Vladislav Ryabov took a shock win on his return to racing in the Euroformula Open Championship at Barcelona and scored another podium at Monza. Feeder Series’ Marco Albertini spoke to Ryabov after race one to discuss his comeback.

By Marco Albertini

The Moscow-born driver competed in two full seasons of Spanish F4 in 2021 and 2022 before leaving full-time single-seater competition when he encountered financial problems. 

“I had one and a half years of sleepless nights, countless hours in the gym, and it meant so much to me returning to racing,” Ryabov said.

“At some points I didn’t think I would ever come back to racing, I thought I was an ordinary person. I went to the gym, uni and work and that was my whole life.

“One day, my mom was talking to me and I said to her, ‘I miss racing so much but there’s no opportunity for me to come back.’ And the next day, when she went to work, she made a list of possible companies that could sponsor me and she also made a small table with some steps to get sponsors, and this motivated me so much.

“I started searching for sponsors, and that’s how I got here basically. My mother gave me the motivation to come back.”

Having entered one round of Euroformula Open at Paul Ricard in 2023, Ryabov came back to racing at the penultimate round of the Euroformula Open season in Barcelona with Motopark. There, he scored a fifth-place finish in race two before winning the third race of the weekend by holding off Edward Pearson. It was his maiden win in single-seaters.

“Barcelona was tough [physically],” he said. “It was tough handling the speed I could carry in the corners at first.” At Monza, where he said he was “starting from scratch and [had] a lot of things to learn,” he finished fourth in race two. He said an engine failure cost him a podium in the first race.

Ryabov knew Barcelona from his time in Spanish F4, but Monza was new to the 18-year-old. The wet conditions made it even more challenging, he said.

“First time on this track, first-ever rain race, compared to those guys, I don’t have much experience,” he said. “I had two years of F4, meanwhile [the other drivers] keep racing, racing, racing all the time, so it’s quite difficult to be on the same level as them.

“My path is much more difficult, I would say, as they already have a feeling of how the car is going to drive, while I first explore it and then have a feeling on how to drive it.”

Ryabov spent much of 2024 on the sidelines.

“I also had a break from racing, about 1.5 years before this event,” he said. “The race in Barcelona was the first one in a while, and the thing I’m used to the most is the battles on track. You forget how to battle on track by spending a lot of time out of the track, but now I can battle on the same level as them.

“At first in testing, I was losing one to two seconds, but now I’m on the same level as them, so that’s really good.”

Ryabov, who said he “couldn’t imagine [himself] becoming an office worker” growing up, started karting properly at age 10 in his native Russia. He showed promise when he moved up to Spanish F4 with GRS in 2021, scoring three second-place finishes in his rookie season. 

In his second year, he scored no points. “We should’ve been smarter and moved up to F3,” he said. “But we stayed in Spanish F4 for another year and it was super unsuccessful. We had problems everywhere and didn’t end up where we wanted.”

Ryabov said he aimed for his 2024 appearances to help him secure enough sponsorship for a full-time drive for 2025.

“My main goal is to get as much experience as possible and to search for sponsors for 2025. I believe we can do this and I do believe there is a possibility to reach FIA F3 at some point, but I need to progress a lot as a driver because the level is quite high, so I need to work.”

Header photo credit: Fotospeedy via Euroformula Open Championship