Monza, Lightning McQueen, recovery and racing in the Middle East: with Oleksandr Bondarev

by Alex Johnston

Imagine for a moment that you suffered a horrendous injury that left you in hospital for a third of a year and upon recovery, you signed with one of F1’s most famous names, and are set to debut full time in single seaters this year. That’s reality for this guest, Williams junior driver Oleksandr ‘Sasha’ Bondarev.

You started the year racing in F4 Middle East - how was that as a warm up to the year?

The F4 Middle East is a great championship because it allows everyone to prepare and test everything before the start of the real season. We started quite poorly as it was difficult for me to adapt to the tyre. As the season went on, we improved and I feel a lot more confident for the start of Italian F4.

You finished 12th overall - did you set yourself a goal before the series started, or was it just about getting comfortable in the car?

My goal was to improve throughout the championship and feel good with the car and on track race craft before the Italian F4.

It was also difficult to adapt to the tire as it is different to what they use in Italy, but I did improve every race weekend with that. I feel like if I didn’t make the mistakes that cost me races of fighting at the front, I would have been a lot higher in the championship as well, but it’s all good learning.

You’ll be racing in Italian F4 with PREMA this year - what excites you most about the series?

It is one of, if not the most competitive single seater series in the world so it is exciting to be with one of the best teams. It will be important to continue improving and staying consistent in all rounds, as that is how you win this championship.

You’ll be part of a strong team - how do you think you can benefit from having good teammates?

Having good teammates allows you to have good data which you can use to improve your driving. I have 5 strong teammates and together as a team we will try to push each other and show great results from the beginning.

You’re part of the Williams setup, and have been since 2023 and are the first ever Ukrainian signed by an F1 team - how proud are you to be part of the team?

Very proud, they helped me a lot to prepare for cars and there are so many great people there that give me advice and help me get better. We do a lot of work with Williams as it really helps me improve myself driving wise and other very important qualities.

Before that, you had an accident at Zuera that left you out of action for a long few months - but you came back to win titles in karts for the two following seasons. In a few words, could you describe that journey?

After my accident, I spent 4 months in the hospital and went through a lot of surgeries just because I wanted to come back to racing as fast as possible.

The first races back were difficult but as I adapted back to driving, I started winning titles and won the European championship in 2023. It was a great achievement as it made all the pain of recovery worth it. It was a great journey!

Your reward for that journey was making it to single seaters, starting at the end of last season - how did those few races prepare you ahead of this year?

It was good to do those races at the end of last year as it gave me an idea of what is important on a race weekend to be competitive, everything in those two weekends was new things for me, as cars are very different to karting. Also as much mileage that you can get done before the season, the better. Even now I still improve with every test day and session that I do.

What circuit have you enjoyed most so far in your career?

I enjoyed Monza a lot as I live in Monza and it is like my home track. The speed there is incredible and I enjoyed the race weekend there a lot. Made some mistakes but it was all good learning for this year. Very excited to come back there for 2 more events this year.

Which circuit are you looking most forward to this year?

I think Monza again as the racing there is just great!

I’ve read that you were inspired to race by the film Cars - when listing racing heroes, does Lightning McQueen make the list? 😅

Of course he does! He is actually top of the list!

📸 Image credits: Oleksandr Bondarev, Disney, Williams Racing.