

IGLESIAS, WINNING THE FIRST KARTING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE AGE OF 33 AND… RESTARTING FROM ZERO!

Despite the innate speed, the world championship victory slipped out of his hands many times in his career and seemed almost unreachable by now. Nevertheless, he took it using all his strength, surprising everybody, probably also himself and his team, Formula K. But the surprises continued even after the victory, when Jeremy, as a fresh world champion, chose to restart from a blank sheet of paper, in a new team. And, to be precise, the team that has won the most in KZ, CRG. For a challenge inside the challenge, which he recounts to us in a long interview
Because Jeremy, with his Formula K powered by TM Racing, becomes world champion for the first time. At 33 years of age, yes. When nobody would have bet one euro anymore, yes. How did he do it? He tells us during a chat that, more than being an interview, is a true journey into the story, the memories, the emotions of a French boy, educated, super fast and, now, also world champion.
You are world champion! Has something changed?
“Yes, something has changed in me. I had a dream when I was a child, which I think every go-kart driver wants to realise one day: become world champion. I needed some time after the race to realise I had done it, but today I realise it well and I’m very happy and proud of this”.
Talking with Jeremy you immediately understand how necessary it was for him to reach this goal, especially in the first years as an official driver. It’s normal, however, that in the course of a long career as his, the real chances of winning are fluctuating and, as he himself says, “some years I found myself going to that race already knowing that, data at hand, I didn’t have the package at the 100% to be able to become world champion”. But, as Jeremy reminds, “the wheel turns”, and competitiveness comes back from 2015: “In Le Mans, considering I had also won the last race of the European championship in Genk that year, I went knowing I had the chance of winning the title”. Nevertheless, it is known that motorsport isn’t an exact science and Jeremy finishes 4th.
You are world champion! Has something changed?
“Yes, something has changed in me. I had a dream when I was a child, which I think every go-kart driver wants to realise one day: become world champion. I needed some time after the race to realise I had done it, but today I realise it well and I’m very happy and proud of this”.
Talking with Jeremy you immediately understand how necessary it was for him to reach this goal, especially in the first years as an official driver. It’s normal, however, that in the course of a long career as his, the real chances of winning are fluctuating and, as he himself says, “some years I found myself going to that race already knowing that, data at hand, I didn’t have the package at the 100% to be able to become world champion”. But, as Jeremy reminds, “the wheel turns”, and competitiveness comes back from 2015: “In Le Mans, considering I had also won the last race of the European championship in Genk that year, I went knowing I had the chance of winning the title”. Nevertheless, it is known that motorsport isn’t an exact science and Jeremy finishes 4th.
The driver realises that having a competitive package under his belt is a priority, so from that moment on “I’ve always focused on having the possibility of having in my hands all the options to become world champion one day”. Therefore, in 2017 Jeremy lands in IPK, starts racing with the Formula K colours and it immediately seems that the technical condition to win is present, but a crash takes him out of the game. And we arrive to 2020, Jeremy needs to deal with a promise he had made to himself: “I’ve always said that ‘at thirty-five years of age I will stop racing’. Not due to a lack of desire, but because I think that at a certain point you need to move on”. Jeremy knows his numbers well: he’s thirty-three years old and “maybe I have three world championships left - he says and continues, sharp - this is the reason for which I bet everything on this world championship”.
And this is the point. Jeremy tells us a great truth, one of those that in motorsports you need to learn sooner or later if you want to win, and that he understood very well on the eve of this world championship: “In a race it’s not the fastest driver who wins, but the strongest one”. Think about it: “the fastest” and “the strongest” are not the same thing. And think about it again: it’s actually not guaranteed that the fastest driver always wins, but it’s sure and certain that who wins is always and only the strongest one, regardless of being the fastest. It may be a banality, but it’s a rule of motorsports that must always be kept in mind. And Jeremy faces the 2020 world championship in Lonato with this concept, which, even if simple and banal, was actually a key point in his victory: “I told myself: ‘I must never give up’”. And so it was.
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