Photo: WSK Promotion
Peruvian karter Andres Cardenas, a member of Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management stable, will step up to single-seater racing this year with Campos Racing.
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Alonso made his car racing debut with Campos back in 1999, and the team will run Cardenas in the Spanish Formula 4 championship.
The 14-year-old moves into cars off the back of a strong sophomore season in junior karting last year as a factory Energy Corse driver. He started the year by winning on an OK-Junior kart in the WSK Champions Cup. He was runner-up in the Champions of the Future Winter Series, and 17th in the CIK-FIA World championship.
In the multi-event competitions he contested, Cardenas was sixth in CotF, 15th in WSK’s Super Master Series, 18th in the IAME Euro Series (for X30 Junior karts), 33rd in WSK’s Euro Series and 35th in CIK-FIA European championship.
“I am so proud to be joining Campos Racing in my first ever single-seater season,” said Cardenas.
“We have worked so hard over the winter with tests and training and I hope to have a very successful year. I also want to thank to A14 management for the opportunity and to all the people of Campos. Finally, but not less important, thank you very much to my family for all your support and company.”
As a junior karting rookie in 2021, Cardenas drove for multiple teams and the highlight of the year was 14th in the WSK Final Cup after he moved to Energy Corse.
Prior to that he spent two years in Europe in mini karting, coming ninth in the Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy as a rookie, then 10th in the WSK Euro and Super Master Series, 13th in Trofeo Andrea Margutti and 14th in the ROK Cup International Final in his second season.
“We are very pleased to have Andres in one of our cars for the 2023 F4 Spain season,” Campos team principal Adrian Campos Jr said.
“He is a talented driver with a bright future ahead in motorsport. After his successful karting period, he is ready to step up to single-seaters. We have been working with him for some time to make this transition as easy as possible. For sure, Andres is a very remarkable addition to our strong driver line-up, with whom we want to defend our titles this year.”
Cardenas’s team-mates in Spanish F4 will be Jesse Carrasquedo Jr, Noah Stromsted and fellow karting graduate and new Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny.