Kornelia Olkucka to make F4 debut in CEZ Championship

Polish karter Kornelia Olkucka will step up to single seaters and will make her debut in the F4 CEZ Championship, joining Swiss team Maffi Racing.

Photo credits: Maffi Racing

Kornelia Olkucka will make her Formula 4 debut in the 2024 F4 CEZ championship, having announced a deal with Swiss team Maffi Racing. The Polish racer is the first woman to race in the series.

Olkucka, 20, started competitive karting at the age of 14, competing in the Junior category of the Rotax Max Challenge Poland series. She then moved to the senior category and has most recently competed in the DD2 class of the Rotax Max Challenge Poland Cup, gaining experience and moving up the ranks in Polish as well as Central and Eastern Europe championship.

In 2022, Olkucka represented Poland at the second edition of the FIA Motorsport Games, in the karting endurance discipline. She has tested a F4 car for the first time in August 2023 and started a training programme with Maffi Racing in order to get ready for a F4 debut in 2024.

The young driver, who also is a sport psychology student, is a big advocate for women in motorsport on home soil and will now have the chance with team up with Geneva-based Maffi Racing - a team founded in 2021 that plans to compete in Italian F4, Formula Winter Series and F4 CEZ. Among its missions, the Swiss squad is committed to promote diversity and inclusion in motorsport, and aims to develop drivers for major Formula 4 championships as well as F1 Academy - a target that Olkucka might set for herself.

The Formula 4 CEZ Championship - effectively the Central European series - will feature a six event calendar in 2024, with triple-headers scheduled on some of the main racing venues in Europe; the championship will kick off in April on the new Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary, before moving to Red Bull Ring in May. Slovakiaring will host the third round in June, then back to back rounds in Czech Republic will see the drivers head to Most and Brno for round 4 and 5. The season finale will be held at Salzburgring, Austria, on 21-22 September.

Olkucka is one of the three drivers announced to date, including Maffi Racing's teammate Nathanaël Berreby. Kornelia will be driving the #19 Tatuus T421 F4 car.