I don’t always feel the need to explain where a song comes from.
Most of the time, I like the idea that a song can mean different things to different people. That it can change depending on who’s listening, and when. (I’ve always loved the whole death of the author thing, but we’ll talk about that more at another point…)
This song feels a little different.
The Fastest Boy Alive came from a very specific moment, even though it doesn’t point directly at it. In fact, when I played the song to friends who follow Formula One closely, none of them could quite place which race it was about. It could have been lots of moments. That felt right to me somehow.
The moment that stuck with me wasn’t really about the race itself.
It was about what happens around it.
I’ve only really dipped my toes into the world of Formula One recently, through Jodie and her family. I can’t call myself a lifelong fan. But when I started watching, I found myself warming to Lando Norris - his attitude, his persistence, the sense that he was always on the edge of something.
When he won his first race, I remember feeling unexpectedly emotional. Not just excited, but moved. Part of that was seeing the reaction of his mum - that rush of pride, relief, disbelief, joy. It reminded me how rarely we see success framed through the people who carried someone to that point. The family who watched every near-miss. The long seasons of waiting.
That’s where the heart of the song lives for me.
One moment can be witnessed from dozens of angles.
The driver. The team. The fans. The rivals.
This song looks at it from the outside - from someone watching a person they love finally arrive at something they’ve been working towards for a long time. It’s about that surge of emotion when effort and timing finally line up, and how overwhelming that can be.
There’s also something about momentum in it. About the thrill of being ahead, even briefly. About the way one win can shift an entire season - or at least how it feels like it might when you’re inside that moment. Especially as a newer fan, that sense of anything could happen now is what brings me back to it.
The song doesn’t spell any of this out.
It doesn’t name names.
It doesn’t pin itself to a single event.
Well, that’s half true - he did win on a hot Miami night, and he was ahead of Verstappen by seven seconds at the end…
The moment was special to me - and undoubtedly to Lando and his mum.
But it could belong to lots of people.
A first win. A long wait. A family watching from the sidelines. A season turning on a single day.
That’s the story behind The Fastest Boy Alive.
Not as an explanation, but as a place it came from.
The rest is up to you.
Thank you for listening.
You can listen to The Fastest Boy Alive here - only on Bandcamp.
