Oliver Michl from the Gender Racing Team finished the season in fourth place in the driver’s standings and gained important experience in the inaugural season of the F4 CEZ championship.
The season concluded in early October at Hungary’s newest circuit, Balatonfőkajár on the Balaton Park Circuit! The final round once again featured three races, and there was no shortage of excitement even in the final laps.
Participating in the first official championship race weekend at the Balaton Park Circuit was a great pleasure for the Gender Racing Team. As the most successful formula car team in Hungarian motorsport, they were able to actively participate in this historic motorsport event.
As expected, learning the details of the new track was a lot of work for the team. Every lap and kilometer completed during the free practice on Friday was particularly valuable. The task was made more difficult by the fact that the brand-new asphalt strip had not yet been given the grip-enhancing rubber layer that has been used on the old tracks for so long. Additionally, there was a lot of dust from the ongoing construction work around the track. Despite these challenging conditions, the team’s hard work paid off. The seven laps completed in Saturday’s qualifying session resulted in a fifth-place time on the grid, which was quite close to the front.
Unfortunately, in the first race on Saturday afternoon, Oliver Michl could not maintain this position and finished in seventh place. He started the second race on Sunday from this position, but on the third lap, he suddenly lost grip and crashed through the gravel into the barriers. However, the season-closing race in the afternoon started and ended well for Oliver. Starting once again from the fifth grid position, he had a great start and spent the first few laps fighting for third position before eventually dropping back to finish sixth in the final race of the year.
„It was a very exciting challenge to compete in 2023 in such a new international series with such a serious sporting value, which is also seriously considered by the FIA right from the start and has a very promising future in terms of sports,“ said team owner Tamás Gender. He continued, „I am very proud of the whole team for showing that we can compete successfully at the international level with the latest state-of-the-art racing technology in the history of GRT! I am also very proud of Oliver for effectively competing in such a strong field with a technique that was new to all of us and for delivering consistent performances to finish fourth in the championship at the end of the year. I’m already looking forward to the 2024 season of the F4 CEZ Championship, based on this year’s experience and the interest we’re seeing for next year! It has also motivated us to acquire another new generation T-421, so we are aiming to have two cars in the championship next year.“
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