Matías Zagazeta: My Sporting Heroes

Matías Zagazeta is the next talent on the Formula 3 grid to detail who his sporting heroes are and the impact they’ve had on his career and how he goes racing.

From a tennis icon at the tail-end of his glittering career to the cult of personalities of football and boxing, the Peruvian shares his thoughts on legendary figures in sports and what they mean to him.

Rafael Nadal

“He’s incredible. One thing that I really look up to him for and really admire is his mentality. It’s another factor for another one of the people I’ll say but you can really see how in many games, he’s been down and comes back by staying focused, trusting in himself and he pulls off the comeback.

“I really admire his mental strength, and I think that’s a really important factor to have in any sport. He’s an amazing person too off the court so would love to be like him.

“He deserves so much respect because of how long he has kept his career going. You see a lot of people giving up or retiring on a high, but he kept going and coming back. He was out with injuries for a long time, and you could see he was able to get back up there. That to me is amazing and really inspirational.

“I think in racing, you can have a bad weekend, and you want to bounce back right away. Or in my case, I was out for a race this year and trying to come back as best as I could for the next race. It all relates across sports, these comeback stories.”

Diego Maradona

“What I like about Maradona is the impact he left on his country. In Argentina, he came from nothing and ended up being this massive hero for his country. This is something I would love to do for Peru, I would love to end up being a source of inspiration for many kids and the next generation.

“How the people in Argentina love him, it’s incredible to see. Then you see what he could do on the pitch – all my friends would agree I’m a disaster at football so watching clips of him, it’s amazing.

“The thing that comes to mind when I think of Maradona is that video of his warm-up, doing anything and everything with the ball. He was a big, big idol for his country and a unique character that’s for sure.”

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Mike Tyson

“What I respect a lot about Tyson was the hunger he had for the sport. Sometimes he would cry before a fight because of the guy he was going to turn into. It’s quite crazy how he could switch that mentality from outside of the ring to inside.

“I can relate that to racing because with the helmet off, you can be a different person to when you put the helmet on – we’re friends off the track but once that visor comes down, it’s every driver for themselves.

“We do our warm-ups before getting into the car, I also practice my breathing a bit and getting into the zone so when you jump into the car, you’re not wandering or drifting around like you were out of it, you’re focused on the job. It’s a bit like two personalities as well. It’s a different person that jumps into the car and it’s a high-risk sport, so you need to have that mentality which Tyson had.”