Living in Milan, first impressions and crashes: Getting To Know friends Ugo Ugochukwu and James Wharton

Ugo Ugochukwu and James Wharton recently asked spoke about their friendship, their first impressions of each other and what they do together away from the track

While they may all be rivals on track, many of the drivers have formed great friendships off the track – perhaps none more so than Ugo Ugochukwu and James Wharton.

The pair have been close friends for years and recently they talked about their first impressions of the other, their most memorable incidents on track, living close by in Milan and much more.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN EACH OTHER?

James Wharton: Seven, eight years. Since 2018.

Ugo Ugochukwu: The first time we raced each other was in 2018

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE OTHER?

Wharton: He was the silver helmet kid, and he still is.

Ugochukwu: It was normal. A little bit chubby but he was fast.

Wharton: Oh wow. Yeah, he was just the silver helmet kid.

Wharton and Ugochukwu talked about their first impressions of each other

WHAT WAS IT LIKE BEING TEAMMATES?

Ugochukwu: I think it was pretty good to be fair. We had our little crashes here and there though didn’t we.

Wharton: Yeah, we crashed a couple of times but I feel like if you can crash as teammates and still be friends off-track, it shows that the friendship is real.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST CRASH?

Ugochukwu: Kuwait, F4 UAE.

Wharton: F4 UAE, I tried to overtake him and maybe it was a bit too optimistic, but those happen at the start of our careers. Then again, it was my fault a year later in Abu Dhabi. So just Abu Dhabi once a year. Apart from that, it’s good. We’re fast drivers, we made a good team.

Ugochukwu: We were pretty okay one day later.

WHO WAS ON THAT TEAM?

Wharton: Rafa Câmara. The first year was Lindblad, Tuukka and us, and then the second year was Rafa.

The pair talked about some of their on track collisions from their early days in single seater racing

DID ANYBODY ELSE CRASH?

Wharton: Ugo and Arvid crashed and then me and Tuukka crashed for the championship as well.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM EACH OTHER?

Wharton: I’ll go first on this because he might not be able to answer. I don’t know how much I’ve helped him with anything. I feel like his approach to the races, he’s very calm, chilled and I feel like that’s good for racing drivers to be as chilled as possible. He’s obviously very fast, technique-wise as well he’s really good.

Ugochukwu: That’s some valid glaze. James taught me a lot of stuff on and off the track. No I am lying he has not helped me.

Wharton: I need some love right now. I guess I have not taught him anything.

Ugochukwu: No he has taught me a few things, but it’s been so long it’s hard to remember everything but he has helped me a lot on and off the track.

Both drivers recalled a few shared memories from their time together on and off the track

WHAT’S YOUR BEST STORY FROM YOUR TIME KNOWING EACH OTHER?

Wharton: I think 1-2, 1-3 in Monza with Rafa.

Ugochukwu: Yeah 1-2-3, PREMA lockout.

Wharton: Yeah, PREMA lockout, only team to do that in FREC. I think also off the track, just being so close even when we’re not teammates. Being able to live in Milan, live in the same area.

Ugochukwu: That’s one of the things I was going to say as well, we always bump into each other. Same categories, same tracks, doing the same things. I’ve probably seen him more than I’ve seen my family in the last four years.

Wharton: Between our siblings, we’ve seen each other more than we’ve seen our siblings. We’re just brothers.

Both drivers also spoke about what they like to do together away from the track

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO TOGETHER?

Wharton: Our favourite thing to do is just chill at home, listen to some music.

Ugochukwu: Common we need to say something.

Wharton: No but that’s a lot of what we do, just chilling. That’s what we like to do, go out a couple times, nice dinners as well.

Ugochukwu: We are on the sim with each other.

Wharton: That’s true, we actually do heaps of iRacing. That’s something we haven’t talked about. We do quite a bit of iRacing. We have a lot of time, so we do a lot of iRacing.

Ugochukwu: If we are not at the track, we are on the sim together.

Wharton: That’s a good one actually, that’s a good call from you.

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