Driving with a Disability: an interview with Daniel Truman

The inclusion of disabled individuals in motor racing is something that has been growing in recent years.

Ever since the debut of Nicholas Hamilton in the Renault Clio Cup, other people who have disabilities have realised that racing is something that they can all be a part of. The most recognized disabled drivers, such as Robert Kubica, Nicholas Hamilton and Billy Monger, have acted as pillars for others who may share the same experiences as them.

I was fortunate enough to recently interview a driver who has been racing with a disability throughout his career. Daniel Truman, 26, is a racing driver competing in the mini challenge club sport series in the UK. Daniel was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at the age of 10 years old, but that hasn’t stopped him from racking up wins and championships in various karting series. In this post, I’ll be discussing the inclusion of disabled racers and how their disability doesn’t affect their chances of success.

Daniel Truman driving his mini cooper.

One of the main myths about people with disabilities is that they'd be at a disadvantage when competing in sports. This may be the case in some sports, but not motor racing. When I asked Daniel if he believes disabilities hinder your ability to race, he said, “I don’t think it puts you at a disadvantage, It’s just a case of mind over matter”. This quote sums up brilliantly the mentality of a racing driver as when you’re in a car and racing against other people, all that matters is that you are the fastest, whether you have a disability or not. A prime example of this is Robert Kubica. He unfortunately lost movement in one of his arms after a horrific crash during a rally event. However, this didn’t stop him from competing at the highest level of racing, as he reappeared on the F1 grid in 2019 with Williams, scoring a point in Germany.

When discussing people competing in sports with a disability, you’d assume that there would be a separate category for them to race in. Not in motor sport though. Motor racing is the only sport where there are no separate categories for disabled-only racers. One reason for this is that teams in each category have become more inclusive in the past 6-7 years. When I asked Daniel about the topic, he said that “teams now have the resources and facilities to put things in place”, this means that any upcoming drivers who may have a disability now have the opportunity to race for any of these teams, as they have the accessibility to include them. This is a massive step for inclusivity in the sport and would bring more attention to talented disabled drivers and in the future, we could see a disabled driver competing in F1 again and even the new F1 Academy.

To achieve these goals of including more drivers with disabilities in the sport, there needs to be an increased awareness of them. Talking to Daniel, he believes that “some sort of scheme, encouraging people to come into the sport would be beneficial”. The FIA president of Disability and Accessibility, Natalie McGloin, also believes in the idea of creating a scheme to reach out to young disabled drivers and showing them the available opportunities available to them. McGloin wants something similar to the Girls on Track initiative, which gave women the opportunity to compete in the sport and it’s been very successful as we now have a female-only bracket competing side by side with Formula 1.

McGloin’s idea for an initiative, as referenced from her #thinkingforward interview with Motorsport.com, is for “reaching out to young disabled drivers, and having a competition where the top two go to race the 24-hours of Le-mans Kart race”. I know some schemes are already appearing for disabled drivers, and Daniel also pointed out that Motorsport UK run a program called “Race with Respect” which he said, “covers more of a general aspect of the sport”. However, Daniel also said that “something more specific would be helpful for people who think they can’t get in, or even a workshop for people would be very beneficial but I do think things are going in the right direction”.

The final point that Daniel made during our interview was the idea that “a driver is only as good as their machinery, which makes it a much more level playing field, which is good as it allows younger drivers to get into the sport”. The idea that a driver is only as good as their car is something that is talked about heavily in the sport and is considered controversial, but it does allow drivers who may have a disability the opportunity to compete against other people as there is a more level playing field. If an initiative was set up to make a racing series where all cars were equal, and teams were to sponsor young drivers with disabilities, then I believe that we’d see a huge uptake in interest from disabled people looking at getting into a sport, and we could see other racing series adopt other talented drivers with disabilities. It would certainly be a step in the right direction for the sport and its push to be more inclusive to people of all genders, races and abilities.

Daniel (sitting on car), and his team…