Breaking records and battling Fernando Alonso: Théo Pourchaire on the moments that made him

20 June 2022

Formula 2’s youngest polesitter and race winner has had plenty of career highlights already but 18-year-old Théo Pourchaire is only just getting started.

We chatted to the ART Grand Prix driver to find out which ones truly stand out, from his first single-seater title to unknowingly fighting on track with a Formula 1 legend.

MY FIRST F2 WIN

“Last year in Monaco was a big, big step forward in my career. For a lot of people, they didn't know me before that and it's just a simple victory - it was just a Feature Race victory, but it was Monaco. I became the youngest-ever winner there, the youngest-ever polesitter - it changed a lot of things.

“It was my first time racing in Monaco and it was in F2, so it was not an easy weekend. But I did it, I don't know how but I did it and it was amazing.

“I hope I will do the same on every race to build that driver I want to be, that young, winning driver that everyone knows from Monaco.”

RACING AGAINST FERNANDO ALONSO

“In 2017, I was driving in OK Senior in karting and there was a race in Oviedo, which is Fernando Alonso’s racetrack with his museum and everything. I was testing there for the race. It was raining, it was sometimes a bit dry but very cold and I was alone on track.

“I was driving on the track and suddenly I saw someone cutting the track, which was a bit strange, with a KZ shifter kart. I saw he had the helmet of Fernando Alonso, but it looked like it was a fake helmet. 

“First, I thought it was a fan of Fernando Alonso doing crazy things on the track, but he was waiting for me. He wanted to overtake me, he wanted to push me, wanted to fight with me on the track, which was amazing. He came back into the pits with me, and I was just surprised because as soon as he opened his visor and he spoke to me, it was Alonso. 

Despite this, Pourchaire admits he was more of a Schumacher fan growing up.

“That time I will remember for my life. It's just amazing, Fernando Alonso was just having fun with me. It was super chill - I didn't know I was driving with him!”

WINNING THE GERMAN F4 TITLE

“In 2019, my F4 title in Germany. It was a big moment as well, my first championship in single-seaters. I won the Junior F4 Championship, French F4 Championship but I mean the first real big one was the German Championship with a lot of very good drivers - Dennis Hauger, Gianluca Petecof, Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault (now Alpine) Academy drivers.

“It was a very, very high-level championship and I won it at the end of the last race. I learned a lot of things from that and that helped me to go to Formula 3 with ART. It's not easy to go from F4 to F3 and to go in a top team like ART, you need to have a good career. You need to prove that you are a good driver, that you deserve the seat and that title helped me a lot.  I'm very happy, very happy about that and it will be my first-ever title forever. “