Océane Colangelo’s European dream
- Joseph Black
- September 17, 2026
- Motorsport, Team Radio
- 0 Comments
Travelling across the world to chase your dream sounds ludicrous to some. For Océane Colangelo, that’s reality.
The Australian is currently set to compete this weekend in the FX Pro Series at Vallelunga, part of the EuroNascar race weekend. This comes off the back of test days across Italy, the most notable of which at the Tazio Nuvolari Circuit in Cervesina, where she set the fastest time of all the drivers out there. But why take the risk of moving so far from home?
“It’s pretty much the birthplace of motorsport,” she told me on the Team Radio Podcast. “After every test day I do in a Formula 4 car I keep getting provided with more opportunities to race.
Racing gripped Océane from a young age. Her earliest racing memories were of falling asleep to the sounds of MotoGP and Formula 1 (which makes a lot of sense due to the Europe-centric nature of motorsport and her upbringing in Sydney, Australia). Her first memory of racing herself? Gran Turismo on the PlayStation.
The start for so many racing stars – see Jann Mardenborough – stirred something in her. As with so many racers, she was bitten by the bug. By 2018 she was karting, and by 2019 she was competing nationally, racing alongside the likes of 2025 AU4 Gen1 champ Jensen Marold. She worked her way up the classes, culminating in a huge moment in 2024.
There were four heats across the course of the weekend. The grid for heat 1 and 2 was determined by a qualifying session, and 3 and 4 were decided by the results from the first 2 races.
She would qualify second, 0.133 off of pole driver Maxim Kirwan. Heat one of the weekend saw her in seventh, but heat two would see her take a particularly sizeable victory 1.6 seconds ahead of Isaac McNeill (P2 in the 2025 AU4 Gen2 standings) and when he was penalised later, her gap grew even further to a 2.4 second one. A momentous occasion, becoming the first female race winner in the Australian Kart Championships. She later backed it up with a similar record, becoming the first to take a podium in the finals with P3.
There was, though, a growing level of disillusionment for Océane, and that season proved to be her last in karts.
“I think karting can only take you so far before it more becomes a question of money and equipment and the team you have around you. [] When I drove a car for the first time we realised that there was no point spending more money on karting.”
She had a couple of opportunities to drive cars in 2024. Firstly, she made her bow in a borrowed Ginetta G40.
“As soon as I sat in it I knew I had to drive it. I was only 13 at the time and had to go to a track in New South Wales called Pheasantwood where I was legally allowed to drive because at other tracks you had to be 14.
“It started raining at the start of the day as well so that made it a bit tricky and I had to be a bit cautious because there was no room for error – the track was surrounded by walls.”
Despite the conditions of the test, it did not turn her off from the step up – in fact, quite the opposite. Later on, now 14, she had the chance to test a Formula 4 car courtesy of AGI Sport at Sydney Motorsport Park. Not that it was her first time in the car.
“My karting career I did quite well but unfortunately I didn’t have brand new engines or brand new karts so I had to look for other ways to be competitive such as racecraft. Simracing takes away that gap in equipment [] it’s more your talent that takes you to the top.”
And she made it to the top, winning the Sport division of the Motorsport Australia F4 Esports Australian Championship.
“I started sim racing when I was about 11 or 12 and I was competing against adults. I learnt a lot more about racing against more intelligent and experienced minds so it really made it a bit more difficult for me fighting with them.”
Round 5 of the Australian Kart Championships in 2024 was her last involvement in real life racing, as barring a test towards the end of 2025 she fully focused her attention on simracing, and honing her skills. And this is a difficult point of anyone’s career. By this time she would be 15 – most ‘mainstream’ single-seater competitions have a minimum age of 16, and with the newly rebadged AU4 her only realistic option, it would have been a big risk.
“It’s not really worth the amount of money to compete in [AU4] as it’s just been brought back after being away for quite a long time.” 2019, the last edition of the series before it’s reboot in 2024 – and with a peak of 12 full-time drivers in it’s previous rendition, concern was understandable. “For the money, for the races and for the competition it’s not worth it.”
Other options were to be explored, then, and with the year of 2026 came a couple of new opportunities.
First off, the Formula Global Shootout Program. This is an ambitious project launched by the RPPL, aiming to fully fund a seat in that year’s Indian F4 campaign. Océane was one of two female drivers at this year’s final, after 2025’s edition had Maltina Jashari, Kristine Kolodziejski, Milla Sjostrand and Caitlyn McDaniel vying it out.
“I was one of the least experienced drivers in the car.” Colangelo said about the 11 driver field, boasting the likes of USF Juniors’ Aryan Narola and F4 SEA’s Kareen Kaur. “But I knew with the regulations that I still had a good chance to contend for the prize.”
Indian F4 weren’t just looking for the fastest driver. They were instead looking for the best driver across a number of metrics – and so they were tested cognitively, physically, on the sim and on their media management before they could even drive the car.
Day 2 and 3 they had the chance to jump in, but Océane was facing issues straight away.
“My delta on my steering wheel in the car wasn’t working. [] Because of that, we were behind schedule and we weren’t able to look at the onboard footage so I was further put at a disadvantage.”
“On the final day, however, as soon as qualifying started I learnt that I was second quickest and I was only 1-2 tenths off of Aaron (Mehta) so I was quite confident heading into the last session.”
One to two tenths of a second to gain heading into the last session shouldn’t be too bad – especially if she had performed better than him in the rest of the tests. But just before she got back in, she was hit with a bombshell.
“They changed the regulations – they were no longer looking for the overall driver. [] In the last session it would be that whoever did the fastest lap and had the best average time over 12 laps including a standing start. I wasn’t too worried about the average times or the fastest lap – you know, 1-2 tenths isn’t too substantial. However, I’ve never done a standing start so I knew that was going to be my disadvantage.”
This is one of the key characteristics of racing that is different to the sim. Whilst you can match the revs on the simulator to what is to be expected and what you can see on screen, it’s a whole different ball game when it comes to a real life car. There are so many different factors that can go wrong. However, this isn’t what held her back.
“Someone had to change cars and we were two and a half hours behind schedule, and I had a brand new helmet with no sun visor. Coming on to the fastest corner of the track going over 200 I got blinded by the sun and broke a tiny bit too late – I went off the track so ultimately my average was ruined.”
This was a setback, but it meant she could fully focus on her next opportunity – and since then she has found a new home in Harp Racing, with whom she will make her debut this weekend in the FX Pro Series.
Related Posts
