Photo: ACI Sport
A pole and a win first time out. Two inspired charges through the field. Oleksandr Bondarev’s move to Formula Regional for the last two rounds of the season could hardly have gone better.
He was immediately on the pace as soon as he stepped into Van Amersfoort Racing’s FREC car at Imola. Third in free practice, he then stunned the series regulars with pole position for the second race, rounding off his debut weekend by resisting pressure from champion-to-be Emanuele Olivieri to take his first win.
At Hockenheim a week later, while qualifying was not so smooth, leaving him outside the top 15 on the grid for both races, a couple of sensational drives saw him carve through the field to take points on both occasions.
The Williams F1 Academy driver told Formula Scout at Hockenheim about the motivation for the switch and the boost to his confidence after a difficult year in Formula 4.
“Obviously, the season in F4 hasn’t gone to plan. We won the UAE but after that there were a lot of problems with the car and we just weren’t able to get enough out of this year as we wanted.
“So, we decided to do the switch to Formula Regional and for me it was really the right choice. In Imola, the package that VAR brought was really strong. After testing for all of August, I was really prepared and in the end I think it was a really good weekend. First pole and first win, not in a reverse grid race but in the main race. It was a really good feeling. Everything came together quite well.
“Finally, I felt like the work that I’ve been doing over the year to come back from the difficult moments has actually paid off. It was the first weekend since the UAE that I’ve had no issues with the car. Now I can actually show what I can do. Considering it’s my first two weekends, I think I’m doing quite a good job.”
VAR’s FREC team manager, Danielle Geel, has also been impressed with Bondarev’s two weekends with the Dutch team. “He matches very well with the team environment, in both directions – the team to him and from him to us. We also haven’t had an easy season so far so the fact that it came together and that he wanted to prove something and we also wanted to prove something shows, I think, this fighter’s mentality from both sides. ‘We can be there, we can show it.’
“It all came together between him and the team, his engineer and mechanics. Together, we proved what we are capable of. He believed in us and we believed in him.”
After winning the F4 UAE title at the start of the year, Bondarev, entering his second full season with Prema, was the pre-season favourite in Italian F4 but after winning first-time out at Misano, his season deteriorated rapidly.
Photo: ACI Sport
“Every time it has been different things, which was the most frustrating. As soon as I was able to make some progress and put some good pace on the board, there was something that was affecting the weekend. Monza was the worst one. At Vallelunga in Euro 4 we had really strong pace in practice. I was P1 by two-tenths and then in quali we just lost half a second in power out of absolutely nowhere which basically ruined the weekend. In F4 you’re basically just stuck in the same position the whole race.”
He admits that at some points, his self-confidence began to take a battering from all the problems, but the move to FREC immediately restored his self-belief.
“Even on my first day in FREC, I was already the fastest which really helped and seeing what I was able to do on the first weekend in Imola really brought my confidence back up to where it was when we left the UAE.”
Beyond the relief at being free of the technical issues in F4, he also feels that his “driving style suits the higher downforce car.”
His sights are now fixed on a permanent move to FREC for 2027. For the post-season test, he made the move down the pit lane from VAR to R-ace GP squad, for whom he will contest the season, Formula Scout understands.