Shane van Gisbergen, in his quest to try and get to F1, understood that the odds were always stacked against him. He was good, but there were factors he couldn’t change that always acted as a barrier between him and getting to F1.
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Now a star in NASCAR, Van Gisbergen acknowledged being halfway decent in open-wheel machinery, yet his physical size made that ladder far tougher to climb than it was for the featherweight competitors who usually fill those seats. The reality of being bigger than the typical open-wheel driver ultimately closed the door on pursuing that route.
In his early teens, SVG began the long climb by racing the small open-wheel Formula Vee series, where he captured the rookie of the year award in 2005. Three years later, at only 18, he leapt into the premier arena for racers in Oceania, V8 Supercars. What followed was a run that etched his name into Supercars’ history. He amassed 80 wins and three championships, proving himself as one of the finest drivers ever to compete at that level.
When recalling his flirtation with Formula 1, SVG explained that he had always been “a pretty big guy,” noting with humor that most open-wheel drivers “look like they should be 14 years old.”
His stint in the Toyota Series confirmed what he already suspected. Weight cost him speed, and the stopwatch made its verdict clear. Hence, touring cars became the natural direction, and ultimately the one he wanted from the start.
Van Gisbergen described how racing consumed his world when he was younger. Each year, Speed Sport magazine promoted a coveted racing scholarship in New Zealand, offering funding to compete in Formula Vee. The first year he tried, a friend of his won the award and raced successfully that season. SVG did not give up.
He tried again the following year and took up karting while he waited, hoping to strengthen his skills and understand circuit craft more deeply. On his third attempt, in 2004, he finally secured the scholarship and launched into Formula Vee competition.
The years that followed included stints in Formula Ford and Toyota, the junior single-seater categories in New Zealand. By the end of that Toyota campaign, he earned a test with Stone Brothers Racing, one of the top V8 Supercars teams at the time, and performed well enough to make an impression.
Meanwhile, another outfit, Team Kiwi Racing, had its cars run by Stone Brothers. Midway through the 2007 season, their driver departed, opening a seat. SVG was thrown in at 18, a leap into elite competition that he probably wasn’t ready for, but he handled the challenge without embarrassing himself.
Eventually, the next year, Stone Brothers promoted him to the main team, a jump he described as going from “pretty much straight out of school” to living his dream. Still, the Formula 1 chapter never materialized, and he understood why. His size stood as the hurdle he could not overcome.
Though he now competes in NASCAR as a full-time Cup driver for the Trackhouse Racing team, it was actually not on Van Gisbergen’s radar until Justin Marks actually approached him for the Chicago race in 2023.
Today, it’s difficult to fathom SVG spending most of his time in Europe brushing shoulders with the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
