Rowan Campbell-Pilling, the Sheffield-born racing driver, has already made a name for himself as one of British motorsport’s fastest young talents. A former UK Junior Karting Champion and the youngest-ever National Series winner at the age of 14. He stormed into the FIA British F4 Championship in 2024 with record-breaking performances, podium finishes, and was the first rookie to win the Pirelli Hardest Charger Award. Now 18 and racing with JHR Developments, Rowan is consistently fast, fearless, and focused on the track toward his Formula 1 dream.
Interview by Sam Clark
When Rowan was still a baby, I met Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen. They’d just stepped out of their cars and were walking back to the McLaren trailer after a final qualifying session at Silverstone. Heikki had secured pole position, with Lewis Hamilton qualifying fourth (he went on to win the next day in what many still call one of his greatest drives). I was as excited as a kid drinking Red Bull in a high-octane toy shop. Lewis and Heikki were the most perfect examples of human beings I have ever met. They were calm, collected and super cool. Seemingly oblivious to the speed and adrenaline of what they had just done. Maybe that is what enables them to do what they do, and I regularly crash on my sofa driving an Xbox.
Have you ever noticed at the Sports Personality of the Year awards how the F1 drivers always exude a sleek, elegant air while the ‘Colin McRae’s’ have a wild electricity about them (the Superbike lads look like they’ve just been let out of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, but that is another story).
Rowan already carries the steely poise of a pro on his young shoulder’s, but it’s mixed with an infectious enthusiasm. He has friendly openness and is generous to share his time and journey in a sport he clearly loves.
Top of My Christmas Wish List
‘When I grow up, I want to be a racing driver!’, I declare as I clamber out of the simulator at JHR Developments. A retired F4 body sits in the centre of a wrap-around projector screen. It’s like strapping yourself into a giant Xbox, and it’s absolutely brilliant! My son and I (I couldn’t not take my son with me on this day out!) had been invited to the JHR HQ to blast out a few laps in their simulator and meet Rowan to see how the professionals do it.
My son’s unflinching voice of reason brought me straight back down to earth, kindly pointing out, ‘Let’s face it, you’re never going to grow up’
Another Day In The Office
The simulator is Rowan’s office. He spends hours repeating virtual laps while his race engineer pores over the graphs and analytics fed back to the screens around him, detailing every millimetre and every fraction of a second. When you’re racing at the top levels, the finest adjustment, or smallest mistake, can produce or loose the greatest results.
RCP: The idea is to put in place the muscle memory and mental discipline so that we can go out and do five laps within a 10th of each other and be consistent that whole time.
Racing in F4 everyone has the same car. The set-up can be finely tuned for certain tracks or conditions but the aim is to provide a level playing field. With the parameters this close, the drivers skill is tested to the limit.
SC: How do you drive a perfect lap time after time?
RCP: Before every race weekend I write detailed notes on every corner and drive it over and over in the sim.
Hitting Your Apples
SC: So, you’re not hitting a corner as fast as you can and hanging on?
RCP: There are four main points in a corner. Your breaking point, turning point, apex and exit. I imagine there are apples on each point, something I learnt at the Arden Motorsport academy, and I’m always looking to hit the apple every time.
The aim of every corner is to start as wide as possible to maximise the track usage. You carry as much speed as you possibly can. If you turn in correctly, you shouldn’t have any say over what the car does on the way out, it should be completely on the edge. Turning in too early pushes you out too early and you won’t hit the apple on the exit.
SC: This sounds very measured. Do you have favourite tracks you can enjoy driving, corners you love to really push it around? Are there any corners you put a big smilly face on your notes?
RCP: I like high speed corners. Fast flowy corners with high risk and high reward. I’d say that they’re the corners that we’re strongest in as well. Like Alton Park where the barriers are really close and you’re pushing on the edge. If you make one mistake, you’re in a wall. That’s the times I really like it. Silverstone, Magnus and Beckett’s is a really cool section of track.
Driving Blind
SC: What do you focus on when you’re approaching a corner at 150 mph?
RCP: You can’t actually see over the front of the car. There are times when you enter over a blind crest doing 200 kph, and you can’t see anything. It doesn’t actually really matter that much, because you’re never looking dead straight ahead. You’re always slightly off to the side, looking for your next reference point in terms of where you’re braking, where you’re turning in. You drive completely off reference points.
SC: Out on the track there are obviously other drivers fighting for position around the same corners. How do you adapt your careful strategies to a high speed race?
RCP: You’ve got a plan for things. Obviously, you don’t know what’s going to happen in a race, but if you plan for every event, you know exactly what you’re going to do before it happens.
Away from the sim, real track conditions are always evolving. It’s never the same. If the wind changes, which it always does, and you get a headwind instead of a tailwind down one of the straights, you’ll find a 10th just like that.
Fear or Forza?
SC: It all feels a world away from sitting down with a beer in front of an Xbox. Do you carry stress or feel any fear getting to the car?
RCP: It’s purely just going out and driving what you’ve got as fast as you possibly can. Trying to piece your lap together every time, and drive fast as you possibly can to get the best result for these guys [the team] and everyone that’s here supporting us, who’s on this journey with us.
The Biggest Team Sport In The World
SC: Watching on TV, particularly F1, it can appear like there is a pyramid of people scurrying around to keep the driver crowned on top. However, seeing you at the race, it’s obvious everyone plays a vital role. It’s like a very large team sport. When you’re fighting for superfine margins, every person and every tiny detail counts. As a young driver, how important is the team to you?
RCP: You win as a team. You lose as a team. JHR has a lovely team environment, and for it to be so close to home is a massive benefit. My commute is literally 20 minutes. Even if I forget my lunch, I can just pop home and get it.
It’s so nice to be able to come and spend so much time with these guys. You need to come and learn and build relationships because the more you trust people, the closer you are, the better people will do for you, and you’ll do for them.
Forged In Carbon
SC: All the sponsor names on your car are companies based in Sheffield. Was that a conscious decision?
RCP: Yeah, we like to try and keep it very local, because we are heavily involved with all our partners and we try and do the best for them, just as they do for us. We’ve tried to focus on Sheffield and South Yorkshire businesses because I’m Sheffield born and bred. Sheffield is at the centre of my heart, and it always will be.
Sheffield has a few local links to Formula 1. Back in 1991 John Booth started Manor Motorsport, later known as Virgin Racing and Marussia, out of his garage a few minutes down the road in Todwick.
F1 Sauber driver Zhou Guanyu made the city his home base to compete in the British and European championships, moving from Shanghai to Sheffield in 2012, aged 12. ‘I really enjoyed living in Yorkshire’, Zhou told Autosport. ‘Compared with Shanghai everyone in Yorkshire is super-chilled. The pace of life is less hurried. I made some good friends and good memories with the team.’
Dream Road
SC: If you could take your car out now and drive home, which route would you take? Have you got any favourite roads? I ask because this is a question my son and I have spent many miles discussing deeply. (If anyone should ever wish to interview me I have a long, detailed answer at the ready.)
RCP: I’d worry about the potholes! I can’t think of any particular road. I would probably just take it out for a spin, something like that. Probably down Ecclesall Road. [Sheffield’s premier spot for car spotting while sipping a cappuccino in Nonna’s cafe bar]
Doing some doughnuts outside the town hall would be cool. I don’t know how the council would feel about that, but it would be good for Tiktok!
Follow Rowan’s drive on his website here
Images courtesy: Altitude © Jakob Ebrey
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