Occupant of 5th place last year in the extreme class off-road championship, Mihai Chivu attacks the podium in the current season.
For thrill seekers, off-road racing is the perfect place to get a serious adrenaline rush. Mihai Chivu is one of the young pilots who want to attack the podium of the national championship this year, after last year he was 5th in the Extreme class.
He started this sport as a co-pilot for his uncle, Mihai Neagu, but two years ago they changed places.
“I am dating my uncle, there is a difference of about 30 years between us. When I was a kid he had a car like that and I think that’s when the passion started. But for the next 20 years I did not allow myself to have this passion. Then I talked to him and he still liked it, so we both started doing this 4-5 years ago. At the beginning I was co-pilot, and now I changed seats”, says Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
He says nothing compares to adrenaline and… mud baths.
“Basically yes, I like mud. We happily jump out of the car when we have to troll in the mud”, confesses Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Sometimes, due to the rough terrain, it happens that the cars overturn, but this only makes the adrenaline rush even more.
“I fell over many times, being the first year at Extreme. It’s not nice, I don’t recommend it to anyone, it’s better to be cautious, but I think I learned a lot from these twists and turns”, adds Mihai Chivu, off-road driver.
The sportsman loves his car so much that he even gave it a name.
“The car is kamikaze. It’s actually the club where I took it from and somehow it stayed and I left it like that, because even the first two stages with many incidents seemed to be kamikaze somehow. And then it stayed like that”, says Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Even if the off-road races have a different specificity than the Formula 1 ones, Mihai always watches the “Mare Circ” races.
He is convinced, however, that his favourite, Verstappen, would not cope in off-road racing.
“I really like Formula 1. It’s completely different, but as we see, there are also huge budgets and it can happen that in the first round you drop out. And we came to this race with a car made perfectly over the winter and after an hour we had an incident, so basically we ended the race there. However, I don’t think Verstappen would cope on off-road, it’s something else entirely. Here is a special feature. I’m with Verstappen, but I don’t like this hegemony, just like I didn’t like Hamilton either, so we’re waiting for those behind to come, someone has to spoil his calculations” – Mihai Chivu, off-road driver.
Passion for off-roading is expensive, but nothing is too expensive when you love what you do.
“It’s an expensive passion and we’re not just talking about money, we’re talking about the logistics on the side, mechanics, lost time, time away from home, each stage 4 days, you have to have this comfort to leave home for 4 days. One mechanic cannot handle the car because there are different problems. It’s an additional logistics and it’s expensive”, believes Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Regarding the car’s consumption, Mihai says that it is very high.
“I’m on gas, it probably uses one hundred percent, so to speak. We consume about 10 liters per hour, so basically we have to be careful. Those with diesel engines and slightly smaller consume, I think, around 20 liters per trip, so there is a big difference. We have to have bigger tanks, we consume more”, says Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Even though he started his career as a co-pilot, Mihai Chivu admits that he keeps his driving tips only on the circuit, because if he does that at home he risks remaining a pedestrian.
“I don’t beat my wife because she stops and puts me down. Then, it’s better not to risk and stay calm”, confesses Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Accustomed to the rough terrains on which he competes, the athlete says that some areas of Bucharest could easily be turned into an off-road circuit.
“If we didn’t follow the rules, Bucharest would be an off-road circuit without problems. But it goes much slower. When it’s crowded, it looks like the Extreme class there, at least from a mental point of view”, believes Mihai Chivu, off-road pilot.
Tags: Romanian pilot live adrenaline kamikaze dont Verstappen cope
