Jarrod Waberski on karting, single seaters and swapping Kyalami for Silverstone

Jarrod Waberski is a South African racing driver with dual British nationality and since 2022, has made the UK his home. Jarrod’s dad, Garth Waberski, was a racing driver himself, competing in British F3 and Formula Renault in the 1990s, and, when Jarrod was born, he was still racing in South Africa. It’s no surprise that Jarrod was introduced to motorsport through his family at a young age and began karting when he was just four years old. Since then, he has competed in a range of karting championships from Formula Ford in South Africa to GB4 and GB3 in the UK.

Silverstone caught up with Jarrod to discuss his career so far, from leaving South Africa and swapping Kyalami for Silverstone, and his Formula 1 goal.

There was never any pressure on Jarrod to begin karting from his parents, but his initial interest in motorsport was indeed sparked by his father’s own racing career. Jarrod’s karting career began with indoor karting for over a year, because he was too young to compete in anything at four. He got his own go kart for his following birthday and started testing at the bigger karting tracks and then moved onto his first race as soon as he was old enough. It wasn’t long before he won his first championship and progressed through the karting ranks.

“2018 is one of the years that stand out for me in karting,” Jarrod says. “I won the Mini ROK Championship that year in South Africa, a national championship, and I won nine out of the twelve races in the year.

“I won the national championship and a regional championship that same year and I won over 95% of the races that year.”

Come 2019 and the next step for Jarrod was to make the transition into single seaters. Initially, he wasn’t old enough to race but he moved into Formula Ford in South Africa in 2019 and towards the end of the year, he began testing. In 2020, he competed in his first Formula Ford race at Zwartkops Raceway.

“I was on the podium in my first ever race,” Jarrod says. “Then COVID hit and we were in lockdown for a whole year and in South Africa, there was no racing from then onwards, so I couldn’t do anything for a year.

“I did another year in the South African Formula 1600 National Championship and came second in my second year.”

The classes and cars available to young racing drivers in South Africa are very different to those in Europe. Formula Ford is the highest level of single seater racing you can do in South Africa and it’s on a basic level compared to Europe. Despite that, the level of South African racing drivers is extremely high, with names including Jordan Pepper and the van der Linde brothers hailing from South Africa but racing overseas.

“The competition I grew up with was really strong so I’m grateful for that because it taught me a lot when I was climbing the ranks,” Jarrod says. “When it came to certain cars, like the Formula Fords, after I’d done a year in that, I had to progress and there was nothing left in South Africa for me to progress to.

“It’s similar with South African race tracks, we have decent tracks that are similar to Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, but they aren’t to the level of some tracks in England. When I raced at Silverstone for the first time in 2022, I’d never done anything like it in my life.”

As Jarrod was transitioning out of South Africa and preparing to move to the UK, he won his South African Protea Colours, the highest possible accolade you can achieve in motorsport in the country. Ultimately, to be awarded your Colours, you have to win a national championship and then have a certain amount of years to compete overseas and finish in a certain percentage. After winning a national championship in 2018, Jarrod was still qualified at the end of 2021 and into 2022 to move into an overseas category.

“In 2022, I came over and did GB4 where I won races and came second in the standings, which automatically qualified me to win my Colours,” he says. “I was awarded at the beginning of 2023.

“It was a special moment because those were my Senior Colours and I would’ve got my Junior Colours earlier on but COVID delayed everything so it was nice to finally get my Colours. It just ticked all my boxes for South Africa and I left no stone unturned.”

Moving to England was always part of Jarrod’s plan for his racing career. It was delayed due to the pandemic, but because his dad raced in the UK, it was easier to make the move because they already had connections with teams. In 2022, Jarrod wasn’t supposed to make the move to the UK but after a difficult opening weekend racing at Killarney in Cape Town, the fight for the championship was almost impossible.

The Monday after the race, Jarrod and his dad received a call saying there was a free seat available for the first round of the GB4 Championship at Snetterton. A quick turnaround, with his dad’s Visa arriving on the Tuesday of race week, Jarrod arrived in England on the Wednesday and drove the car for the first time on the Thursday.

“We got a podium that weekend, and the second round was only two weeks later so we decided to stay and do that round as well,” he says. “I ended up winning at Oulton Park and that sealed the deal for me to finish the season off.”

Even though he always knew it was coming, leaving South Africa was difficult for Jarrod. He moved to the UK with his dad, leaving the rest of his family back in his home country, because he couldn’t maintain flying back and forth for each race weekend like he did in 2022.

“2023 was the first year I ended up staying in England, the first year where I left everything behind,” Jarrod says. “I did have different emotions. It’s just me and my dad over here and the rest of my family in South Africa.”

The 2022 GB4 Championship was a crucial part of Jarrod’s adjustment to racing in the UK. Moving straight into a GB3 campaign without any prior experience would’ve been a challenge, a huge learning curve.

“That year in GB4 helped me learn all of the tracks on the calendar,” Jarrod explains. “Everything is so different, the weather is one example because the coldest it gets in South Africa in the winter is 20 degrees, so it was a big thing to learn with the car because racing with different temperatures makes a big difference.”

GB3 was always part of Jarrod’s plan to climb the motorsport ladder overseas and finishing second in his debut GB4 year, with no testing to his name and a whole load of international travel to make each race weekend work, helped to accelerate his move to GB3.

“Everyone I competed against had a whole winter testing programme but I’m glad I didn’t do that because it made me stand out a bit more,” he says. “I was lucky to then get invited to a test and things like that with various teams so that opened doors for me to do GB3 because if I hadn’t done that, it would’ve been hard to get in with most of the teams.”

In GB3 this year, Jarrod finished P6 in the standings with 286 points. He visited the podium three times, twice on the second step and once on the third, including once at Silverstone, where he finished off GB3’s second visit of the season to the Home of British Motorsport in P3.

“It was a really great weekend at Silverstone with P3 and P4,” Jarrod says, “Being on the podium at Silverstone is always a special feeling and one to always remember.”

As well as taking trips to the podium at Silverstone, Jarrod is also a BRDC Rising Star – the first ever South African driver to be part of the prestigious racing club.

“Having the support of the BRDC has helped a lot,” he says. “The opportunities it brings you, they do whatever they can to put you in the right place.

“I’m forever grateful to be part of such a prestigious club.”

Since moving to the UK full-time last year, Jarrod has spent his time close to Silverstone. He spends every day training at the track and he’s got a track record of living close to racing circuits, having grown up with Kyalami outside of his bedroom window in South Africa. So not only was the first time he drove the circuit a special moment, but being close to one of the most iconic racing circuits in the world is special, too.

“Silverstone is such an iconic track and I remember the first time going out, I just had the biggest smile on my face so it’s definitely something I’ll never forget,” he says. “Going to my first F1 race in 2022, I attended as a fan and sat on the Hamilton Straight, and that’s a memory I’ll never forget.

“To sum up what Silverstone means to me, it’s my second home. It’s one of my favourite tracks and it just feels like home.”
As he climbs the motorsport ladder with each year that passes, Jarrod’s ultimate goal on the top step is one he keeps reminding himself of.

“Formula 1 is the goal,” he says. “There hasn’t been a South African to do it since Jody Scheckter.

“That’s one of the things that being from South Africa makes a lot harder, so being here now, I’m one step closer. I just need to take it one step at a time and keep moving towards my F1 goal.”