Olli Caldwell will make history this weekend as he becomes the youngest driver in the World to ever race an F4 car. On Sunday Olli, will compete in races two and three in the British F4 Championship at Croft to break a record likely to never be broke again and he can’t wait to finally get out there!
Up until this point Olli has literally been watching from the sidelines for the season but as he turns 15 years old on Sunday Olli will finally be able to get out and race and show everyone what he can do.
Olli will be racing on the TOCA package with the British Touring Car Championship pulling in crowds of over 30,000 people and Olli’s races will be shown LIVE on ITV4. He’ll be racing in the Challenge Cup class, which takes the points from the best seven rounds of each driver. However, with Olli only competing in six he cannot afford any mistakes if he is to challenge for the title.
Olli has been out testing with his team, TRS Arden, this year and has just come off the back of two promising tests at Croft and Snetterton where he was amongst his fellow British F4 competitors. At the Snetterton test last week Olli was in the top ten and was within a second of the fastest lap. In the last session, he’d almost got the gap down to half a second before a radio distraction sent him into a spin.
Olli has fond memories of Croft. Last year he faced a similar situation as he had his Ginetta Junior debut and broke a record as he finished 5th in his very first race becoming the youngest and only driver to stand on a Rookie podium in their first ever race!
“I’ve been training hard physically, getting ready for my first race. I’m part of the Young Racing Driver Academy and I’ve been working really well with them. I’ve also got a personal trainer who does three sessions with me every week. I attended some of
the British F4 meetings earlier in the season to develop my understanding and to ensure I know what to expect. I feel prepared for what lies ahead.”
“With my birthday on Sunday I’ll miss qualifying and race one on Saturday so I know I’m going start at the back of the grid which takes the pressure off a bit, but I’ll be able to test on Friday which is good. So many of the British F4 races this season have been action-packed and it has just made me even more eager to race. I’m really looking forward to this weekend.”
“Olli’s arrival is certainly going to make the Ford F4 Challenge Cup even more interesting. It’s going to be tough to win it because he can only contest six meetings due to the timing of his birthday. It means he’s already lost one seventh of his point
scoring opportunities in comparison to his rivals, but I’m hopeful he can still come out on top.
“Although experience isn’t necessarily on his side, coming into the championship at pretty much the halfway point, we’re going to give him every chance to be successful. We’ve got a strong team, a good car and a lot of talented people around him.”