Peroni can call himself a Monaco race-winner and had a successful single-seater career, in which he raced in various categories for some of the most prestigious teams in motorsport. However, many people know the Tasmanian driver for his accident at Monza in 2019, in which a sausage kerb sent him airborne into a catching fence. Feeder Series interviewed Peroni, and he delved into his time in single seaters and looked toward his upcoming years of racing.

By Finjo Muschlien

Just a dozen individuals from Tasmania have become professional drivers, but as Tasmania has few racing facilities and competitive racing series, most of them, including Peroni, decided to compete in championships on a different continent.

Peroni started his racing career in karting in 2009 but didn’t achieve any noteworthy titles. Still, the experiences he gained in karting were crucial for the first big step of his career, making the jump to Italian F4 in 2015. He teamed up with Torino Squadra Corse (TS Corse), a university team that usually competes in Formula Student and has 70 engineering students working on the motorsport project. 

Peroni described the step to single seaters as one of the most memorable moments from his racing career, among others.

“Good memories, but the very first time I drove a single-seater, which was at the end of 2014, when I was 14 years old, is a good one. I came over from Australia, from karting and getting into something with that much horsepower is just crazy. You go from 20 horsepower to almost 200. It’s something that takes time to get used to, but it’s an adrenaline rush.”

In his first and only year of Italian F4, the Aussie faced the likes of Zhou Guanyu, Robert Shwartzman and Lando Norris but finished in the points an impressive five times and even found himself on the podium twice, finishing second in Imola and Misano. 

In 2016, Peroni stepped up to F3-level series V de V Challenge Monoplace with TS Corse and impressed from his first race onwards. He kicked the season off with two wins and a second-place finish at the opening round at Barcelona and turned his good start into domination, as he won a total of 14 out of 21 races, finishing on the podium five additional times and with that secured his first championship winning title. 

Along his successful V Challenge campaign, Peroni also raced with the same team at the final round of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 at Estoril, where he finished a solid fourth in the first race.

2017 saw Peroni switch to Fortec Motorsports to take the step to a full season of the championship, now renamed as Formula Renault Eurocup. Though he faced the likes of Logan Sargeant and newly-announced Ferrari WEC hypercar drivers Yifei Ye and Shwartzman, Peroni was able to take one win at the second race of Pau, which was his only race win that year. Interestingly, it was his first win on a street circuit, and from then on he only won on those, and that came down to a specific reason, according to Peroni.

“Especially in those years, I only seemed to be able to win on street circuits, which is a bit of a mystery, but I think a part of that is that you have more of an equal playing field, because no one’s got experience and everyone rocks up in a similar way. The cars are [set up] similar because you can’t test, and we always did things with very minimal testing.”

Besides his win at Pau, Peroni would take six more top-ten finishes and finish tenth overall in the drivers’ championship. He also competed in one round of the Formula Renault Northern European Cup at Spa but didn’t achieve noteworthy results.

Peroni would stay in both of the Formula Renault Championships for 2018, switching to MP Motorsport. He improved on his performances from the year prior, finishing ninth in the overall championship of the Eurocup. 

Again, he knew how to impress on street circuits, and as he drove in Monaco, he made his childhood dream a reality, not just because it was Monaco, but because he won the first race of the weekend and finished a solid second in the second race. 

“Winning Monaco was a dream come true. Growing up watching Formula 1, Monaco is so amazing ,and everyone dreams to win it. I was having a tough year until that point, to be honest. We weren’t really gaining results we expected or hoped for. A couple weeks before [Monaco], I won two races at Pau, so I was in a good place, and I had momentum.

“To then solidify that with a win at Monaco, which has this thing about it, it’s very hard to win there. You can’t test, and a lot of F1 teams or F1 personnel know about that, so I think when you do well at a track like that, it’s more important than at others, it was a big help in my career.”

The two wins at Pau Peroni mentioned came in the Northern European Cup, in which he eventually finished seventh overall in the championship but first comfortably took the championship lead after his double win at round one at Pau. 

“For me, I also looked at those races like this is my opportunity to show what I am capable of.”

On the other hand, Peroni admitted, “It was kind of disappointing to be first in Pau and then go to the next race and maybe be just inside the top ten”, showing his preference for street circuits.

However, he wouldn’t race on street circuits in 2019, as he switched to FIA Formula 3 with Campos Racing. The Aussie secured two top-ten finishes, both in feature races, and gained 11 places on his way to finish tenth at Silverstone. 

However, three rounds after his last points finish, Peroni was involved in a massive accident in the feature race at Monza, in which he hit a sausage kerb at Parabolica, the final corner of the circuit. He was flipped and sent airborne, did two and a half pirouettes and landed in a catching fence, just on top of a marshal post. 

Luckily, the accident didn’t lead to any fatalities or injuries for nearby marshals, and Peroni was able to walk away from his car, but soon after, he was diagnosed with a fractured vertebra and on medical advice set out for the upcoming round at Sochi and the F3 world cup at Macau that year. 

Though Covid delayed the start of the 2020 season, it was the best circumstance, from a racing point of view, that could have happened to Peroni, as he was still recovering from his injuries.

In his comeback weekend, the first round of the F3 season in Austria, the Campos driver would go on to finish on the podium in the feature race after starting eighth. 

“It was my first race back from my accident in Monza, that was a cool kind of way to say, this is what I’m all about, and it was probably my biggest result since Monaco in 2018. The season was kind of in limbo with Covid, and there was a big waiting period, so there was a lot of suspense growing up to that race and to come back with a podium was awesome,” Peroni said. 

Two more podium finishes at the sprint races at Silverstone and Barcelona and five more points finishes followed for the Aussie, and he went on to finish tenth, behind nine drivers who would step up to FIA Formula 2 in the following years. 

“I think, when you go to Wikipedia and look up those results, it tells a different story to what the championship was like. At the time, Prema was very dominant and there was a big difference between the teams. Don’t get me wrong, the Campos car was, when we had a good weekend, it was really good, like in Austria, so I was happy we could capitalise on that but we lacked a bit of consistency, so to finish in the top ten was solid.”

However, as all the drivers ahead of him made the step up to F2 over the next few years, it raises the question. Why did Peroni not step up to F2 after his solid season? 

“I think the teams in F2 realised that [solid performances], I had a few offers from good teams like Carlin, who at the time were doing very well with Yuki Tsunoda. But us drivers, we have to pay all the way up to F2, F3 is really expensive, and it just doubles for F2. My background has always been that we have had sponsorship, but F2 is over two million euros, which is an insane amount of money, and we couldn’t raise that much.”

With the target of F2 being unreachable, Peroni decided to head stateside, to race in the Indy Lights championship, teaming up with Carlin and aiming to win the championship and with that the 1.200.000,00 USD prize pot.

“The biggest factor of going to Indy Lights was the money side, and unfortunately, we didn’t know that sector very well.”

Peroni’s Indy Lights season was underwhelming, and although he finished inside the top five in five of the opening seven races, even finishing third at the Indianapolis GP, he couldn’t keep his momentum and his results became less consistent, as the general trend went downwards. 

It’s noteworthy that the 2021 grid of Indy Lights was very competitive with current and former IndyCar drivers Kyle Kirkwood, David Malukas, Linus Lundqvist, Benjamin Pedersen, Devlin DeFrancesco and Sting Ray Robb participating. After the seventh out of ten rounds, Peroni withdrew from the championship. 

“We had a tough year and were thinking what could we do, we can’t rely on big sponsorship money and the support. So, we decided it’s best to go back to Europe and go down the path of endurance.”

However, the early departure from Indy Lights wouldn’t mark his departure from single seaters, as the Aussie actually tested with Drivex in the 2022 pre-season testing of Euroformula Open and also participated in the first round at Estoril, finishing a best of fourth in the second race. However, after that, he finally shifted his focus to endurance racing. 

And so Peroni returned to full-time racing in Europe for 2022 and made the step to the European Le Mans Series in the LMP2 class with Algarve Pro Racing. Sharing his car with James Allen and John Falb, the trio went on to finish 21st in the overall standings, securing a best result of eighth at Barcelona. 

In 2023, the Horbat-born racer made the step to GT World Challenge, in which he competed in the European Endurance Cup with GetSpeed after receiving a last-minute call. Peroni raced in the 24 Hours of Spa, the longest endurance race for him yet, but finished just 32nd overall. However, the step to endurance racing would bring new challenges, like finding setups that work not just for him but all of the drivers of the car.

“I’ll be honest, I hated it at first. As race car drivers, you develop a trait of being selfish, that’s a big part of being an athlete. I have always raced with gentleman drivers, they really struggle to have a car that’s more on the limit, which us pro drivers really like because you can drive it harder.”

Interestingly, GT3 cars are the most exotic cars Peroni got to race in his career.

 “LMP2 is very similar to an F3 car, but a GT3 car is just so heavy…and the way it’s driving is just so different. I had to adjust to it on race weekends, which is never ideal.”

2024 plans 

Although nothing is official at this stage, Peroni admitted he is counting the days because he wants to find out where he will be racing this year, but at the time this interview took place, he was still in negotiations with teams. 

“We have a few things on the radar, we are talking closely with one GT team here in Australia, but we still have to wait and find out, and hopefully we have something positive soon, but only time will tell.”

However, for his 2024 goals, Peroni has more certainty already, as he aims to be “more professional and finally earn something for racing.”

Though he added, “Money personally doesn’t matter because you just want to drive, that’s what you love but sustainability and for the future it’s important to be part of it.”

Certainly, the Aussie isn’t a short-term planner, as he also very well knows his long-term goals.

“I hope to be a professional driver, hopefully working with a brand in either GTs or hypercars, and being in Europe with a brand like Ferrari would be a goal for sure. Below F1, you have to say hypercar is the next biggest thing, so as a driver that’s what you want to aim and prove yourself against all those big drivers and teams, so that’s something on the to do list.”

Header photo credit: Courtesy of Alexander Peroni