Kenzo Craigie

Kenzo Craigie (; born 29 September 2010) is a British racing driver who competes in the Italian F4 Championship for R-ace GP as part of the Mercedes Junior Programme.

Born and raised in Epsom to a Jamaican father and French mother, Craigie began competitive kart racing aged six. After a successful karting career—culminating in his victory at the junior World Championship in 2024—Craigie graduated to junior formulae.

Early life Kenzo Craigie was born on 29 September 2010 in Epsom, Surrey, England. He initially played association football and says he was a member of the Chelsea youth academy before his father introduced him to kart racing.

His association with Lewis Hamilton—the only black driver in Formula One history—began when he joined the Mercedes Junior Team in 2023, expressing his desire to continue Hamilton's efforts to increase ethnic diversity and female representation in motorsport. He closed his cadet career by winning the TVKC Icebreaker Cup at PF International.

2024–2025: World Champion Short-term [goals are], just keep on progressing with my career—trying to be a better driver every day, and a better person. Just keep on pushing, and hopefully everything will align.

You always want to do your best, but in racing, it iss really easy to over-push and try to do too much and then it will not work out.

You just have to stay calm and let things come to you and even if it does not go as quickly as possible, if you just stay calm, hopefully it will come your way.|source=—Craigie discussing his goals with The New York Times upon his graduation to junior formulae in 2025 His World Championship debut was staged at PF International, where he won a club championship round the year prior, and proved a battle for victory between him and compatriot Noah Baglin; in torrential rain, Craigie closed a three-second gap to Baglin by the final lap, when they swapped positions repeatedly—often going off-circuit—until a final-corner collision saw Baglin in the wall and Craigie becoming World Champion. After closing the season by winning the IAME Warriors Final in X30 Junior, Fabio Marangon of Vroomkart stated karting was "Craigie's world, and we are just living in it" and contrasted his acclaim to Kimi Antonelli. His battle with Baglin and eventual overtake was named the FIA Action of the Year in karting. Craigie finished tenth in the European Championship, scoring nearly half of his points with a podium in the season-ending Rødby final. On debut at Yas Marina, he finished seventh in a race-long battle with Elia Weiss in the opening race before claiming his maiden podium in the reverse-grid race and another points finish to end the weekend third in the championship. Another three points finishes followed for Craigie in the second Yas Marina round. He took his maiden pole positions at Dubai—the second with a margin of 0.492 seconds over championship leader Oleksandr Bondarev—where he took his maiden victory in the opening race and dropped behind Bondarev in the final race to solidify his third-place overall. He closed the season with two points finishes and a mechanical retirement following a collision with Tomass Štolcermanis at Lusail. He ended the campaign on 118 points—73 behind third-year champion Oleksandr Bondarev—with one victory from three podiums and two poles, as well as the rookies' title over Christian Costoya. Following two points finishes on debut at Misano, including thirteenth in the final, he improved to eighth in the Vallelunga final. The mid-season E4 Championship opened at Vallelunga, where Craigie won the second race and trailed Luka Sammalisto in the standings, before surpassing him with two victories and another podium at Paul Ricard following a hat-trick of poles.

Formula One In February 2023, Craigie became the youngest member of the Mercedes Junior Team, aged 12.

Awards and honours FIA Action of the Year: 2024

As Craigie was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Racing record Racing career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles Podiums Points Position 2026 UAE4 Series R-ace GP 12 1 2 0 3 118 Italian F4 Championship 12 1 0 1 2 144* * E4 Championship 6 3 3 4 4 138* *Source:

Complete Italian F4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. Season still in progress.

Complete E4 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Season still in progress.