Mathieu Arzeno: “I don’t want to have regrets”

With a father involved in rallies and hill climbs in the south-east of France, were you necessarily destined for motorsport?

I have always been surrounded by the competitive atmosphere. I followed my father (Jacques. Editor’s note) on all the races and the passion quickly came. Around the age of seven, I had the pleasure of finding a karting at the foot of the Christmas tree. From the first races, I quickly noticed that competition was in my blood. Only victory interested me. The results followed and I found myself selected for the French FFSA Karting Team with David Terrien as coach (1993 world karting champion. Editor's note).

Arriving at 14 in the French FFSA Team must be dizzying?

I put a lot of effort into getting to the top, working on all the details that make the difference. I was already very rigorous before joining the French team. It's a status that puts a little more pressure on you, you are observed, but that hasn't changed my approach to the competition. Being selected for the French team is the dream of every young person starting out in sport. Achieving it is the best!

The logical continuation after karting was the car ?

After qualifying for the FA World Karting Championship in 2004, I moved to Formula Campus. I finished 2nd after fighting for the title against Jean-Karl Vernay. I then decided to compete in the French Formula Championship in 2006. Renault. It's no longer the same universe, with larger budgets. In this context, we had to find a team offering reasonable prices. But at this level, if you are not in a top team, it becomes difficult to stand out from the crowd. Nevertheless, my season went well with an honorary title of best rookie. The following year, I participated in the Eurocup FR and became vice-champion of France behind Jules Bianchi. We all had ambitions of GP2 or even F1, but financial constraints decided otherwise.

Find the entire interview with Daniel Elena in issue 2304 of AUTOhebdo available in digital version.