Academy Report: Sasha Starts our 2025 Action

Find out how Oleksandr Bondarev fared in Round 1 of the F4 Middle East Championship over the weekend

Published

20 JAN 2025

Est. reading time

2 min

For the Williams Racing Driver Academy, the 2025 season is officially underway!

This weekend, all eyes were on the Yas Marina Circuit for the opening round of the F4 Middle East Championship.

The venue that hosted our final race of 2024 held our first racing interests of 2025, with Oleksandr Bondarev eager to showcase his talent in an always competitive field.

Read on to find out how Sasha fared as he launched his 2025 campaign!

F4 Middle East

Oleksandr Bondarev

Oleksandr’s first outing of the 2025 season was a mixed weekend at Yas Marina, with the young Ukrainian ending the weekend with a promising fight through the field.

Racing in the No.27 Prema car, Bondi qualified P17 and P19 in Qualifying 1 and 2, respectively, setting the stage for him to fight in the middle of this 29-car field.

Race 1 saw Oleksandr finish P16 whilst Race 2, the reverse grid race, brought heartbreak as a technical issue on the opening lap forced him into a DNF.

However, Race 3 marked a turning point, as Sasha drove brilliantly from P19 to finish P11, securing his first points of the season and a strong third place amongst the rookies.

After Round 1, Oleksandr sits P16 in the Drivers’ Championship and P8 in the Rookies’ Championship. The action resumes this week at Yas Marina, where the Corkscrew Circuit configuration promises more opportunities to learn and progress.