13-year-old Quebec kart racer has Formula 1 dreams

He stepped onto a dirt bike not long after he started walking. He began racing on motocross tracks before kindergarten, and he got behind the wheel of a race kart before his double digits.

Now a teenager, Alexis Baillargon says he has one goal in mind.

“I want to be an F1 driver,” said the 13-year-old from L'Épiphanie, Que.

Alexis’s father, Mathieu, raced dirtbikes and ATVs, and brought his son to a race when he was two years old.

He says that he noticed his son liked the race, so he bought him a toddler-sized dirtbike with training wheels.

Alexis took to it immediately.

"It was looking good, so I said, 'maybe you should race,'" said Mathieu.

Alexis Ballargeon was winning motorcross races by the time he was four years old. (Mathieu Baillargeon)

At four years old, Alexis was racing and winning motocross events.

"So I was, wow, OK, we're going to do the all the season next year," said his father. "Since then, like four to eight, he won all the championships in motocross."

Alexis Baillargeon began winning motorcross races shortly after he turned four and didn't stop winning until he swapped his dirt bike for a kart and began winning in that sport. (Mathieu Baillargeon)

From two wheels to four

Alexis says he knew that if he was ever going to race in Formula 1, like his heroes Daniel Ricciardo or Lewis Hamilton, he would have to start racing on four wheels.

At nine years old, his father okayed the swap from motocross to kart and Alexis was off chasing checkered flags and winning races.

"It was not the same feeling at all," said Alexis. "It was very fast, and it was an amazing, amazing feeling. I don't know how to explain it."

Thirteen-year-old Alexis Baillargeon has been racing for over a decade and has hopes of one day getting behind the wheel of a Formula-1 car. (Mathieu Baillargeon)

Lessons in patience

Alexis is coming off a tough year and looking to improve in 2025.

After winning the Rok Vegas Championship race in 2023, Alexis was hoping for more silverware in 2024.

He travelled to Italy in October to compete for the RMC Winter Trophy and to Las Vegas in November for the SuperKarts! USA Supernats, but crashed in both races.

"For me, it was [an] unlucky season," said Alexis. "For sure, that was not my best season."

Moving forward, Alexis says he knows he needs to be more patient and less eager to always pull ahead.

"I want to pass like, every lap," he said. "I was not patient for passing people…If I'm patient, and maybe not angry in my in my helmet, but like, more smooth."

Passion for the sport and a need for speed is part of Alexis’s personality, his father said.

"He always wants to win," said Mathieu. "He’s hard on himself…In the pits, you all see the parents that push the kids. I have to, like, break him off. ‘You're too crazy. Like, calm down…' He's got that in him. I don't have to push him."

Racing against money

To race, you need money.

The couple that accompanies Alexis to the races knows full well that their team is at a different financial level than the others.

"All the kids that we race with, they all have parents that got a lot of money - the company, or whatever. Me, that's not our case," said Mathieu. "I'm just a mechanic. My girlfriend is a teacher, so we have to work to find the people to help us."

Alexis is currently signed up with Road to Racing Canada, a charitable organization that helps support drivers by finding sponsors and donors.

In addition, the team’s sponsor, PSL Karting, helped get Alexis to several races in 2024.

First up in 2025 is a trip to Florida at the end of January, where the F1 hopeful can put to use the lessons he learned last year.