This week I had the opportunity to interview a colleague I admittedly knew little about other than their interest in sport. So this was a real treat for me and opened my eyes to areas of Italy I’d never considered visiting as well as getting opinions on Formula 1 from someone much more in the know than I am. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I did!
Q. Could you introduce yourself, who are you and where are you from?
A. I’m Alessio Boccola I’m 30 years old and I come from a really small village in Italy. I’ve been in London for almost seven years now and in my spare time I enjoy Formula 1, sports in general, going back to Italy, good food and the good company of my friends.
Q. What is the name of your village? Tell me about life there.
A. My village is called Castelletto Di Brenzone on Lake Garda in the North of Italy, roughly 150KM from Milan. Life there is completely different from England, it’s completely different from a big city. You know, the rhythm, the vibes. Everyone knows everyone and it’s a cosy, intimate place.
Growing up there was really nice too, I felt like I was far away from crime and all the struggles of a big city.
Q. Is there anything in particular the Village or the surrounding area is known for?
A. Well the village itself has the typical products like Olive Oil or traditional recipes that our ancestors used to cook, but it’s not known for much as it is not one of the main villages. The lake itself, Lake Garda, is the biggest lake in Italy, and as such the Lake Garda region is well known for many things – the stunning locations, nature, food, and we have lots of water sports activities there or sailing competitions.
In the past the village was only really lived in by local fisherman, there was a church and a couple of shops but that was it.
Q. Do you find people from villages in Italy are very different to people from towns or cities.
A. Yes I think it’s like anywhere in the world really but I feel in Italy specifically big cities like Milan or Rome are completely different from the towns and my village can feel very much stuck in the past in the sense that you just know everyone, you can go for a walk and speak to so many different local people, swap stories, relax at the bar or by the lake and the pace is so much slower.
Q. It sounds like quite a peaceful place; do you have any standout memories from your childhood in this village because I find that children tend to find their hometown or in this case village quite boring and want to get out but when they are older they yearn to go back?
A. In terms of what I would do there as a kid it was all sorts of things such as fishing, playing hide and seek and all those you know, games that nowadays you don’t do anymore. We didn’t have a lot so we were very creative, sometimes we’d play football with whatever we could find. Sometimes we’d see cars in the street driving by and just say “Oh that’s my car” and talk about who had the best car first.
In terms of standout memories, although it’s impossible to pick one as it wouldn’t be fair, having so many memories of growing up in Castelletto, it must be something related to my family.
My grandma used to bring me every day at the harbour. We have a small harbour where the ferry boats came twice a day so she used to bring me there every day, so much so that the captain of the ferry would wave at me each time, I really enjoyed it and it stands out to me more now because my grandma passed away last year.
Q. That’s such a nice memory as well, I am sure she would be happy to hear that it still stands out for you.
Q. Let’s move on from Italy to more recent times, you mentioned you moved to England seven years ago. What made you want to move here?
A. That’s a good question. It goes back to when I was a kid, my favourite cartoon was the 101 Dalmatians. I started to see all the red buses and the red phone boxes, Big Ben and the royal guards and I always thought OK, that’s fascinating it would be nice to live there. One of my favourite things to watch was Mr. Bean which was also in London, other than that I’ve supported Chelsea Football Club as a foreign team since my childhood also.
This yearning went away for a while but when I reached the end of university in 2017 I thought to myself I need to move eventually anyway as there were little job opportunities in my village so I decided to visit London and booked a one way ticket, bringing only a single suitcase with me and lived in a hostel.
Q. I guess this was before Brexit where it was easier for people to come and go, what did you first few weeks look like?
A. I could write a book about the experiences, emotions, anecdotes of my first days, months, even years in the UK and maybe I will one day, but to sum it up real quick I wanted to take things slowly, so I booked a hostel for a month and began looking for work and places to stay after securing a job and now here I am seven years later.
Q. What is something about England or the wider UK that you really enjoy
A. Well, I’ve only really been in and around London so I haven’t seen that much but for me I love the opportunity and freedom you can have here, I always felt like I could do whatever I wanted and the opportunities I’ve had to meet different people, work my way up through a company with meritocracy. I don’t think I’d have these in my Village or even in Italy. I love how much of a melting pot England, or more specifically London is.
Q. Was there anything that surprised you about England?
A.I would say the different in culture from Italy to here is really different. There is a massive gap. I thought because we in my area of Italy we had Germans coming all the time for holidays because it’s nearby. So, I thought Germans were really different, but the Brits are the different one!
Of course, this is just my opinion, but I find you guys are less passionate than us, less warm than us as Latinos, however British people are generally so polite and sometimes too much because you always say sorry haha.
I find British people are not so judgemental, in Italy I think people care way more about who has money and who has success and criticise or point fingers whereas the Brits just get on with it. Again this is just my experience, but as I’m still here after 7 years I am really grateful for everything that the UK has offered me and still is.
Q. Do you find yourself able to find an Italian community within England or is that not something you actively sought out?
A. When I moved, I tried avoiding Italians at all costs for some time. Especially when I was looking for a place to stay, if there was an Italian person living there, I was trying to avoid it deliberately because I wanted to truly separate myself from the old me and because then the challenge for me was to be here on my own.
England has a lot of Italians in it though so in the long term I wouldn’t avoid them, but generally I’m just happy to meet and match with personalities rather than people from specific places. I met so many, you know, great people and those people redefined my idea of relationships. My idea of friendships, so I will be forever grateful for them.
Q. I’ve never been to Italy, but I see Italy as this beautiful place with much better weather than England among other things. Do you think you would like to stay in rainy England for the foreseeable and if so why?
A.My mum would not want to see this you know, they still hope that one day I’ll move back to Italy! So… I don’t see myself here forever. I think being here is just a part of a bigger journey I came here to learn to challenge myself to see if I can make it. You know in a different country in a different language. I gained so many memories, experiences and friendships. So, one day I would like to bring that back home and share it with the Community. So, I don’t see myself here forever now but again at the same time, if you ask me this question in five years, I might still be here.
Q. Speaking of language, I believe you’re self-taught in English. How did you do that?
A. I learnt some English at school, but it was at a very basic level. When I moved to England I didn’t know that much and it took me about 8 months to properly connect my brain to my mouth with what I wanted to say. I think I had a lot of patience and resilience to keep trying despite my broken English at first, I just had to practice every day.
It was a hell of a journey as the first few months I felt like an Idiot and went through a lot of feeling inadequate as I kept saying ‘Ok Yes’ to everything, plus being in London there were so many accents! These days though I’d consider myself fluent and I even dream in English.
Q. To go back to Italy, Is there something you miss as you visit quite frequently?
A. It’s just my family really, but I’m happy they are only a few hours away by flight should anything happen, or I need to go home. I do miss them every day but I feel there is nothing I can’t do because I know my family is not that far away. At the same time going back is also a “necessity” – we are all getting older and living far from home means there is a lot of family time that you miss and this doesn’t come back.
Q. It Is my understanding that Italy and its islands are quite different from region to region, do you feel this is quite similar to England and the wider UK in that you could travel to a nearby town and the dialect is totally different?
A. Well I don’t define myself an expert in terms of understanding the UK culture because I’ve just been in London so I don’t really know much about the wider UK. But in these 7 years I noticed people from the North and South make fun of each other. In Italy we do have this too, but I find it can be more offensive and I hate that. For example, people in the North of Italy can describe the south as ‘Third World’, and people from the south sometimes define people from the north as arrogant/cold.
But to me the south has some of the best beaches like in Sicily, Sardinia, Puglia and the people are very welcoming and warm. It’s similar in my village because we have that mentality but Milan for example, I find is too busy and the people are a bit arrogant perhaps because the North is generally the richer area or where major businesses are.
I wish we didn’t have such a divide because we have such a historic country and we need to protect and be proud of that as a whole, we don’t need to have stupid fights or attitudes between different areas. I do hope these attitudes don’t come across to people who visit Italy.
Q. As someone who has never been to Italy where would you recommend I visit?
A. I am biased but my village Casilleto honestly! Other than that it depends what you are looking for because we have so much. For History then Rome, Florence and also Verona, the closest city to Lake Garda, and Venice. All the South is beautiful but some other stand out places or me are Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria and Puglia.
If you’re more interested in Skiing side of things then Trentino Alto Adige is the standard Alps area to visit! Trentino is close to my area, is also a great place to visit in the North. Let’s not forget Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Cinque Terre…. For me Italy is like a person, every different area is an aspect of that person with their pros and cons but overall you can build a relationship with the country itself and create memories.
Q. Thanks for sharing so much about your journey! Let’s change the subject because you are one of the people who go me interested in Formula 1 last year from the way you described it and your passion for the sport. How long have you been interested in Formula 1?
A. I’ve been a fan since forever because in Italy Formula One is like a religion. I was born in 1993. So my first memory of the sport is around 1996-97. It was the Schumacher era so every Sunday we had lunch with my Grandma and relatives and around 2pm the Grand Prix would begin, in Italy it was on national TV as well so anyone could watch.
Even if you were not a big fan you watched it because it was on at the time and for us we are very passionate about Ferrari, that’s one of my earliest memories really, seeing that red car. That’s where my interest in cars comes from, seeing these sporty looking cars driving so fast on the track and the strategy that goes into a race.
In fact I’d be so in to cars I just to sit outside my parents shop and name any car my father would point to when he’d ask me what brand it was.
In terms of F1 I Don’t think there is singular reason why I like it, I loved following Lewis Hamilton from 2006 until now, I love the strategy, the mental focus aspect and the technology used as there is some really complex engineering going on too.
Q. I certainly see that now I’ve started to follow the sport it’s way more than just “driving in a circle” I think Lewis Hamilton’s recent win 9th at Silverstone after 2 years of not winning is the perfect example of this, it was a masterclass on strategy.
A .Strategy is a key element of F1 as F1 is a team sport, it involves the work of so many people and departments. The human factor is still very important despite we all know that if you don’t have a car that can fight for wins, you wouldn’t win. And the drivers skills are very much what makes the difference as well – Lewis is the best driver of his generation and in mixed-conditions races like Silverstone, he was excelling.
Q. I mentioned that you were a factor that got me interested in the sport, but I have to give credit to the Netflix show “Drive to Survive” also for getting me interested. I understand some of it is dramatized but I think it was a big factor in getting a lot of new fans into the sport, specifically in the USA. Would you agree?
A. I think the show exploded during COVID time specifically and I think this series is a massive success in what it set out to do which is get people interested in the sport, but at the same time they want people to keep watching so there is at times what I believe to be manufactured drama. If you’re asking me as an expert in Formula 1 I tend to watch everything from Practice to qualifying to the GP itself.
So I don’t watch this show with those eyes, I remember those races and what happened so I know the reality not what the producer wants to show. If I were to suggest a better documentary, I’d suggest the one on Brawn GP which was produced by Keanu Reeves on Disney+ because that is a true reflection on what happened and is told by a true fan and those involved.
Q. Do you feel the sport is becoming more like a show compared to before then because of aspects like the US focus and “Drive to Survive”?
A. I think that is the effect of the show in some way yes but also we have the DRS system which is not a true overtake for example, it’s no longer about who has the most money and crazy designs because of all the rules and regulations and all this drama, the sport should just focus on the sport.
I feel like some more recent events like Hamilton losing the championship in 2021 were just a fix due to the need for artificial drama.
Q. Would you say you’re becoming dissatisfied with the sport these days then? It sometimes even sounds like some drivers are, for example Verstappen.
A. It’s just no longer the same as it was when I was getting into it, you see the drivers constantly on social media, interviews etc it’s almost too easy to access them, it’s become more like a show and the passions seems not to be there from the drivers these days. However I’m no longer looking through the eyes of a child but it certainly feels like F1 is more a business model than a sport.
I think when Hamilton retires, I may just stop watching the sport because I feel as though there is little passion in the sport anymore and that’s quite sad.
Q. That is sad to hear to be honest because you and F1 go together so well it’s a real shame when someone falls out with an interest or hobby.
A. Yes but maybe fans of the past felt the same in my era, in the 60s, 70s and 80s the cars were coffins on wheels with little safety, there were no speed limits in the pit lane for example and the person waving the flag would be so close to the moving vehicles.
Q. How do you feel about the other formulas, specifically those like Formula E, I find the latter is struggling to get its footing in the world?
A. I think in the next 5 years Formula E may not really exist because of the focus on electric and hybrid F1 cars. People want to hear the sound of the engines, if you are at the track too you want to smell the fuel. It’s interesting though as Electric cars can actually go faster but I think it misses the feeling of true racing, also the cars sound awful.
I prefer endurance racing outside of F1 where they tend to use prototype cars but this is only in the last few years due to playing games like Gran Turismo. It’s funny you mention Formula E as it seems like F1 drivers who used to compete or did badly just get shunted there.
Q. Is there a particular circuit that stands out to you and why?
A. I would say Monaco because Monaco is like a everyday life kind of a scenario and you realise how fast they can go around those streets and that’s really stand out to me. Monaco I every time, I know people complain about it being hard to overtake in Monaco but that’s not the point of that race, the point is they are driving in real streets used everyday and it’s quite lavish and classic, Monaco is the race I look forward to the most.
Q. Where do you see the sport going in the future, what do you hope to see happen?
A. I’m afraid that Formula 1 ownership doesn’t really care about the sport, doesn’t really care about who wins like the fastest driver or the fastest car. I think it’s going in the direction of a business that need to sell you merchandise I’m totally convinced about it, at the same time I think it will keep growing in popularity because of this.
What I’d like is that they don’t lose focus on those manufacturers and hopefully make the rules more freeing as it will make for a more interesting race and sport overall, I also hope that new talent emerges that is on the right level in terms of passion and show a real human factor as I don’t think many drivers have that these days and when Hamilton leaves I wonder who will be on his level. Verstappen has the potential, but it seems that’s not his priority.
I think for the sport itself and the popularity things will improve which is great, just not so great for me.
I wanted to thank Alessio again for taking the time to share his story and go in depth on some topics. I hope that it has inspired you to perhaps give Formula 1 a try! If you’d like to follow Alessio you can on Instagram here. For more interviews please do have a look at the rest of this site and keep stopping by, it means a lot!
Interviews With You! By Lewis Jane 
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