Spreading time in New York and Milan and playing multiple sports: Behind the Visor with Ugo Ugochukwu

30 April 2026

Ugo Ugochukwu leads the way in the Drivers’ Championship as we prepare to go back to racing in Monte Carlo soon, and his sights will be set on another victory.

However there is more to the Campos Racing driver than motorsport, and in his edition of Behind the Visor, he shares how he spends his time away from the racetrack.

SWITCHING OFF BETWEEN RACES

“I'd say I do a lot of the same things at home that I do at the track. I think your mind goes away from racing, but not fully.

“I still like to do some work on the sim, some training, and then I just chill. There's not much to it. I like sports in general, so I play quite a bit of football and tennis with all my mates.

“Some people play golf every day, but I don't really have a hobby that I like as much as racing.

“With training in the gym, it depends, but definitely at least two, three times a week, and then it just depends on racing. Obviously on race week, way less, because you're already travelling on a Wednesday. But on the time off, I'd say probably around three times.”

Ugochukwu admits he does not like doing anything else as much as racing

PLAYING DIFFERENT SPORTS

“I think I'm probably not good enough in football to have gone pro. Just not good enough. My brother plays football, he's better than me, so I think I chose the right sport.

“I’m not good enough at tennis either. In basketball I've got the proportions. I can jump, just don't ask me to stand behind the three-point line.

“I can dunk pretty easily, but it’s always, ‘If I was your height, I'd be in the NBA’.”

SPLITTING TIME BETWEEN AMERICA AND ITALY

“My family support me quite a lot with racing. Most of the time they're out here watching and they'll be with me between the US and Italy.

“Obviously, I spend more time in Italy just because for the racing it’s where I need to be in the off-season, I do go back as well and spend time in New York.

The Campos driver shares his time in Italy and in America

EXPLORING DURING RACE WEEKENDS

“I keep it fairly simple on race weekends. But it honestly depends because we have some weekends like Melbourne where we're there for a little bit longer. So there's definitely more time to do stuff.

“You get there like maybe the Sunday before just to get into the time zone. So then there's definitely a few more things to do, but these European races are just kind of straight to business and you want to get to the hotel and get to bed as early as possible.

“It's not always possible to switch off because but I feel like it depends on what point you are in the season. But for me you're always thinking about the next thing to come.

“So it's not the easiest. I think our calendar is a bit more chill at the start of the year. So there's actually quite a bit of a break, but I think once you get to Europe, it’s back-to-back every other week.

“So I think you're just, you're just fully focused on that till August. In the summer I think just go on holiday and then you can switch off properly. But I think in that phase, you're just always thinking about racing and more racing.”