This weekend will see Olli Caldwell in France at the Paul Ricard circuit for the second round of the Italian F4 Championship. After a strong start to the season at Adria just a couple of weeks ago, where Olli scored three top ten finishes including a 4th place in race two, the Prema Theodore Racing driver sits 6th in the championship. A great start for the 15-year-old in his first full season in a grid of over 30 drivers!
However, with all of the positives results in the ADAC F4 Championship, to add on to Olli’s wins in the UAE F4 Championship earlier this year, Olli has risen his standards to a whole new level with podiums now becoming a minimum expectation for every race. Being recently selected for the MSA Academy Squad has certainly given him the title of a ‘rising star’ if he didn’t have one already and it was news that has grown his confidence even further.
Although the opening paragraph would suggest Olli’s start to the season was positive he left Adria disappointed commenting: “This weekend was disappointing, we had good pace in qualifying but we were unlucky in the races. An incident in race three put me down to 18th but I managed to fight back to 8th which I can take some positives from. I’m aiming to do better in the next weekend for sure though!”
Olli had every right to be aggrieved in fairness, his pace was electric and he fell just short of a podium in race two before the afore mentioned incident came. As he
quoted he will be aiming to do better and if he can reflect the pace he had at Adria he should have no problem landing at least one podium over the weekend.
As for the circuit the championship this weekend will use the ‘Circuit 1A’ configuration, stretching to a total of 3.574 miles! The layout misses out the chicane placed in the
middle of the back straight which now makes it extensive and should lead to a lot of overtaking! Trying to break away out front could become almost an impossibility, but that could work in Olli’s favour depending on where he qualifies.
As for the rest of the circuit, it provides lots of very fast and flowing corners meaning tyre management could become key. However, Olli’s win at Oschersleben was certainly helped by how well he managed the tyres meaning this could be another thing that plays into his favour. Like many on the grid Olli will be racing at Paul Ricard for the first time, a circuit being used on the Formula One calendar this season, which should be great experience moving forward in his career.
OlliCaldwell
“Really looking forward to racing in Paul Ricard this weekend for round two of the Italian championship. Looking to get some good results and podiums!”
All three races will be streamed live on https://www.ollicaldwell.com/live with
updates also going out on social media.
Timetable:
Friday
Free Practice 1 - 09:00 (40 mins)
Free Practice 2 - 12:00
Free Practice 3 - 17:30
Saturday
Qualifying 1 - 09:00 (15 mins)
Qualifying 2 - 09:25
Race One - 14:50 (28 mins + 1 lap)
Sunday
Race Two - 09:50
Race Three - 15:40