Nothing gets people interested in sport like having a home-grown hero to cheer for. In the mid- to late-1990s it seemed every Irish person was an F1 fan, thanks to the irascible Bray man Eddie Jordan and his eponymous team. Jordan sold out to a Russian billionaire two years ago, but it had been a long time since his team had challenged for race wins. The distinctive yellow cars were doing little more than making up the numbers and interest in F1 amongst the wider Irish public waned.
That could all be about to change if Michael Devaney gets his way. Hailing from Rathfarnam in Co. Dublin, the 22-year-old is one of the most talented young Irish racing drivers to emerge in recent years and has his sights set firmly on a drive in Formula 1. His father Bernard raced with some success in the UK in the 1970s and it was his influence that led to the young Michael deciding to pursue a career behind the wheel. “Dad took me to Kylemore Karting when I was 12,” he recalls. “I was hooked and it just took off from there.” After winning the Irish junior karting championship two years in a row, Michael graduated to car racing in 2001 in the Irish Formula Ford series. He made an immediate impression, being named ‘Young Racing Driver of the Year’ by Motorsport Ireland. The title came with a cheque for €32,000, which went a long way towards funding the next step in Michael’s career.
In 2002, at the age of 17, Michael took the decision to leave school and move to Germany to race in the highly competitive Formula BMW championship. “It was a tough decision,” he says, “but I think it has worked out so far. You have to make a lot of sacrifices if you want to succeed, your fitness has to be top notch and you can’t always go out with your friends and have a few drinks. When I moved away, I missed out on quite a bit of the fun that a teenager should be having. But it has all been worth it.” Indeed, it was in Germany that Michael would enjoy what he describes as the best moment of his career to date. “A lot of people doubted my move to Germany at such a young age, but when I beat Nico Rosberg [now racing for Williams in Formula 1] to take my first win in the series, that quickly shut them up.”
Following his impressive performances over two seasons of Formula BMW, Michael was set to move up to the prestigious European Formula 3 series for 2004. However, it proved impossible to raise the necessary sponsorship required to compete at this level. “It has always been a struggle,” says Michael. “In motorsport, it’s so difficult to come up through the ranks as the majority of drivers are normally from very wealthy families and buy their way up the racing ladder. That was never an option for me and it has always been tough to find sponsors in Ireland for racing as it seems that motorsport sponsorship is not high on Irish company’s agendas. I had to rely on my performances to get me the best deals so I could keep on racing. A lot of it comes down to luck and knowing the right people.”
After two seasons racing in the little-known German Formula 3 Cup, the opportunity arose for Michael to represent his country in the newly-launched A1 Grand Prix series, also known as the ‘World Cup of Motorsport.’ During the 2005/06 season, Michael shared the Irish car with former Jordan F1 driver Ralph Firman, but soon revealed himself to be the more talented of the two, securing fourth place finishes in the Australian and Chinese races. For the 2006/07 season, Michael was promoted to lead driver in the team. But the expected progression did not materialise. In fact, the Irish team moved backwards and languished at the bottom of the points table at the midway point of the season. At this stage, Michael made the decision to cut his losses and quit the team. Asked what he thinks went wrong at the initially promising outfit, he is frank: “There were a number of things. The engineer we had at the beginning of the season was not really motivated because he was a close friend of Ralph Firman who was dropped at the start of this season because of my results in the few outings last year. It was clear he didn’t want to make the effort so we never could really develop the car to be a front runner. Another problem has been the fact that the team has been running on their own in the championship where the norm is for a team to run two countries. If they ran two countries they would have twice as much feedback and twice as much data which is a major benefit.”
For 2007, Michael returns to Formula 3, this time in the British series, where he is driving the new and untested Mygale chassis. As a result of this, his aims for this season are different to any that have gone before. “This is a development season for the new car and it’s not all about going out and winning. We have to develop the car against the mighty Dallaras and if we can get close to their pace it will be a successful season.” The first round of the championship took place last weekend and it was a trying experience: “We were caught out by reliability problems with the gearbox which failed on us twice over the weekend. This led to us missing most of the sessions in practice and qualifying. It was always going to be a learning weekend for the new team and new car but we know now what we have to do for the next race.”
Michael’s approach to racing is single-minded. He has no back-up plan. “I don’t really think of what I’ll do if I get injured or if it doesn’t work out. It has never crossed my mind.” And as for the dangers associated with the sport? “That never crosses my mind either. It’s not something you should think about when you’re driving or you won’t push as hard.”
Is Michael jealous of Lewis Hamilton, who, at the same age as him, has already been on the podium in his first two races in Formula 1? “No, Lewis is lucky, he was picked up by McLaren at the age of 10 and he was groomed for stardom. He has had the best chance any young driver has ever had to make it to F1 and he is there now showing the benefits of that.” To any young drivers just starting out on the motorsport ladder, Michael has the following advice: “Always be on top of your game, keep fit, get to know the right people, keep knocking on doors and eventually one will open up if you’re quick enough.”
This interview was conducted and written as part of the coursework for the MA in Journalism programme at Dublin City University.
