Alex Berg secured his first-career Formula 4 United States Championship (F4 U.S.) win earlier this season at New Jersey Motorsports Park. One of eight drivers to stand on the top step this season, Berg finished seventh in the final point standings, despite missing the final race of the season for a chance to represent Team Canada in the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy. Throughout the course of the 2023 season, Berg drove his No. 08 No. 08 MySim.ca / Rohde & Liesenfeld / Easy Drift / Penn Elcom Online / Dae Systems Ligier JS F4 to four podiums and 13 top-10 finishes.
Where are you from and what's your favorite thing about your hometown?
Alex Berg (AB): “I'm from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My favorite part about Calgary is the airport [laughs]. No, no, no, don't say that—that sounds wrong. I'm a big fan of the Calgary Stampede; it's a rodeo that goes on once a year. It’s a really cool event.”
When and how did you decide that you wanted to race? And once you made that decision, what were your steps to reach F4 U.S.?
AB: “It wasn't really a decision; it was just something that I always wanted to do. The decision, I guess, was asking my dad—well, bugging my dad—every single day to buy me a go-kart and put me into racing. I didn't really understand anything about racing until I got a little older, but I was just begging him every day to buy me a go-kart. Eventually he did, and that's how I went racing. I'm thankful for that.”
Who is your racing idol and why do you look up to them?
AB: “My racing idol is my dad. He had a long career in racing—racing a whole bunch of different things, such as Formula 1. He's my idol because he's my dad, but also, he's always taught me what I should learn. He makes sure that I learn from the mistakes that he made in his career so that I don't have to make them, or at least not to as great an extent. He's given me a lot of advice, and he's my number one supporter.”
What's the best advice that he's given you? Does anything stick out?
AB: “Once you've started to go fast—once you’ve found a trick or something on a track, don't try to go faster. Just try to keep doing whatever you did over and over again. If you’re able to do that, you'll find yourself subconsciously going faster.”
If you could only drive one track for the rest of your life, which track would you want it to be?
AB: “I would have to say VIR—VIRginia International Raceway. There's no place like that; it's heaven on earth. I love the scenery; I think it's really beautiful. The high-speed, flowing bits. It has a little bit of everything. It has low-speed corners, high-speed corners, and just all the weird bits about it. It's like a lot of different tracks all in one—if that makes sense.”
Alternatively, what is the one track that you dream of racing on one day?
AB: “I'd have to say Circuit de la Sarthe—the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit. That's a dream track of mine. The whole idea of racing at Le Mans is a dream. It’s like a half-street, half-real racetrack circuit, how long it is—you kind of go to a different place while you're on the track—it's something like eight miles long. That's an attractive factor to me.”
Tell me about one race that really sticks out to you. Either maybe it's a best race, or it's just a race that you'll always remember for whatever reason. Any point in your career.
AB: “That would have to be a race weekend last July when I was racing in the Mazda Spec-MX5 Series; it was my first ever time at Daytona International Speedway. I had never been there before, but running at Daytona was always a dream of mine. Just to be racing on the high banks, on the 24-hour road course, was an amazing feeling. I ended up winning both races that weekend, and it was almost like a dream come true. That was also the weekend that I clinched my first-ever championship in car racing at the Spec-MX5 South Region Championship. Just the whole weekend was a lot of fun, and it's going to be a memory that is in my mind forever.”
