Hopefully, I win a race this year and that’ll probably be the one because it gets more and more important.”

IF YOU WEREN’T A DRIVER, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

“I love fighting, so UFC. I would love to have a go at that, but I can’t because I might get injured, so I can’t even train too much. Even today, I was wrestling against my engineer for fun. I love wrestling and fighting, but I’m not sure if I would be a great fighter or if I’m just a great watcher of fighting.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE AND TV SERIES?

“I’m an outdoors person, but anytime I put a series on Netflix, I’ll stay up until 5AM that night watching it, so I try not to watch any moves or TV. I’d say Outer Banks – they came to Barbados and actually filmed a quarter to half of the series there, so I saw them filming as well. Some of my friends were in it as background characters and it’s cool to see it go from being filmed to what it becomes on screen.”

WHAT WAS THE LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO?

“I couldn’t tell you; I don’t listen to much music either. A lot of drivers I find really need certain music to get them in the right mood for the race, but that doesn’t work for me. I just put on my headphones and put on any music, more so not to hear the cars being started up in the background because it becomes quite loud. Probably I Am A Bajan by Rupee, who’s a Barbadian singer, I posted that on my Instagram and it gets me laughing, it’s quite cool.”

FUNNIEST OR MOST EMBARASSING THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?

“Spinning in Imola last year has to be the most embarrassing thing I’ve done. When I spun, I just wanted to sit there for the rest of the race, I didn’t even want to go back to the team because I couldn’t believe what happened. I’ve learnt from that, it was the difference in the Championship, but I can laugh about it now!”

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM BIRTHDAY CAKE?

“I’m quite a plain person, so I’d just have vanilla cake with some icing on top. I actually don’t like cake that much; I would much prefer an Oreo or normal cheesecake. Cake can be too sweet, but I would go plain with vanilla, I’m quite a boring person when it comes to these things.”

FAVOURITE RACING MEMORY?

“When I go back to Barbados or anywhere in the Caribbean and I race for fun, obviously those are the most fun times because there's no pressure. There's no one looking on, there's no one judging your performance. Of course, I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s a lot lower level compared to racing in Europe, so I can go out there more.

“It’s the one or two days that I don’t even think about how good I’m driving, I can just drive the car. The crowd in Barbados are amazing. Those are really, really fun weekends because I can get to know everyone in the crowd and just have some fun.”

WHAT’S YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

“I have a Rolex, I got it for myself to remember F3 last year. That was the reasoning in my head, it emptied my pockets! I did some work in the UK for my management and I was able to get a Rolex, so I make sure that if it’s on me, I’m wearing it. I’m not leaving it anywhere unless I’m in the car, not putting it anywhere and I can’t lose that because that’s my life.”

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?

“When you're trying to make it Formula 1 and you have so many amazing people around you, you get a lot of advice and a lot of good advice. In terms of what has been the truest is my manager telling me - shut up and drive, brake properly, be calm, drive the car and everything will be good. It's really easy to overthink in racing. It's really easy to go through a lap before Qualifying too much so when you get on the track, you're actually quite confused. Stop thinking, brake properly, do the basics right and you'll be fast on track, that's what the is the truest throughout my career.”

FAVOURITE PLACE YOU’VE BEEN TO AND ONE PLACE YOU’D LIKE TO VISIT?

“Favourite place I've ever been to would’ve been Monaco, but we didn't end up staying in Monaco. We were just there for the race, so I can't say Monaco. I went to North Carolina with my family and that was really cool, we saw bears. I’d say North Carolina, in the mountains away from the city with the family was really nice.

“The one place that I want to go, to be honest I quite like keeping things normal in Barbados, I love the home life. We go to so many places throughout the world with racing, but we don't get to see any of it. If I was able to see Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Abu Dhabi, all those places, then I'm sure it would be amazing, but we're just at the racetrack or at the hotel, so we don't see much. Maybe I'd like to go somewhere in Africa, go on a safari. I’ve done one in the US, but I’m sure it’s a lot better in Africa.”