Jimmy Piszcyk sits atop the Australian F4 standings after sweeping round one at The Bend. Ahead of the second round at the same venue this weekend, Feeder Series spoke to him about his prior racing career, his return to Australia following F4 campaigns in the United Arab Emirates and Britain and his plans for the future.

By Kaylene Lau 

Piszcyk entered the Australian F4 Championship after finishing fifth in British F4 last season with Hitech. The Australian took two wins during his British F4 campaign, one at Thruxton and the other at Silverstone. 

The Australian F4 Championship marks the first time Piszcyk has raced back home since racing in Formula Ford, and the first round at The Bend was surely one to remember for him. 

The AGI Sport driver completed a clean sweep during the race weekend, taking three poles and three wins. Piszcyk now sits at the top of the championship standings with 75 points, 29 points ahead of Blake Purdie in second place. 

The weekend from Piszcyk’s perspective

Piszcyk walked Feeder Series through his first Australian F4 race weekend from his perspective, starting with testing that took place that same week on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

“That was the first time testing with AGI in the new cars. That was my first time in F4 at The Bend as well,” he said. “The first two days were just getting to grips with settling with the team and the new cars here in Australia.” 

He described the free practices on Friday as “building on what [he] had already tested in the Tuesday, Wednesday test.” 

On Saturday and Sunday, Piszcyk dominated throughout qualifying and all three races.

“It was just phenomenal. We were very fast on track,” he said. “AGI didn’t really step a foot wrong all weekend for me, so it was really up to me to perform my best. It was a great result, getting, I guess, all pole positions for qualifying and all the race wins as well.”.

And what happens off track, behind the scenes, to make those results possible? 

“It’s just going through the data, going through the footage, sorting out, talking to your engineers about what you want to change with the car, how the car’s feeling. All that sort of stuff is what I think people miss,” he explained. 

“No matter how fast you are, where you are on track, if you’re winning, if you’re second – you’re always trying to look for that next edge you can gain on your competition.”

Getting into racing

The Australian driver credits the Adelaide 500, the historical season opener of Australia’s Supercars Championship, as one of the reasons for his interest in racing. 

“Since I was a young age, I kind of grew up around racing,” he said. “Dad took me to … the Adelaide 500. We went to that as a father-son sort of thing, so I grew up around that.” 

Piszcyk’s racing interest was also sparked by riding his family’s quad bikes. 

“We also had these quad bikes around the house as well, so from a young age I was having a bit of fun, like having Dad drive and I was holding on to him, just driving them around.

“I was about six years old, and then I was like to Dad, ‘Can we take these quad bikes onto jumps and stuff?’ Dad inquired about it, and the guy said to try out go-karting.

“Then I tried out go-karting when I think I was six. And then from there, I loved it so much – like, I was no good, but I just had so much fun when I did my trial day in the go-kart for the first time. It was just a really good experience.” 

He only properly started go-karting when he was seven as different rules in 2013 meant he was too young to start at six.

“So then I turned seven, and that’s when I actually started go-karting between me and my dad – bought my first go-kart, and then my passion for motorsport grew from that, just being at the track every weekend.” 

Prior experience

Piszcyk worked with junior single-seater stalwarts Hitech GP for his F4 UAE and British F4 campaigns, which he said changed his approach to racing in Australian F4.

“Doing motorsport – go-karting and a bit of Formula Ford – in Australia and then going to the European scene, it’s very different.” 

With Hitech, Piszcyk said, “It was just really the mindset of racing only, and [Hitech’s] shaping me to be able to give good feedback is what I’ve brought over to this championship – my feeling of the car and how I can give feedback to the engineers so we can develop a car that is even faster.” 

Piszcyk also did two years of Formula Ford in Australia and placed second in the 2022 season. He said he chose to skip that year’s title decider to test with Hitech in preparation for F4 UAE.

His Formula Ford experience has proven valuable because Piszcyk will already have raced on the domestic tracks Australian F4 will visit this year. 

“We got to learn a lot of the Australian tracks. I’ve been to majority of the tracks – actual circuits here in Australia. Now when I arrive to a track, I know what to expect, what corners come up,” he said. “It’s just focusing on my driving, not learning a track anymore.”

Being familiar with most of the tracks hasn’t been the only takeaway from his Formula Ford experience. It has also helped him build a good foundation in single-seater cars. 

“It was a really good first category coming from go-karting,” he said. “The mechanical grip, learning that you can keep the car a bit sideways through a corner, it’s just having that control over that car that the Formula Ford was really good for that.

“It can be translated into wet driving as well. Like in the wet, these cars are very sideways, very loose, and it’s just having that belief and the faith in the car, and you’ve just really got to hack it around.”

How Australian F4 fits into the Australian racing scene

Piszcyk believes the Australian racing scene has developed a lot since Formula 1 drivers and fellow Australians Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo last raced full-time at home in 2005 and 2015 respectively.

“It’s become a lot more serious,” he said. “I think we’re noticing a lot more in karting now. They’re becoming a lot more European-based. I talked to a couple of my mates that are still in karting and that are a bit younger. [For] a lot more of them now, it’s not the father-son [activity] which it really used to be a lot more back in the day.

“But talking to them, they’re with a team, and their dads more step back. Now they’re paying for a mechanic and they have been going through that data a lot more. So it’s developing a lot more into the European scene, it looks like, but with the car scene as well.

“There’s not much opportunity for open-wheelers or formula here in Australia at the moment. It’s a lot [more] Supercars-based. But it’s definitely coming along now.

“Having the Australian F4 championship come back is really good. But yeah, it’s just keeping developing that, to give young kids like me and others in the championship an opportunity,” he continued. “If they wanted to do Formula 1, their first step can be Australian Formula 4, and then they can go into the European scene after.”

Australian F4 uses the Tatuus F4-T421 chassis found in many other F4 series around the world. How does that car help drivers transition to the European scene? 

“It’s straight into a car that’s got downforce, slick tires, you learn all your fundamentals,” Piszcyk explained. “You can learn more on this car, and you can develop that. And then looking at the European scene, this is how they run it all over there. It’s really getting you used to how it’s all over there and everything, so I really hope to see the category keep going on and get bigger.” 

Goals for the season and plans for the future

Although it’s early in the season, Piszcyk has his eyes set on the championship title. 

“The main goal obviously is to win it,” he said. “Everyone’s mindset going into a championship is to try and win it or to do their best, but mine definitely is to … win the championship.”

The AGI driver is keeping consistency in mind as he approaches the upcoming rounds of the championship. 

“Throughout the season, the main thing is going to be keeping consistent, just maximising every single time we get on the track – to keep pushing, to find the new limit every time we’re out on track. When we get to the later rounds, I guess to Sepang [the season finale], it’s just, again, pushing a little bit more to see how much more we can find out on track.”

After he graduates from secondary school at the end of this year, Piszcyk plans to focus on advancing his racing career.

“I’d like to jump into a Formula Regional championship for next year, but it’s all budget dependent. Hopefully we could maybe do GB3 next year, but it’s just finding the budget for that,” he said.

“It’s just looking for a budget we can afford, whether it’s going back into the European scene for racing, or it’s staying here in Australia and maybe trying to do something in tin-tops or something like that.” 

For the first time in 11 years, there were two Australian drivers on the Formula 1 grid at the Australian Grand Prix this year, and hype is building around the F1 prospects of Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan. Piszcyk hopes to follow in the footsteps of his countrymen and make his mark in the racing world. 

Header photo credit: Speed Shots Photography