For the majority of the British F4 drivers this was the last test before the season gets underway at Brands Hatch next weekend. However, for Olli Caldwell it is one of few more pre-season tests with his season not kicking off until Croft in June, where Olli turns 15 years old.
A total of 15 drivers were present for the test at the tricky Rockingham circuit, three of those Challenge Cup racers which Olli will compete in this year. Olli was one of the busiest drivers in the morning session completing a total of 71 laps. With an average lap around 80 seconds that was certainly a lot of track time and it was all valuable laps for Olli.
It was on lap 35 that Olli set his personal best lap with a 1:19.856 which was 0.9 seconds back from Olli’s Arden Motorsport teammate, Oscar Piastri. Over the next 36 laps Olli was very consistent putting in some fairly decent runs, although many were cut short which was always preventing Olli from improving.
At the end of the session Olli was classified down in 10th place and was 2nd of the Challenge Cup drivers with the afternoon session still to come. Olli didn’t quite manage to tally up the same number of laps as he did in the morning session as he completed 29 laps.
His session started with an 8 lap run before we was forced to take quite a large break before coming back out on circuit with just over 30 minutes to go. After a red flag Olli had 22 minutes to try and put a respectable time on the board. It was a very busy track but with just five minutes to go Olli managed to find two tenths on his personal best from the day which was good enough for 9th place.
His best time was a 1:19.677 which was just nine tenths off the quickest time of the day. Although Olli never quite got the amount of laps in he would have liked to he managed to put a good time in with the time he had.
It’s more improvements made from the 14-year-old and more promise for the 2017 season. Olli won’t be racing at Brands Hatch and will join the championship at Croft, but will be watching on with plenty of interest. #OC64