I was born and raised in America, but my mom lived here in Budapest for the first 20 years of her life, then she went to college in America – said Preston sitting next to his mother, Kati, who joined the conversation on multiple occasions.

My grandparents live here in Tata, so we’ve been coming back multiple times a year. Obviously, I’m very proud of my Hungarian heritage, being half Hungarian is very special to me.

Around 8 months ago you mentioned in a YouTube video you’re actually living in Hungary when you’re racing in Europe.

Yes, that’s correct. Between the races, I stay here in Budapest, and I love it! It’s definitely one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to. The food is amazing, the environment is amazing, so I love it here.

Preston Lambert in downtown Budapest, sitting next to the Danube River. Photo: m4sport.hu

You once replied to a comment of mine in Hungarian. Do you speak the language?

I speak like 50%. I can understand everything, I just speak a little bit slowly, but I can have a conversation.

Preston’s mother, Kati added that it was actually the first language he spoke.

He only spoke Hungarian until the age of two, and then because we were living in California, he started speaking English, started school, and from then on English became his first language. But I still speak a lot of Hungarian to him, so he understands everything.

To make sure Preston could express himself properly, we spoke in English during the interview. Read the translated Hungarian version here.

Do you feel the support from Hungary, either online or at the races?

Definitely! There are so many fans showing their support through comments, especially on social media. I get a lot of messages, it’s really nice to see, and it definitely keeps me motivated to keep representing the Hungarian flag.

We do have a few Hungarian talents as well, for example Ádám Hideg or Martin Molnár…

Yeah, I’ve raced them both multiple times! I’m very good friends with Ádám, and I know Martin as well.

And you will be racing with Ádám this season in Eurocup-3.

That’s right, last year as well I raced in F4 Spain, Ádám was doing that too. Me and him were always quite close together, we were teammates in karting actually.

Preston Lambert and Ádám Hideg were teammates in the past, but they will face each other this year in Eurocup-3. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert, Palou Motorsport

With all this in mind, Hungarian readers are likely curious if you can imagine representing and racing under the Hungarian flag in the future. Have you ever considered it?

I’m very proud of my Hungarian heritage and I have the Hungarian flag on my profile next the American.

But as you know, I don’t come from money, I’m fully backed by sponsors, and all my sponsors come from America. And if my sponsors are coming from America, then obviously I need to be representing the American flag.

I haven’t been approached by anyone from Hungary, I think they are aware of me but no one has reached out to me. But if the opportunity arises to represent a Hungarian company, I absolutely would, it would be a pleasure.

The two drivers previously mentioned are both backed by the “Road to Formula 1” programme, which aims to help young Hungarian talents reach the official FIA single seater series.

We’ve been mentioning social media a lot recently, so let’s discuss one of the main topics of this interview. You currently have around 330k followers on Instagram, 170k followers on TikTok, and 110k subscribers on YouTube – unbelievable numbers for a feeder series driver. How much is that down to you and how much is it the team behind you?

It’s kind of a hybrid. About two years ago, me and my brother decided we wanted to start posting on social media. We knew how important it was to get sponsors, and having a large social media presence helps with that. But we also wanted to share my journey, because not many drivers are doing that, so we started posting about a year and a half ago. My brother or my mom would record some stuff, and then we would come up with some video ideas. We’d see what’s working elsewhere, and do a racing industry remake of it. Then it kind of took off, and after consistently posting for two months, we were at 50k, it just kept growing and growing. It’s absolutely amazing to see the support!

So it wasn’t planned at all, you didn’t have any target numbers in mind.

No. We were like: “Hey, we should just start sharing things, right?” – so we started posting some behind the scenes videos, we hopped on some funny trends, but we never thought it would pick up traction as much as it did, it was insane!

Unprecedented popularity for a junior racing driver on social media. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

And since then you’ve been experimenting with viral formats, trying to replicate the ones that work.

Exactly. Some videos are meant to grow your account, gain followers, get new people to see you, while other videos are more focused on personality to build a connection with the audience. So we’ve been trying to do more of the latter, to get the viewers to actually know who I am and my story. That’s something we’re really focusing on right now.

So the tactics and strategy behind it, that’s all down to you?

Yeah, pretty much down to me and my brother, we do it together.

His brother had a following of over 2 million on Tiktok. That was in the gaming industry, so completely different, but he used his experience to try and help Preston with his social media projects. – added his mother.

Do other drivers ask you for advice when it comes to growing their online presence?

There’s a few drivers that do, but it’s kind of mixed actually. Some drivers find it cool, but then others who don’t quite understand it think it’s cringey and they kind of make fun of me, which is a bit funny to be fair.

For me, it’s the only reason I’m able to race, because I have a lot of sponsors from it, so without the following, I wouldn’t even be here. But drivers coming from money, they don’t need social media, and they don’t understand how crucial it is for somebody who’s trying to break through and do this without a huge financial backing.

But there’s definitely some drivers that ask for advice, and I always just point them to my brother, as he’s doing exactly that with his company.

Let’s discuss your two projects, Racing Launchpad and Turn One. How are they going, what’s your goal with them?

Racing Launchpad is an online mentorship for young drivers. We launched it back in April 2024, and we’ve had some good success with it, a lot of students joined. We helped lots of them making the jump from karting to cars, and also just kind of pointing them in the right direction. So that’s been a really fun project on the side. As for Turn One, it’s more for helping already established drivers grow their social media following and sign new sponsors, but I’m not very heavily involved with that, it’s mostly my brother and his team. I’m of course trying to promote it as much as I can, because it changed my life as a racer, and I think it could do that for a lot of other drivers.

We have a driver in FIA F3, Nikita Bedrin, who joined Turn One, and we also have a certain Indycar driver who might be joining us as well, but I can’t reveal his name yet!

Since our interview, it has been revealed that none other than former F1 driver and Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson will be joining forces with Turn One.

Turn One helps professional racers grow their following, sign sponsors & generate an online income. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

The idea behind both projects is that the drivers who have financial backing are usually coming from racing families, so they know exactly what to do. But most of Preston’s comments or questions were asking how to get into racing if one doesn’t have the money and isn’t coming from a racing family. In the past, they said “Well, forget it. It’s not for you.”

Preston is a great example that it can be done. He’s trying to tell people that it may not be easy, but if this is their passion, they shouldn’t quit just because everybody’s telling them it’s impossible. – said Preston’s mother.

I started racing right before I turned 13, so it was quite late actually. My first time in a go-kart was at 12 years old.

If you ask people, that’s super late, some drivers are starting karting at the age of three already…

It is super late. Everyone told me that it’s impossible to even get out of karting, but I didn’t listen to them. At the end of the day, I think me starting later was better. I mean, sure, don’t get me wrong, starting a few years earlier would’ve been beneficial. But for me, at the same time, everything kind of worked out, it was a perfect timing. I got up to speed very quickly in karting, in my second year in America, I was already at all the national events, finishing on the podium and winning races. And then that’s when I made the move over to Europe.

There’s obviously a cap. You can’t aim for Formula 1 if you’re starting racing at 18, I think that’s a bit unrealistic. But if you start at like 12, 13, 14, there’s definitely a chance, especially if you have the right connections, and if you know what to do.

But there are lots of options besides Formula 1, especially in America.

Especially in America, exactly. You can go anywhere: Indycar, NASCAR, IMSA, sports cars, prototypes, anything really.

Formula 1 might not be the only goal in sight for feeder series drivers. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

Are you also targeting parents with Racing Launchpad?

It depends, a lot of the kids are the ones actually seeing my content, but obviously it’s the parents who are making the decisions in the end, and we ought to make sure they’re aware of what their children are seeing. There are of course some cases where the kid is very much into it, and the parent’s are absolutely not. But sometimes the parents are the ones seeing our content, and they’re also really interested. 

Your opponents usually have the privilege of only focusing on racing, that’s obviously not the case for you. How do you balance business and racing?

I’d say it’s not really business, it’s more like a passion to help other people. Obviously the most important thing for me is racing, that’s my number one priority, and that includes training to make sure I’m the best on track. And as long as I can get both of those things done, I have time to do something else. I mean, sometimes we have two-three week periods where there’s no racing. Of course I have a couple hours of school, few hours a day in the gym, another couple hours in the simulator. But after that, I still have like six or seven hours of the day left to work on projects like Racing Launchpad or Turn One. So I think balancing it is quite easy for me, I don’t struggle too much, I never really had a problem of being too busy. Some drivers say they have no time for anything, when realistically there is some time on their hands that they could use.

But he has really no choice. If he wants to race, this is the price he has to pay, he needs to find a way. When others don’t have the financial backing, they would just stop racing, but he’s still motivated to keep going. So many other people say that they’re only focusing on racing, but how many hours are they scrolling on their phones? We see them in the paddock, and they’re just scrolling and scrolling. Preston’s not going to waste hours on that. – added his mother.

Focusing on your on-track career, you’ll be racing in your Eurocup-3 this year. Tell me about the series, your plans, expectations, and everything.

I think it’s going to be a great year, the championship is growing every year. It’s only been around for a few years, but the grid is really strong this season, I’m very much looking forward to that. It’s been lovely working with my team, Drivex. I did the last race of the year with them in Barcelona, which was an amazing experience, and we’re now doing the winter series as well with them. The first race was in Jerez, which we didn’t do much testing before, I think we only did one day, while a lot of other drivers were testing over the whole winter. But we were still decent, we finished P11 on Sunday, and the second race in Portimao was strong as well. I qualified P5 and then finished P10 in the sprint.

Obviously there’s a lot to learn. This series has a lot more strategy and tyre management that has to go into it, the car is also a lot heavier than previous ones, so there’s plenty of things to adjust to.

Of course I have some expectations. I want to be on the podium and I want to be fighting for wins, but I also need to keep it realistic, because I don’t have much experience. I’ve never actually finished the full championship in my life, even in the Spanish F4 series, I ran out of money with three rounds to go, so I had to skip the last two rounds. I got some more money to do the last round in Eurocup 3. So this year, it looks like we’re going to get a full championship, which I’m really looking forward to, I think I’m going to grow a lot as a driver. I know the speed is there, I just need to find it at every track and I need to keep improving.

Preston Lambert will compete in Eurocup-3 this year. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

You said that you were funded fully by sponsors now. And is that down to your social media presence? 

It’s all down to the social media presence, 100%. I mean, last year we raised multi-six figures as well just from social media, and we’ll do it again this year. Sponsors all want something in return for their money. 

The sticker on the car doesn’t really do anything anymore, they need some sort of ROI (return on investment) – if it’s brand awareness, sales, driving conversions, whatever it might be. With social media, you can do that. It’s also a great networking tool. I’ve networked with some really great people who are helping out kind of as private investors. So I couldn’t be racing without it, that’s for sure.

And are you confident can finish this season with the raised money?

I’m very confident. I think as long as there’s no massive crashes – which fingers crossed there won’t be – we should be pretty comfortable.

Is that something you have on your mind while racing? Like, do you perhaps try to play it a little bit more safe because you need to focus on bringing the car home in one piece?

Of course, it’s always kind of in the back of a driver’s mind. A lot of drivers don’t really have to worry about it, because they can afford it, while I really don’t want to crash the car, because it can get very expensive very fast. But at the same time, when you’re on track, you can’t really be thinking about it, you just need to do your best. Obviously you’re not going for super risky overtakes, but you still need to move forward in races, you have to make passes. So you can’t let it take over your mind, but you have to be smart at the same time.

Rainy weather significantly increases the risk of accidents. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

It of course depends on your results this year, but what’s the next step on the ladder, what’s in your plans for the season after this?

Next year, the plan is FIA F3. Obviously, like you said, results are very important, but we also have to think about the budget. We would need around 2 million euros for that, which is absolutely insane, so we’re going to have to work really hard to bring in the sponsors and the funding for that. But I feel confident, I think we’re going to do a good job this year. We’re going to continue building connections, and hopefully next year we’ll be able to make it possible.

Overall speaking, with your business side and everything, what are your ultimate goals for the driver and as a person?

Obviously the most important thing for me and my number one goal is to get to Formula 1. That is my passion, that is my dream. And that’s what I’ve been working so hard to achieve. So that’s the main priority, but like you said, I also have the business side, I very much enjoy that as well, currently more as a hobby just to kind of fill in the empty space in my calendar. But the number one priority is to get to Formula 1.

Let’s talk F1 then: who are you rooting for this year?

I’m a big Lando fan, I like him a lot, but there are quite a few rookies as well this season who I’m rooting for, say Antonelli for example, I think he’s going to do very well this year. Of course, there’s some drivers that I look up to, so it should be a fun year in F1.

The rookies could of course be an inspiration for you, but when it comes to this year’s newcomers, all of them have the backing of an F1 team’s driver academy. Are you looking at your options to maybe try to join one in the future?

For sure, it’s something that we’ve kind of been discussing. And of course, if the opportunity arises and it’s the right choice, then yeah, I think I could see that happening. Obviously, I’m far away from that. Obviously, academies are looking at the best drivers, and I’m not there yet. I have a lot to learn, but I know I can get there.

And if for whatever reason your racing career didn’t turn out the way you wanted – which I sincerely hope won’t be the case – do you see yourself making the transition into entrepreneurship?

If racing didn’t work out, which of course would be a shame, then the businesses are my fallback. I mean, I have two of them, and I think the main one would be helping my brother with Turn One, as well as trying to scale Racing Launchpad. We’re obviously both very passionate about both projects, and they have a lot of potential. So for sure, if racing didn’t work out, then I’d have a good fallback. Of course I’d be disappointed, but I’d enjoy doing it.

Most drivers start the race weekend with a track walk. Photo: Turn One/Preston Lambert

To conclude, Preston shared his thoughts about how tough it is for young drivers to compete without huge financial backing.

The big thing with racing is that it’s kind of “pay to win”. There are some drivers who are just as talented as professionals, they just don’t have the money to go racing. Even if they do, they might not have the funds to go testing, and if they can’t do that, they’re going to show up to the race severely underprepared, and they’re not going to perform.

Last year I didn’t do a single test day, while pretty much everyone else in the championship did 40 or 50 test days, private test days, and that makes it very hard for me to perform against them. My first day in the car was immediately Round 3 of the winter series. This year, I think now that we have a little bit of extra budget, I could start doing some test days and hopefully get closer to the wins and the podiums that I know I could fight for.

The 2025 season of the Eurocup-3 series – where Preston Lambert will compete against the likes of Ádám Hideg and others – will kick off on the 16th of May at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, with the season finale taking place in Barcelona in November.