The skies are gray, the air is cold and conditions on track are slippery, but nothing can dampen Adam Carroll’s enthusiasm as he hurtles around Nutts Corner Circuit.
The Jaguar Racing driver is making a flying visit to the track a few miles west of Northern Ireland’s capital Belfast, where he first caught the racing bug.
“It’s my home kart circuit where I started when I was nine years old — it’s brilliant to be back here,” Carroll told CNN’s Supercharged show.
“To be a racing driver was what I always wanted — I never thought of anything else. When you’re young you don’t understand how hard that it is to achieve but I guess that’s where you have to start — with the dream.”
Carroll’s racing career has including stints in GP2 (Formula One’s feeder series, renamed F2 in 2017), IndyCar, the British GT Championship, A1 Grand Prix, DTM and, most recently, the World Endurance Championship.
This weekend, the 34-year-old lines up at the Autódromo Hermanos RodrÃguez as Mexico City hosts round four of the 2016-17 Formula E World Championship.
For Carroll, the switch to electric race cars has taken some getting used to — neither he nor teammate Mitch Evans have scored a point yet.
“The technology involved is probably the hardest part,” says Carroll, whose highest placing of 12th came at the season opener in Hong Kong last October.
Jaguar has a rich racing pedigree, winning the Le Mans 24-hour race five times during the 1950s with the classic C-Type and D-Type cars. The I-Type may not be a Formula E winner yet, but Carroll insists things will soon click into gear.
“We will become contenders given more time. We have started in a championship that is incredibly competitive — the (other teams) have a two-year head start,” Carroll says.
“This is a learning year. Our main goal is to be competitive as quickly as possible and to next year make the best car that we know we can.”
CNN’s Formula E show Supercharged will bring you all the latest news, driver interviews and race highlights from the Mexico ePrix on Saturday April 8.
