AU4’s Xavier Babbage-Hockey: ‘It teaches you everything’

• Joseph Black
• May 28, 2026
• Motorsport, Team Radio
• 0 Comments

Road car drivers come in all shapes and sizes. Single-seater competitors? Less so. But when Xavier Babbage-Hockey stepped into a Formula Vee for the first time in 2024, he measured in at 6 feet 1 inch and 120 kilos.

Babbage-Hockey’s first weekend came in the Motorsport Australia State Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park, a track he’s come to love and will be racing at twice this season in the 2026 AU4 Championship. It’ll be a different challenge, though, to when he contested it in the Vees.

“It’s a night and day difference,” he told me on the Team Radio podcast. “My Formula Vee, for example – the seat was held in by cable ties! Not to mention you’ve got downforce, slick tyres, a lot more data as well – a lot more variables you can change.”

“It teaches you everything. You’ve got a little bit of downforce, the rear likes to step out so you’ve gotta learn how to deal with that.”

40 kilos down and one year later, he made his AU4 bow, swapping his beloved Formula Vee for a Gen 1 car for the final three rounds of the season – two of which were actually at Sydney, and the final one of those saw him on the podium, taking a runners-up spot behind Andrew Fitzpatrick.

This was aided by the absence of Jensen Marold, who dominated the Gen 1 standings in 2025. The 15-year-old won every single race he competed in, joined on the podium by Fitzpatrick and Koby Wilson the majority of the time. In fact, in races that all 3 of them competed and finished in, only Jesse James Samuels was able to take the bottom rung.

In fact, it was only Fitzpatrick who was able to take a podium last season without the assistance of AGI Sport, the dominant team of the series. Babbage-Hockey and Marold both graduated with the team from the Gen 1 class to Gen 2.

“It’s not a team, it’s more of a family environment. Even when we’re doing data and whatnot I’m always talking to other Gen 2 drivers. […] It’s not like one of them first class flights where the passenger puts up the window to block you. I am still learning, we’re all learning and to be learning off of a driver like Jensen Marold is such a good opportunity to develop my own racecraft.”

A good place to be in to learn about racing these quicker cars. And it’s the start of a pipeline into higher single-seaters that is developing in that area of the world – the Formula Regional Oceania Trophy has seen an incredible development over the last few seasons, with high profile drivers like Ugo Ugochukwu and Freddie Slater attracted to the series in its 2026 campaign earlier this year. It’s exciting times for racing in the region, and that growing reputation has started to trickle down to AU4 with the benefits starting to be reaped.

14-year-old Lana Flack joined the series this year, making her Formula 4 debut after successfully karting across the country, and to assist her development her team brought in Polish driver Borys Łyżeń to act as mentor for the first few rounds of the season.

“It was a bit of a shock. I remember first being told about that and I was like ‘I can’t even say this kid’s name right.” The L is pronounced W, by the way. “I was talking to my mate Noah Killion about him as well and he said yeah, you’ve gotta watch out for him, he’s going to be really quick and funnily enough yeah, he was.”

Łyżeń sits within the top five of the Spanish F4 standings after the first round in Valencia, and comes from an entirely different racing background. Whilst tests are hard to come by in Australia, the 15-year-old tested for this season all throughout 2025.

“It’s just the familiarity that they have with the car. Just knowing where the limit is and always being able to put it on the limit is just so extraordinary, but also really cool at the same time. […] It really shows the capability of that driver as well which I’ll admit, I couldn’t have done especially at Winton.”

Xavier’s weekend in Victoria was mixed. A retirement in race 1 was not the ideal way to start off his campaign, but fourth place in race 3 was a promising sign for the season to come.

“As I say, as my dad says, swings and roundabouts.” said the Australian. “The better part of me is saying the high speed tracks like Sydney Motorsport Park are definitely up my alley rather than Winton. I’m just really excited to give it a go.”

His dad, 60-year-old Joe Hockey, is a former politician and diplomat who served as a member of the Australian Parliament for North Sydney for 19 years, and as Ambassador of Australia to the United States for four after that. He is not only influential over the current career of his son, but the past and potentially the future as well, if his ambitions are to be realised.

“The earliest memories I have of myself was my dad taking me to the 2009 Bathurst 1000. Those are some of the fondest memories I have is me and my dad going to the Supercars races.” Xavier confessed. “It’s just such a cool series. In a dream I would love to do it.”

But in the immediate future? “I definitely do have plans in the making for next year. Whether that is in single-seaters or a GT series I can’t quite say yes. I know what it is, I’m pretty confident it’s going to happen. I’m really hoping for one more step up in the single-seater ladder.”

It’ll definitely be interesting to see where he goes next. One thing’s for sure; he’ll stick out. Which is, funnily enough, something he does in the car already, what with being 6’1.

We see it in series like FROT, where the aforementioned Ugochukwu has a similar issue. He’s slightly taller, standing at somewhere between 6’3 and 6’5, but with the majority of drivers standing at less than 6′ it presents a unique challenge.

“It’s not like I can chop three inches off my height, I’ve just got to put up with it. And i think that’s what motorsports is, really, as a whole. You’re never going to have that picture perfect weekend. There’s always going to be some variables you can’t control and you just have to learn to drive around it.”

And he has been and continues to be learning with the likes of Marold and AGI Sport, but he’s also had some external help. 31-year-old Josh Buchan, a very successful local driver mostly in the TCR Australia Touring Car Series where he has 3 titles, has assisted Babbage-Hockey in his development as a driver. A runners-up spot in the 2019 Australian Formula 3 Championship is experience he will be utilising to benefit his compatriot.

[Buchan]’s been a bit of a mentor for me. […] He says it how it is as well, he doesnt sugarcoat anything. And there were times where he was like ‘no, you’re an idiot for doing that.’ Tough love, the most effective kind. “He put me in the right headspace in races. I’d say he really moulded me as a driver stepping into F4.”

For Xavier, it’s set to be a decisive year as he looks to take at least one more step up the single-seater ladder. But first, full focus on an important AU4 Championship for his career.