Stepping up to single-seaters and overcoming frustrations: the moments that made Roman Stanek

16 October 2023

After putting together his best weekend last time out in Monza, Roman Stanek will be eager to carry that form onwards to end his rookie season on a high at the Yas Marina season finale next month.

Making the most of his time off away from the track, the Trident driver is the latest member of the 2023 Formula 2 grid to look back on three defining moments in his story so far. Coming to recognise that things don't always go according to plan in racing, the Czech racer reflects on chasing his dream and enjoying the good days that make all the effort worthwhile.

GRADUATING FROM KARTING

“The first big break moment for me was when I was 14 years old, and I decided to keep going in my career after I finished go-karting. Luckily, I had the possibility to move up to German and Italian F4 in 2019. That was the moment I knew I would follow this path for as many years as I could in the future.

“Also, that was something that changed me as a person because then I knew what I wanted to do. I realised that racing was the thing that I wanted to do the first time I drove in a single-seater at a test in a test at Mugello, which was a very nice track. All I was thinking about what that this is what I wanted to do going forwards.

“The first time driving the car was great. For me, it was very hard to step up from go-karts, which are fairly small, into a Formula 4 car. Also, Mugello is a very big and hard track, so I was a bit lost the first day I would say, but then I kept going and it was very good, so I enjoyed it.”

FIRST FORMULA 4 CAMPAIGN

“In hard times and in good times, I have one vision of where I want to be so it’s all part of the way, but one moment that really stands out is my first season in Formula 4. It was amazing, I had a lot of wins and I had three great teammates in Théo Pourchaire, Arthur Leclerc and Alessandro Ghiretti and we had a lot of fun together. The car was flying, so I was always up there, and I knew that I had the potential to be able to continue to race over the next few years.

“It gave me a lot of confidence because then I went to Formula 3 thinking ‘okay, let’s go!’, but it didn’t show. So, I felt down again and then I had to recover, and I had to learn a lot of new things.”

A DIFFICULT MELBOURNE DEBUT

“In Qualifying it was raining a lot and I really had the potential for more, the car was flying. It was on rails, but I finished P17 in the end because I got blocked by another driver. That was really something that made me realised that things aren’t always in my hands, but also, I cannot do nothing about it. So, I was very angry, but then I cooled myself down, so it was fine.

“At first after the session, I couldn’t accept it, but then I looked at what happened and realised there was nothing I could do. So, I said to myself ‘okay, if there is nothing I can do, then I just have to make the best out of the race’ and the Sprint Race on Saturday was quite good.

“It made me calmer and more mature for sure. It’s quite hard when you jump out of the car and you are very angry, to realise that this feeling will go away. It made me think more about what can happen because I was feeling the frustration and that’s not what I really needed, so it made me a stronger person.”