00:00 I always had that fire in me, that attitude where if someone tells me that I can't do it,
00:06 I kind of want to do it just to prove them wrong.
00:08 My name is Arum Hamad Alif. I am better known as Alif Hamilton and I race for Team Flash.
00:27 E-racing is basically motor racing like Formula One that you see out in real life,
00:32 but it's in the game, right? It's on the PC.
00:35 Growing up, my parents were bankrupt, so it was always like a bit of a struggle.
00:48 But my parents were great. We never really felt it, me and my brother.
00:52 I've always wanted to be a Formula One driver, but because of the amount of money that's
00:57 required to become a Formula One driver, I could never go near that. But I think that's
01:02 where e-sports came in and kind of like became another avenue for me to be a racer.
01:07 I entered sim racing back in 2009. I believe I was 10, 11 years old. So when Formula One
01:15 first came to Singapore, there was like a road show, right, going on and where they were,
01:21 they had a lot of simulators over there. So I learned how to drive at these road shows.
01:26 So that's how kind of how I got my first start. And then I turned pro in 2018.
01:31 Everyone has the same equipment and oftentimes more than not, it kind of is the best equalizer
01:44 to show who's the fastest driver. So I really always enjoyed that.
01:50 So right now I'm in university in the States through an e-sports scholarship. People told
01:56 me, like, oh, if you're going there to race and study, you're not going to excel in either of
02:02 them. But I took that same thing personally. And I'm like, now I've got a Dean's List twice in a
02:07 row and I've won three championships. So I feel like it's been working out really well.
02:12 So I've won seven Asia-Pacific championships and I've won three American championships.
02:18 The seven Asia-Pacific championships kind of happened after I turned pro in 2018. So every
02:23 year I kind of won one or two. And then when I got the opportunity to go to the States,
02:28 won another three. I always had that fire in me, that attitude where if someone tells me that I
02:34 can't do it, I kind of want to do it just to prove them wrong. So if like anyone just comes up to me
02:39 and like, you can't go faster than me, I'm like, okay, I'll show you. I just feel the speed,
02:45 the sound, the rawness, the emotions of cars in general. It's just all of it. It just combines to
02:52 make that beautiful symphony of like engineering that man has made.
03:00 So my first competition was in 2011 and it was held at Marina Square. It felt quite special
03:12 because I was what, 11, 12 years old. So all these, and I was going up against all the adults
03:19 at that time. So I'll always like look up and I would barely fit in the rig. So they'd always have
03:25 to shift my pedals back every time I do. But at the same time, it was a good challenge because I
03:31 always wanted to be like, you guys may be taller than me, stronger than me, but I still want to
03:36 beat you guys. So I think that's where it all kind of lit up for me. So my IGN is Alif Hamilton. So
03:44 I've always been a Lewis Hamilton fan growing up. The reason was, I think growing up, he was the
03:49 only one who kind of like resembled, looked like me. And he's always been like super supportive.
03:54 Whenever a kid approaches him, he always makes time for him. So I was that kid back then. It was
04:00 at a hotel, the hotel that he was stayed in. My father figured out where he was staying at by
04:05 looking at all the sponsors, they were at the bottom of the website. So we were like the only
04:09 family hanging out at the hotel lobby at like five in the morning waiting for him. Shook his hand,
04:14 I was like, "Yes, I want to be like you." So that was the first thing that came out of my mouth.
04:18 He was like, "You can do it." He told me that if I can do it, you can do it too.
04:22 And don't listen to anyone else who say you can't. Believe in yourself.
04:28 Every Formula One driver out there has a sim at their homes because of how cost effective it is
04:35 to learn a new track and how close it is to reality. And at the same time, they can compete
04:41 with everyone else and kind of own their own skills. So it's very, very important right now.
04:45 I have raced against a few Formula One drivers so far. For example, Max Verstappen. So I raced
04:52 against him in real life in 2015. Romain Grosjean, Sophe Vandon, a few of these really good drivers.
04:59 I mean, obviously it is a game, but you can still learn so much from it that you can apply in your
05:03 life. So in sim racing, we need to tune our own cars, which means that we have to be an engineer
05:09 literally to understand all the different, different parts of the car, suspension, geometry,
05:13 the engine, engine modes, the mix, whatever. So it kind of forces you to learn a lot of different
05:19 stuff that you kind of can carry on to real life. I've lost way more than I've won. The most painful
05:31 ones are the ones that you put in so many hours in, like a month's worth of training only for your
05:38 PC to die. Or your teammate put the car in the wall in the first lap of the race or the endurance
05:44 race. And it can be like a 24-hour race, right? So all these things kind of plays a part. It's
05:50 part of sport. You know, I think every athlete out there has probably lost more than they've won.
05:54 I always treat my losses as a way of learning. So if I ever lose a race, I never feel like giving
06:03 up. It's more of like, I just love to go back and then reanalyze what I did wrong so that I can be
06:09 better in the next race. It's been ingrained in me, that part of me. I never really treat a failure
06:16 like a total failure. Inspiring the younger generation, that's also pretty cool because I
06:23 have all these kids messaging me on Instagram, like, "What are the steps?" Like, asking for tips
06:29 and advice. So I think that's a pretty cool alternative pathway, I would say. I was at some
06:35 sim racing meet and this little kid just ran around. "Alif, yeah, I want to be like you. Can
06:40 you teach me?" I'm like, "Sure." Then I just kind of set him on the rig and showed him a few
06:45 techniques. That was my first time experiencing that, so it was pretty cool. I want to be a world
06:50 champion. So I think that's kind of what I've been working towards. And hopefully, eventually,
06:56 kind of make it to real life racing. But at the same time, if I don't get that opportunity, I'm
07:02 perfectly fine because obviously that wasn't meant to be. I never want my last win to be my peak.
07:08 I always want to make my peak the next one, and then the next one, and the next one. And then,
07:12 obviously, that's like a staircase, right? Just keeps climbing, climbing, climbing. Obviously,
07:17 perfection is almost impossible to achieve, but it's the chase, the dedication, the work to
07:24 hit that perfection.
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