Despite being “released” from the Mclaren driver programme at the end of 2025, the young American driver, Ugo Ugochukwu, clinched the 2026 FIA F3 Championship with Campos in Madrid. A former winner of the Macau GP (from the pole, after dominating his heat) and of the ultra-competitive Oceania series in New Zealand, Ugo’s background is fascinating: his mother is a Nigerian model and his father an Italian fashion designer; he was born and raised in New York City. In this short video, Peter says that it is beholden on F1 to ensure that its cockpit regulations accommodate drivers like Ugo (who is 5′ 6″, or 1.67m) – and questions why McLaren sacked him at the end of 2025.
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Thank you for speaking about this in a thoughtful and informative way. This makes a lot of sense
Very odd call from McLaren to ditch him, height issues are overstated imo, not far off Ollie bearman/ocon.
He was dropped from McLaren because of a winless season in F3, not because of his height.
What if he only had one foot should they allow hand brakes ? Let’s not go full woke here. I can’t play pro ball cause in short. So if someone is 7 ft 1 should they be able to? Where is the limit to this thinking
Pete, apparently McLaren disagrees with you. If they saw a future F1 champion I'll guess he'd still be with McLaren.
Gerhard Berger was over 6' tall. The rules should allow any height within the bell curve
Imagine your height is your enemy, what a world these guys with normal height have live. These little guys are not the only one should be driving.
For the record cam is not brilliant
We all know why McLaren ditched him!!!
But he doesn't KNOW why they got rid of him and it's their perrogarive. No one owes him anything.