From sibling rivalry to Formula 4 spotlight: Ishaan Madesh steps up his chase to the top

Success came quickly once Ishaan Madesh stepped into Formula 4. A debut F4 Indian Championship season of three wins, eight podiums and a third-place finish overall established him as the highest-ranked Indian. But what took longer was discovering that racing was where he truly belonged.

Before Formula cars, podiums and championship points, he was simply a younger brother trying to catch up. It began as a friendly rivalry with his elder brother Rohan Madesh and soon became the foundation of his racecraft, his motivation, and ultimately, his rise through the ranks.

Ishaan still remembers the moment his racing story accidentally began. “It was just one random day. My brother was always more interested in the sport than I was. He and my dad were going to the karting track in Bangalore, then I just tagged along,” he tells Sportstar.

He was only eight years old, and interestingly, more fascinated by horses than engines. “I was a lot more interested in horse riding than karting. I used to go to the embassy riding school with my mother. Everybody used to tell me to pursue horse riding and not karting.”

But the thrills of pace on the track got to him. Ishaan didn’t have a formal coach in the early years, but he had Rohan.

“I basically learnt everything from him. The first day he’d be so far away, and then the gap would keep coming closer and closer.” Slowly, karting became not just an activity, but the thing he wanted to be good at.

Their rivalry wasn’t just productive, but occasionally entertaining, too. Ishaan recalls one particular race with a cheeky smile. “We were one and two, and I think he won it by like two hundredths of a second. We came into the pits after the race, and I went and put a protest on him without telling anyone. He lost the race, and I inherited the win. It was quite funny,” he quips.

As for who’s quicker today, there was no hesitation. “Yeah, I would say I am, but I’m sure he would beg to differ,” says Ishaan, the younger brother by one and a half years.

Fast track to the world stage

The speed of his ascent has been striking. Ishaan started racing in 2017, won his first title in 2018, and that same year gained international exposure at the IAME X30 World Finals and ROTAX World Finals.

The global stage was certainly intimidating at first. “I was nine or ten years old, but I learnt to learn. They were all extremely fast, and the way they raced, everything was very different from how we did it in India,” admits Ishaan.

At the same time, India’s motorsport scene was quietly catching up. “Back when I was driving in, say, 2019, there might have been six or seven karts on the grid. But if you look at it now, we have, I think, 37 in one category.

“Now there are a lot of foreign drivers who race in the UK or Europe coming to India. They are not able to win,” says Ishaan, who has played his part in this changing landscape as well.

Greater speed, higher stakes

After several years of karting — and wanting to close that chapter with a senior national title, which he did in November — he stepped into Formula cars, the more advanced open-wheel, single-seater league. Age had held him back earlier.

“It was a huge jump, especially with the speed difference. In karting, it’s a really smooth drive. In Formula cars, it’s with much higher speeds, so much more risky. I have to unlearn a lot of the way,” he says. His coach, Raghav Rangaswamy, has been key in helping him come to pace.

But there’s another side to the racing prodigy: Ishaan is still a full-time student, balancing schoolwork with frequent travel. “If you look at a normal day, it would just be wake up, go to school, come back, and do a lot of tuition. Otherwise, it’s just from school straight to the airport and then straight to the track. I do a lot of tuition to study beforehand and not fall behind.”

The victories he’s claimed so far could make anyone dream big, yet Ishaan keeps his focus steady. “Goal-wise, obviously, F1 is like a dream. It’s very ambitious. But right now, I’m focussing on trying to reach Formula Regional by 2027.”

For the boy who once simply tried to keep up with his elder brother, the chase has grown bigger, faster and all the more purposeful.

Published on Dec 15, 2025