Radio mishaps and being business savvy: Getting to know the real Ralph Boschung

14 March 2023

As the newest addition to the Formula 2 winners’ list, we thought it was high time we found out more about Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung.

Ahead of Round 2 in Jeddah, we caught up with the Swiss racer who explained how every day is a cheat meal day and why Ralph Boschung – Team Principal has a nice ring to it.

WHERE DO YOU CONSIDER HOME?

“Monaco - I live there and it’s a nice place to train, a good place to meet interesting people, but I still prefer Switzerland because it’s my home country.”

OUTSIDE OF MOTORSPORT, WHICH SPORTSPERSON DO YOU ADMIRE?

“Usain Bolt. To be honest, I don’t really watch other sports, but I remember when I was a kid, I watched the athletics sometimes and there was always Usain running so quickly. Then I watched a documentary about him one day and I just liked his determination. He’s just a cool guy.”

WHO ARE YOU FRIENDS WITH ON THE GRID?

“We haven’t really started yet, so I haven’t had time to make friends yet with the new guys. Clément Novalak’s a cool guy, my teammate Kush Maini is a cool guy, everybody’s cool! Oliver Goethe's also a nice guy and a friend, but he's racing in F3."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CHEAT MEAL?

“I don’t have cheat meals because I cheat every day, so I just eat whatever I like. My favourite thing to eat is pasta bolognese with a lot of cheese.”

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

“When I started doing everything by myself in my racing career when I was like 15 years old, I’d like to go back and change a few things.”

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

“I’d clearly be running a business, which I’m kind of doing already now. Probably I would be doing something motorsport-related but on the business side of things - managing a team, owning a team or managing drivers anything like that, you’ll see that happen.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE OR TV SERIES?

“The Wolf of Wall Street and You, it’s pretty cool.”

WHAT WAS THE LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO?

“I don’t even know the name of the song because usually I don’t listen to the lyrics. It’s usually like house music without lyrics. It’s called Pure by Rezident.”

FUNNIEST OR MOST EMBARASSING THING YOU’VE EVER DONE?

“I’ve done a lot of funny and embarrassing things that’s for sure, I actually probably still do them every day. Once, I went in the car without my radio system and I started the race without the radio. I kept doing radio checks to the engineer and I started shouting that he should turn on his radio, but I didn’t have my mic in my helmet, so that was nice and embarrassing."

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM BIRTHDAY CAKE?

“Black Forest gateau.”

FAVOURITE RACING MEMORY?

“It’s not one particular race, but just the start of last season. The first three to four races were really nice and felt really good.”

WHAT’S YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION?

“I have a chain that was made by one of my sponsors. It’s a personalised gold chain with my initials on it, my blood group and a lion’s face. You can turn it around and then you have the mountains where I was born, so that’s something very personal that I received two years ago, and I value it a lot.”

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?

“I’ve received so many really good pieces of advice. One bit of advice was if you compare yourself to most people or you think about what others think about you, we’re all basically the same. You should never lose self-confidence, it’s very important.”

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

“I love Austria because it’s a bit like Switzerland with the mountains. I would love to go to New Zealand, so Marcus Armstrong has to invite me at some point, but I know he’s in the US now.

“I’m looking forward to going to Australia because I’ve never been there before, so I think it’s going to be quite nice.”