from FIA karting
A former karting Driver, Guillaume Capietto followed an international career in ICA, becoming European Vice-Champion in ICA in 1999. At the age of 24, he later tried his hand at FA and ICC while pursuing his engineering studies. It was his internship within the ASM team that opened the doors of Motorsport to him.
He then took charge of the ASM Formula Renault team, before working as a track engineer in F3, notably alongside Lewis Hamilton, the 2005 Champion. He then worked as the Technical Manager at ART in GP3 and GP2 with many successes to his credit. In 2015, he joined Prema Racing to create an F2 team that enabled Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc to win in 2016 and 2017.
He continues his outstanding career as Team Manager of Prema Racing in F3 and is now involved in all single-seater series as Technical Director of the team. Guillaume is the father of a 13-year-old boy, Macéo, who is racing in OK-Junior for the second year.
GUILLAUME, HOW DID YOUR SON DISCOVER KARTING?
When Macéo was born, I had finished my career in karting, but later I did a few more races for fun and he had the opportunity to do his first laps on a small kart. It went well and so we started racing. For example, he finished 3rd in the French Minikart Cup in 2015. He has always been in the leading group in each of the young categories without winning many victories.
advertisement
HOW DID HE MOVE TO INTERNATIONAL RACING?
It was not easy, he was a little too yielding on the track. He also had to adapt to a big team like KR Motorsport when he was used to racing with me in a small team. At the same time, the FFSA Academy French Junior Championship has helped him to improve. This year he took a step forward by achieving pole position at the OK-Junior European Championship in Angerville, then qualifying 9th for the World Championship Final in Finland. International racing has made him very experienced.
“I am very happy to have the opportunity to share my passion for karting with my son.”
WHAT KIND OF DAD ARE YOU DURING THE RACES?
Now I let him manage with his team. I am present whenever I can be, but I stay in the background, even though I sometimes give him advice. I try to apply to myself what I say to my single-seater drivers: “trust the team first!” I don’t push him, he competes because he likes it. The only condition I impose on him is to work hard in high school. He’s in the second year over a year early, so everything’s fine for now! Karting has always been a passion for me and I am delighted to have the chance to share it with my son.
“I avoid making a hasty judgment about Macéo until I have the opinion of the specialists who are in charge of him.”
advertisement