Verstappen praised by GT driver as racing popularity continues to rise

There has been a recent rise in popularity within GT racing. This is mainly due to Max Verstappen stepping into GT3 racing. On whether or not this was beneficial, Barnicoat said, "Massively. Motorsport, on the whole, is in such a good place right now. Look at Formula 1, there's never been so many families. Switch to endurance racing, you know, the top class of prototypes, there's never been so many manufacturers involved, which is fantastic to see."

According to Barnicoat, many GT drivers, including himself, attempted to make it into F1. The Briton added, "There are guys that didn't even make it on the single-seater ladder because they weren't good enough, but they're here. It's only going to highlight how much talent we have here and how many great drivers there are, and if we get more fans off the back of Max going and doing it, I think it's great for us."

In terms of single-seaters, the furthest Barnicoat got was Formula 3. When asked why he did not make it to F1, he said, "Very simple, I didn't have enough funding. I was incredibly fortunate at a young age. I had the support of a foundation called the Racing Steps Foundation, which was essentially a charity that funded British drivers who had good talent and good ability but not enough funds."

During his time in single-seaters, Barnicoat climbed the ladder all the way to Formula 3 before the Racing Steps Foundation stepped away from motorsport. After that, he became a Mercedes-AMG simulator driver before making the switch to full-time endurance racing.