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AS Motorsport is preparing for its third season in F4 Central European Zone championship with three cars, two of them for Michalina Sabaj and Ginevra Panzeri. Team owner Andrej Slak spoke with us about the upcoming year in F4 CEZ and the prospects in an increasingly competitive field.

How did the team prepare during the winter break? What did your off-season programme look like?
Actually, we had no winter break. Before Christmas, we began preparing the cars for the season, and by mid-January we had already gone to Portugal and Spain, where we participated in the Formula 4 Winter Series with three cars.

Your third car is under the PA Racing by AS Motorsport name on the entry list. Can you tell us more about it and also your driver line-up?
We have entered three cars. One is for Michalina Sabaj, who will be racing with us for the third season. From this year, we have also started a cooperation with PA Racing, an Italian team that operates in rally championships and is now expanding into single-seaters. Together, we successfully competed in the Winter Series with another female driver, the young Italian Ginevra Panzeri, so we plan to expand this synergy to F4 CEZ and other championships. That means we have two girls in the team. Regarding the third driver, things have unfortunately become complicated due to the war in the Middle East, so at the moment we do not know when we can start this programme. For Red Bull Ring, we need to decide quickly whether it makes sense to take a replacement driver or start with only two drivers and add the third one from the second round at Salzburgring.

With the level of competition continuing to rise in F4 CEZ, how confident are you in your team for this challenge?
We are ready. We have a lot of experience, including from the Italian Championship, which is even more demanding, so this is nothing unusual for us. We are very happy that F4 CEZ is expanding so well. This will probably also be a challenge for the organisation, which will be facing such a large number of teams and drivers for the first time.

What objectives have you set for this season, and what would define a successful year for your team?
For us, success means that our drivers develop positively during the season. Of course, we want to win the female trophy and achieve as many podiums as possible. Ultimately, our goal is to push our drivers to the next steps in their motorsport careers. In the past, we have developed drivers who are now competing in F1 Academy, F3, F2, WEC and GT championships.

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