Meet Nigeria's First Ever Fomular1 Driver - Ovie Iroro

Some Nigerians are avid followers of motorsport who has a growing community of millions of fans from around the country.

The most passionate of these fans fly out to places like Abu Dhabi to see the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton in action, with many more watching tentatively from back home.

Until very recently, there hasn’t been any Nigerian participation in professional motorsport. There are many talented young Nigerians who have achieved impressive results in Go Karting but are left unable to progress due to a lack of infrastructure and funding for motorsport in Nigeria.

However there is an exciting young emerging talent currently racing in the United Kingdom - Ovie Iroro. He started his motorsport journey in Lagos, where he won the first ever Go Karting championship he entered in at the age of 16.

He later moved to the United Kingdom where he studied full time along with pursuing his racing career. He also gained further Go Karting experience by competing in the Rye House club championship and winning the award for the top rookie.

In 2012 he signed up with a Formula Renault team, where he took part in a successful training program over a few months as his first taste into F1 style single seater racing.

In 2014, history was made when he signed up to be the first Nigerian to ever compete in the British Formula Ford Championship, which is the same place the likes of Jenson Button and the great Ayrton Senna started their car racing careers. He achieved impressive results in his debut season, including top 10 class finishes and is currently undergoing a training program for a full on assault for the championship next season.

Later on in 2014, he was invited to represent Nigeria in the FIA Young Driver Excellence Programme, competing against drivers from all over Africa.

Since then, Ovie has been training regularly while completing his Mechanical Engineering degree at University College, London. He has set his sights on a championship challenge next season which he is currently training for.

See photos of Ovie in action below;