About/Portfolio

The year was 1998. My father had recently invested in his first ever video game console, the Sony PlayStation, and at the age of five I was already becoming enamoured by games such as Crash Bandicoot and PaRappa the Rapper.

Soon, I was also introduced to Formula 1 98, which was what originally sparked a curiosity in Formula One. Playing on the PlayStation soon spilled over into watching Grands Prix on television, at which point I began to take a liking to ice-cool Finn Mika Hakkinen and - by extension - a disliking to his arch-rival, Michael Schumacher.

My father and I were fortunate enough to be invited as guests of McLaren to the British Grand Prix in 2001, which not only well and truly hooked me to the F1 drug but also led to me gaining an interest in the wider motorsport ecosphere often overlooked by some fans of the sport.

Though Schumacher's domination in 2002 severely tested my then-limited attention span, the rather more exciting 2003 season assured the sport of a devoted lifelong fan. Subscribing to Autosport magazine that year made me an even more informed spectator, and since then, scarcely a day has passed where I haven't researched some new fact or statistic about the sport.

As my motorsport knowledge deepened, it became clear to me that my future lay there in some form. Despite dabbling in go-karting, I knew I didn't have what it took to be a successful driver, and so I turned to journalism as a means by which I could one day become a paddock insider.

Establishing this blog at the start of 2010 has been the first real step towards achieving this goal, allowing me to refine my writing style and begin to gain a little exposure. My first interview was with Le Mans legend Derek Bell, whom I interviewed in the summer of 2010 as part of an A-level project on the state of endurance racing.

Upon joining Exeter University in 2011, I became the F1 and motor-racing correspondent for the student newspaper Exeposé, and I was elected as online editor for the paper's sports section the following year, a position I held for two years.

I also made a number of appearances on the university radio station, Xpression FM, regularly contributing motorsport news and opinion to the station's sports programming, as well as arranging a series of F1-themed shows featuring interviews with Ted Kravitz, Andrew van de Burgt and Ed Foster.

Shortly before graduating from university, I began doing regular freelance work for the magazine I had enjoyed reading so much during my formative years, Autosport, an opportunity I was offered off the back of two successful work experience stints with the magazine. I have also written numerous features for the now-defunct SportOnTap.com and, more recently, Motorsport.com.

Samples of my work, as well as contact details, can be found on my LinkedIn profile.