Oleksandr Bondarev: “Its a Great Opportunity Having The Support of The Best in The Industry”

15-year-old Oleksandr Bondarev joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy in September 2023. In doing so becoming the first Ukranian in history to be signed by a Formula 1 team.

His first major title came at the Ukrainian Karting Championship, becoming the series’ youngest champion in its history at only 7 years old. In 2022 Bondarev joined the Ricky Flynn Motorsport team, best known for supporting numerous Formula 1 drivers in their karting careers. Going on to win the 2022 WSK OKJ Super Master Series, achieving podiums at all four races and wins at three.

Tregedy struck as, Oleksandr Bondarev was involved in a serious karting accident in the second round of the CIK-FIA OKJ European Championship, ending his season prematurely. His stationary kart was hit head-on in Zuera, Spain, causing him to sustain a compound fracture in his leg which required ten surgeries and multiple months of rehabilitation. Amazingly a full recovery was made by Autumn of 2022.

Returning from a potential career ending injury Bondarev was crowned 2023 CIK-FIA Karting European Champion, becoming the first Ukrainian driver in the history of karting to win the championship. Throughout the season, he stood on the podium a total of four times, including two wins.

Following his successes the then 14-year old joined with Williams, and with PREMA’s karting team for the WSK Euro Series event in Franciacorta. We caught up with Oleksandr Bondarev in an interesting insight into the world of a Williams Academy driver.

Oleksandr Bondarev Interview

Thank you for your time Oleksandr, I would like to start at the beginning, how did your motorsport journey begin?

Well, first of all it’s very rare for an athlete to start their sport journey without any sport background in the family. And I’m one of those cases. So basically it was all started from a passion for cars since I was very young. At the age of 5 my parents took me to the track for the first time and that’s where It all begun.

Is Formula 1 a popular sport in Ukraine? And who was the driver that got you interested in F1?

The interest in F1 was always high in Ukraine, but there have never been opportunities for drivers to make it far in the sport, it’s very pleasing to see how many more Ukrainian drivers are driving in the highest level of karting now, and hoping to see even more move up to single seater series soon. I must say that at the beginning I wasn’t so interested in F1, but cars and their speed, so I didn’t have a specific driver that got me into racing.

You have already seen some success in your career winning both the WSK Super master series and the CIK-FIA European Championship, what did those wins mean to you, and what did you learn from them?

These 2 titles are some of the biggest titles that you can win in karting, so it’s great to see that we were able to reach this level. It’s also nice to see that they are both long championships, so consistency is needed in order to win them, which is also the case in single seater series. Also the European Championship is the one that opened the doors for me in Williams, and it’s great to have such an amazing partner in our journey.

Your of course a member of the famous Williams driver academy, making you the first Ukrainian driver in history to sign with a Formula 1 team, can you tell us how the opportunity came about for you, and how much the opportunitymeans to you?

When we were planning the path in my career, getting support from an F1 team was a very important point, so all that was left to do was to prove that I’m worth getting this opportunity. Of course it’s a great opportunity to be able to have the support of the best in the industry and to know that I will get the help I need in order to be the best in the sport. I know that Williams were looking at me even before the European Championship, but that was what they wanted to get, in order to give me the opportunity.

In 2022 you was involved in a serious crash during the 2nd round of the European Championship, due to the injuries you underwent ten surgeries during your rehabilitation, at any point did you think of quitting motorsport and if not what kept you focused?

I never had any thoughts of quitting Motorsport, as I knew that this injury would make me even stronger when I came back to racing. Of course it was difficult to see my rivals win, but that just made me want to get back on the track faster.

Final question, what are your ambitions for the future and what can we look forward to seeing from you the remainder of 2024?

Very soon I will start racing in single seaters, so I’m very excited for that. It’s a completely different form of Motorsport so I will have to learn a lot of new things in order to be fully ready for the new chapter of my career.

We would like to thank Oleksandr Bondarev for sharing his time with us and wish him all the best in the exciting career he has ahead.