NEWS

When Ethan Brown was unveiled in the summer as a Lamborghini Super Trofeo Junior Driver, it’s safe to say it made waves back home.

The 20-year-old, who has just completed his maiden season of GT racing in the Super Trofeo Asia championship, became the first Singaporean to be selected for the young driver programme and one of only three Asia-based talents.

“Motorsport is still a sport that is growing in Singapore,” says Brown. “There are no permanent karting tracks in Singapore, no real circuits for cars except for the [Marina Bay] Grand Prix circuit for the Formula One, so it was quite difficult to get into racing when I was younger.

“There was one kart track when I was a lad, so I was lucky enough to be able to do that until I was about 14 years old, and then I moved to Australia with the family and that’s where I furthered my career by moving into Australian Formula 3 and Radical cars.

“I spend my time hopping back and forward between Australia and Singapore, which is always quite nice, but racing still has quite a small following back home. There aren’t many Singaporean drivers either, so it was definitely a big deal back home when I got announced as a Junior Driver.

“We’re a small country and we are really proud of all of our sportspeople, especially when they compete overseas; I did an interview with the Straits Times which is our biggest newspaper in Singapore, and that made me kind of realise how big this step was for me.”

Brown had barely started his motorsport journey when he was forced to spend two years compulsory military service in his home country, before getting back in the car.

“It was an intense period, for sure!” reflects Brown. “Every male in Singapore has to do it, so I knew it was coming and I learnt a lot of skills which will serve me well in the years to come.

“Doing two years in the army taught me how to look after myself at a young age, take responsibility and maintain discipline, so that was really useful.

“I finished that at the start of this year and got straight back to racing, starting in Super Trofeo Asia with Leipert Motorsport which has been a really good experience.”

As the only full-season driver in the #27 Leipert Motorsport Huracán, Brown has had the relative luxury of learning the car and series at each round, benefitting also from the vast expertise of his team and notable stand-in team-mates.

Brown started the year on ‘home’ soil at Sydney Motorsport Park in Australia, partnered by Hampus Ericsson before contesting the second round of the year with German driver Jacob Riegel, who raced in the European Super Trofeo championship in 2023.

At Fuji and Inje, he was joined by Nikolas Pirrtilahti but drove solo at Sepang in Malaysia – a circuit Brown describes as ‘the closest I got to a proper home round this year’ – where he picked up his second win of the season and first individual victory in Super Trofeo.

“That win was really special for me, because it’s the closest I will ever race to home, and we had a lot of friends and sponsors there so that was really good to put on a good show for them.

“We had a really bad round at Inje, the previous round, too with a bit of contact so it was also good to bounce back from that and show to myself that I’ve still got it.

“I’ve felt that this year has been a great learning curve for me as a driver, and the Young Driver Programme has certainly helped with that. Also, I can’t thank my team Leipert Motorsport enough either; they helped me get up to speed really quickly and I’ve developed so much over the course of the season.

“I had done one GT race before, in GT World Challenge Asia, the year before so I knew kind of what to expect in terms of the occasion but that was a really nerve-racking experience.”

Brown has embraced his new surroundings throughout the 2025 season and quickly became a sponge for knowledge and experience, which became apparent from his very first test in Lamborghini machinery.

“It was actually at Spa, with Leipert, so no pressure hey!” says Brown. “I had done Spa millions of times on the simulator, so I knew how the circuit went and everything, but it’s another thing driving for real.

“It was just a normal test day, not many people around, just driving to get used to the car and the team, so it was very useful.”

Not many drivers get their first taste of a 620hp GT car at a track as demanding and technical as Spa-Francorchamps but diving straight into the deep-end has served Brown well.

“It taught me to adapt quickly, and nobody’s going to adapt for you,” explains Brown. “The team has been great, they have imparted a lot of their mechanical knowledge to me; how does the rear rollbar affect the car, what happens when you change the front dampers etc.

“Knowing all of that makes a huge difference to me in the car, meaning that I can understand what it’s doing and tell the team what I think needs to be done. It improves my ability to give better technical feedback to them and helps us work together to make me faster.”

For the future, the goals are clear. Brown wants to forge a career in GT racing and achieve the ultimate career objective of becoming a factory driver competing in the world’s biggest races.

“It was a big aim of mine to get on the Young Driver Programme in the first place, to test myself and to represent Singapore,” says Brown.

“That was a great achievement, it meant a lot to me and for Singapore. The programme has been great, speaking with Andrea Caldarelli and Niki Cadei during the season has been amazing. Just trying to get all of their knowledge and advice is helping me become a better driver.”

In a season where the Pro class has delivered one of the most competitive campaigns in years, Brown has caught the attention of not only his compatriots in Singapore but the eyes of those back in Sant’Agata Bolognese.

Even more so after Brown made his Super Trofeo Europe debut alongside another Young Driver Program member, Elias de la Torre from the USA. The pair gained a staggering 19 places from their starting position in race one at Barcelona before claiming a maiden podium finish in race two, showcasing their talents at the wheel.