World’s first armless racing driver steers with his feet
World’s first armless racing driver steers with his feet
Timothy SigsworthMon, September 7, 2026 at 10:21 AM UTC
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Twenty-three-year-old has signed as a rookie driver for Team Brit, a competitive team of disabled racing drivers - Anita Maric/SWNS
The world’s first armless racing driver steers with his feet and is aiming for Le Mans.
Callum Smith, 23, was born without his upper limbs but now races at high speed using his feet alone.
He has become the first completely armless person in the world to drive a racing car after signing a contract with Team BRIT, a racing team for disabled drivers.
Mr Smith, a finance assistant from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, drives by steering using his left foot and accelerating, braking and indicating with his right.
“I’m going to be the first person to be racing without any arms, the first one ever,” he said. “I grew up in the motorsport world, my grandad was a massive biking fan and I loved it from such a young age.
“Once I started getting into driving, I always had that self-belief that I had what it took to be a racing driver and knew that I could do it.”
By the age of 10 Callum Smith was playing drums with his feet - Callum Smith/SWNS
Despite his disability, Mr Smith, whose birth without his arms remains a mystery to doctors, has become an accomplished driver.
“I use my left foot to steer, and then the right foot does everything else as normal,” he said. “On top of the accelerator, I have an indicator switch – I have a Lodgeson’s Bleeper System, which gives me buttons for the horn, main beam, window wipers, etc.
“I steer with my left foot. It’s a steering wheel in the footwell that operates the steering wheel.”
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He added: “My feet are like my hands – I write with my right foot, I play Xbox with my feet like FIFA and Call of Duty.
“I play guitar with my feet, and I eat by myself using a normal knife and fork.”
Mr Smith is seeking sponsorship to enable him to take up racing professionally - Anita Mari/SWNS
Mr Smith is now working towards his full racing licence, something that requires him to prove he can undo his harness and open the car door unaided.
“It’s hard, there’s a lot of eye-to-foot coordination,” he said. “The biggest surprise to me is how heavy the steering feels in a race car, everything is stiffer.
“But I love it and I’m quite keen to get it sorted, I’m motivated to get it done. Confidence I’m not short of, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work.”
Mr Smith is seeking sponsors to allow him to go full time before a year-long training programme.
Bartosz Osta&lstrokowski, from Poland, is the world’s only professional racing and drifting driver who operates his car using only his feet, after his arms were partially amputated following a motorcycle accident.
However, Mr Smith is the first driver without any arms at all to have signed a racing contract with a team – and he is highly motivated to be successful.
“I want to be number one,” he said. “Whatever championship I compete in, I want to be number one. I’m not there to collect a participation trophy – I want to be top.”
Source: “AOL Sports”
