F1 Academy driver Chloe Chong shares the advice Lewis Hamilton gave her: 'I get goosebumps thinking about it'

Yahoo

4 days ago

F1 Academy driver Chloe Chong is thinking about her next moves — both on and off the racetrack.
The British-Canadian teenager was just 16 during the inaugural F1 Academy season in 2023. Today, at age 18, Chong is still learning how to balance life as a teenager with that of a high-performance athlete.
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"There's one part of your life where you're an athlete and you're very focused" on training, media commitments, sponsorship deals, as well as your sport, Chong told Yahoo Canada. But "there's another side of yourself that is just a normal teenager."
"A lot of athletes sometimes feel limited by their sport, that competitive side of their life," she said. "They feel like if they take time to do stuff they really want to do, it shows that they're not trying enough, or they're not working hard enough.
"For me, I've realized that working hard is one part, but I also need to be able to do the things I want to do and not get overly invested in my sport." If you get overly invested, you try too hard. And if you fall out of love with it, "it all goes downhill."
Racing in the #27 Charlotte Tilbury car operated by Rodin Motorsport, Chong is still very much invested — and in love — with racing.
When you're in the thick of it, when you're competing against some of the best and fastest drivers out there, "the whole world slows down," she said. "You don't think about anything except your feelings in the car. That's what keeps me going."
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F1 Academy is an all-female racing series launched in 2023 by Formula 1 to develop and promote young female drivers in the motorsport industry. The Formula 4-level racing series recently partnered with Netflix for a new docuseries, F1: The Academy, which shines a light on one of the world's most demanding sports.
Chong, who is nicknamed "Miss Second Place" among her peers, said it was fellow driver Lewis Hamilton who told her "don't let anyone tell you no."
"He said, 'nothing's easy. Nothing good comes easily,' which applies to my journey into racing," Chong told Yahoo Canada. So far, in the 2025 season, with eight races behind her, she is sitting in 11th place with 11 points.
His advice "taught me to keep tenacity and keep looking forward and not look back at the mistakes I've made, because everyone makes the same mistakes." Hamilton, who competes in Formula One for Ferrari, "was so inspiring to me," she said. "I get goosebumps thinking about it."
Still in the early stages of her F1 Academy racing career, Chong said the nickname motivates her to work hard and push herself to "always do better."
"Every driver in the championship that I'm racing in will not accept second place as a victory," she said. You always want P1 [first place]. You want world records. You want something above what you've already got. And that's what keeps the sport very interesting, because you're always looking for more."
From her "game-changing" tinted moisturizer to her "go-to" pair of workout leggings, here are five things F1 Academy driver Chloe Chong is Adding to Cart.
Cookie Box Crochet Kit for Beginners
"[My mom] thinks I'm really uncoordinated," so getting into crocheting "started off as a bit of a joke," just to prove her wrong, Chong said.
She said she initially got the kit from Amazon and bet that she could finish it in one day. After that, "it just became a thing."
On travel days, you can spend three to four hours driving to a track or nine hours on a plane, so crocheting is something that's "easy to do" to pass the time, Chong told Yahoo Canada over a video call. "It's a bit mindless" and helps "take my mind off" things.
"My mini goal is to hopefully make [crochet] animals for most of the team that work with me," she said. "I've already made animals for my engineer, for one of the mechanics, and I'm starting to work on something for another engineer."
"It's just a little something for everyone on the team," she continued. "I'm incredibly grateful to have them around and working so hard on my car."
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Representing Charlotte Tilbury has been the "biggest privilege," Chong told Yahoo Canada.
"I've never been the girliest of girls and I've never been that girl who is super interested in makeup," she said. That said, "I really, really like the [Healthy Glow Tinted Moisturizer] and the [Airbrush Flawless Waterproof Setting Spray]."
While "I'm not one to put on loads of makeup," the tinted moisturizer is "honestly game-changing."
Skincare-wise, Chong said Charlotte Tilbury's famous Magic Cream has helped her skin stay "consistent" and combat any irritation that her racing helmet causes.
"A lot of damage happens to your skin because there's so much friction between the helmet and your cheeks," she explained. Before adopting the Magic Cream in her routine, "I would come home after race weekend and have massive spots on my cheeks and break out everywhere."
This year, since incorporating the anti-aging cream in her routine, "I don't think I've had a single experience of that. My skin has stayed quite consistent."
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"I found that with an Apple Watch, I was getting really distracted by all the ping notifications and games. With the Whoop, there's no screen, no nothing, no BS, in other words, but again, it gives me really good data on how I've recovered I am in terms of heart rate variability and how much sleep I've had and the quality of my sleep," Chong told Yahoo Canada.
"It has a cool alarm feature where it vibrates as an alarm, so you just tap it twice to stop the alarm, which I find quite simple."
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"I love Lululemon because I'm quite a small, small girl, so it fits my shape well."
"All Lululemon leggings are great," she said. "I've never had leggings that fit so well."
Chong said that what usually "annoys" her about leggings is "they start sliding down." But she's "never had a problem" with these Lululemon ones, which she calls "her go-to."
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"I love headphones, I love music," the F1 Academy driver said. "I keep a good two sets of headphones in my bag and I actually have another set of headphones in my race bag, as well.
"I'm a bit of a music geek and they're all different sets of headphones. One set I've tried recently is the [Beats Powerbeats Pro 2]. They have a heart rate sensor in the ear, and they're really, really good," she said, adding that "they don't fall out."