A teenage adrenaline junkie is living his dream racing around France at 165mph - while also studying for his GCSEs.
Young racecar driver Gabriel Doyle-Parfait, 16, from Halewood, recently started competing on the Formula 4 circuit with the FFSA Academy, a French driving school which aims to propel gifted young competitors to a professional level. He now spends every spare moment jetting off to Europe to compete against other drivers from America, Ukraine, Coloumbia, Spain, Italy, Belgium and France.
But the road to success was not always easy - as the teenager faced broken bones, crashes, and an evacuation from a burning vehicle in pursuit of first place.
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Gabriel's passion for auto racing began in 2020 after his dad Philippe took him go-karting in London.
Philippe, 55, said: "During covid Gabriel was playing on his computer driving games. At the end of lockdown I was moving to London, and I said to take you away from your computer, I'll take you go-karting, and that's what I did."
Gabriel, a King David High School pupil, quickly discovered a natural talent for driving, and in September 2021 he got a motorsport licence allowing him to race on tracks.
He took part in his first competition through the British Automobile Racing Club in March 2022 - despite suffering a broken foot in a footballing accident at school just a few weeks before.
Philippe said: "He had no experience of racing. While the other competitors had all been driving since they were seven-years-old, he was one of the only ones starting from scratch.
"The first race he did in March 2022, he had a broken foot and still managed to finish the race - even though his car caught fire and he had to be evacuated. The way he was driving, he was going on the curbs too much, the wheels were bouncing up and down and causing vibrations in the car, which caused a hole in the exhaust, and that made the car catch on fire.
"His second race he had an accident, and still managed to finish as well."
But Gabriel refused to give up, and went on to compete on the Silverstone Circuit in June 2022, where he qualified in 11th place and went on to win first place in the national race.
He continued to race nationally until he joined the FFSA in March 2023, where he currently ranks 14th out of 26 drivers from all over the globe.
Philippe said: "The aim of all these races is to evolve from Formula 4 to 3 to 2 and eventually to 1. There's only a few who will achieve that level, but he's motivated, he loves doing it.
"I would like him to continue because I think he's got good potential. It will be hard to get to a top 10 position because he doesn't have that much experience compared to other drivers. But like all drivers, when you compete at a high level, he doesn't want to stand still, he wants to go out and try.
"At the moment it's hard because we have to travel by plane to circuits in Italy, France and Belgium, and he's sitting his GCSEs at the same time. Next week he'll be flying out to compete on the Belgiam circuit - one of the best in the world."
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