Yes, the headline to this feature may sound like a bold claim. And, yes, we are talking about a driver with only one full season of car racing under their belt. But there’s undoubtedly something special about Freddie Slater’s glittering career to date.
It’s rare for a driver to combine remarkable talent behind the wheel – a plethora of top karting titles and his domination of the Ginetta Junior field last year demonstrate that – with the right backing and people around them to make it all the way to the very top of the sport. Slater ticks all of those boxes, and that’s what makes him such an exciting prospect.
It’s certainly no surprise that the 15-year-old has entered the world of motorsport. His father Adrian – managing director of luxury bath and beauty brand Baylis & Harding and a huge supporter of UK racing, who donated tens of thousands of bottles of hand sanitiser to Motorsport UK during the pandemic – is a long-time Porsche competitor, and Slater’s godfather is another leading figure in the Porsche world, Mark Sumpter. Slater Jr therefore grew up around motorsport and soon began karting.
“I got my first go-kart when I just turned five and I loved it so much and I started racing,” he recalls. “It’s mad to think where I started and the level where I’m at now – I never expect things too much. I started getting good results in Cadets and it started to rocketship from there. It’s been a hell of a journey.”
That journey has taken him around the globe, and Slater has enjoyed karting success on the American, European and World stage. One of his most notable achievements was becoming the 2020 Junior World Karting champion, defeating Formula 1 team juniors Arvid Lindblad and Ugo Ugochukwu. His karting glory even continued into last year – alongside his Ginetta Junior competition, he secured the European KZ2 crown in summer 2023.
Given all that success, there was, unsurprisingly, already a lot of hype surrounding Slater when he made his Ginetta debut with the leading R Racing squad at Snetterton in 2022, the sixth round of the season. But, considering his rivals had at least half a year of car racing experience – some far more – a best result of seventh hinted at Slater’s potential. He does admit, though, that the switch from karts to cars was tricky to begin with.
“The Ginetta Junior car is so sensitive, also it’s not got a lot of power and it’s on road tyres so it’s really hard to drive,” states Slater. “The transition to cars is a completely different ballgame because everything is so different. When I moved out of karting, I thought I could take a few things – and you can take the general feeling of what the car’s doing and a bit of racecraft – but, otherwise, you have to learn from scratch again. I did the last three rounds and we were OK but I wasn’t mega in qualifying.”
Source: Autosport