Karting Champion and tutor, Mike Wilson spoke about his first encounter with Lance during his karting days in an interview, with an interesting comparison to a young Fernando Alonso, whom he'd also mentored: "Before leaving I said to my wife: "The father told me that the boy is very good. But it's normal to say that, do you know how many times I've heard it before? I assure you that if he is not phenomenal, I will return home, I don't want to waste time". Instead, when I saw him on the track, I realised that his father had his reasons and that this was a special child, with something more than others. Above all I was surprised by his determination: it was greater than normal. And this is strange, because boys who comes from such wealthy families generally do not need to struggle to get anything; consequently, they are not very determined. Not him. Quite the contrary! Before him, the last boy I had seen with his "willingness" was Fernando."

"Lance drove well and listened to all the advice. I remember a ROK International Final in which he started from the front row, in second place. The commissioners decided to replace the clutch for the first four (a precaution to avoid misconduct …) and he, at the second restart, started badly due to an overheated clutch. He was among the last drivers, but he did not lose heart because of this: he put his head down and proved to be among the fastest on the track. If he had started further ahead he would have won the race, also because he managed to overtake without wasting time: if you can do this at 11 years of age, it's only because you have talent. If that inconvenience had happened to me, I would have been so annoyed that I would have stopped and returned to the pits. It was certainly not easy to tutor Lance in those years: I would stay on Canada for a month, then return to Italia for a few weeks. Then I would go back to Canada, and so on. With a wife and children at home it certainly wasn’t easy. But it gave me great satisfaction: when he would climb onto the podium it would be as if I was there with him. Making money is important in life, but doing something you like is better. At my age, I still manage to get emotional on the track, and staying close to Lance was emotional.” - source