Grégoire Saucy: My Greatest Influences

23 August 2023

Leading ART Grand Prix’s charge this season, Grégoire Saucy sits on the cusp of achieving a top 10 finish to round out his 2023 campaign at the season finale in Monza next weekend.

Before the Swiss driver takes to the Italian track, Saucy details who he admires and those who have supported him from his earliest racing days, including how motorsport has become a family project.

HIS FAMILY

“It started for me when I was three years old when my two older brothers did karting and because I didn’t reach the pedals, they had to make a really small kart for me. My two brothers and my parents did everything for me during all of my career until now. They tried to do everything, like when I needed some help from them, they just did it. I just want to thank them for that because without them I would not be here now.

“At the start it was just for fun and then we started getting faster and faster. At first, my mum was a bit scared but then she got over it. Now I still have the same support them and from everyone – my parents, my two brothers and now I also have my stepsister and my little niece. It’s great, we are really close as a family, so it’s helped me quite a lot every time. During the season, one of my brothers comes to the races and the other goes to a few of them. Also, my dad and mum will try to come to watch me at the end of the year, so it’s really great and it helped to push me quite a lot.

“We get competitive quite a lot! My brothers and I still go karting and we have a goal, if I say it, they won’t be happy but it’s okay (laughs). I need to pull more than a one second gap to them, but I am always one second faster than them. If they go just under the second, then they win. We always drive together and try to have some fun.”

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HIS SPONSOR

“I have a lot of sponsors, but without Dominique Guenat (co-founder of Richard Mille) I would not be here. He’s fully confident with me and try to help me, listen to me, and discuss everything. He’s helped me quite a lot during my career, not only with money, but in another way. So, he’s a really good person and has been really helpful for me.

“They started sponsoring me in 2017, so it’s been six years already. Their support has been quite big for me because we are always close, like now for example, I just received a message five minutes ago from him. He calls me all the time during the weekend, so we get closer and closer each time so it’s really nice.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER

“For sure, I looked up to Michael Schumacher. I really liked watching him when I was quite small and I really liked what he did, he won everything at the end. He was really aggressive in every condition but he was also working like a German person being really strict and really on everything, which I really liked. It gave me some ideas on how to do things the same way he did.

“He’d always have time for the fans, but at the same time, he was really focused on only one thing – the driving. A favourite race of his that stands out and is the one thing in my mind was Hockenheim, where it was close to wet at the start of the race and he was coming back lap by lap to win the race.”