Zak O'Sullivan (born 6 February 2005) is a British

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

who is set to compete in

Super Formula The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series held primarily in Japan. It is considered to be the pinnacle of single-seater racing in Japan or Asia as a whole, making it one of the top motorsport series in the region. The s ...

for Kondo. He is the champion of the 2021 GB3 Championship and the 2019 Ginetta Junior, 2020 British F4 and the 2023 Formula 3 runner-up. He is a member of the

Williams Driver Academy The Williams Racing Driver Academy, formerly known as the Williams Young Driver Programme, is a driver development programme by Formula One team Williams. It is meant to promote talent in different racing series by helping them with funds, wit ...

. O'Sullivan also serves as the simulator driver for

Envision Racing The Envision Racing Formula E Team is a British motor racing team, based at Silverstone Park and majority-owned by Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Envision Energy that competes in Formula E. Currently, the three drivers are Robin Frijns, Sé ...

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is an open-wheel single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The racing series is the highest class of competition for electrically powered single-seater racing cars ...

. He was awarded the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award for 2021. He most recently raced for

ART Grand Prix ART Grand Prix is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. In 2012, it competed in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series as Lotus GP to reflect sponsorship from British sports and racing car manufacturer Lotus. The ...

in the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship.

Career

Karting

Having taken up the sport when he was just nine years old, O'Sullivan started his competitive karting career in 2014, where he won the British Super One Rookie Championship. After competing in the national Super 1 Championship in 2015 he won the MSA Kartmasters British Grand Prix, and in 2017 the Brit first raced in Europe, coming twelfth in the CIK-FIA European Championship with Ricky Flynn Motorsport. O'Sullivan remained with the team in 2018 and achieved his best international karting result by finishing second in the German Karting Championship in the junior class. That same year he also made his first and only appearance in the

Karting World Championship The FIA Karting World Championship, officially known as the Mondokart.com FIA Karting World Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a kart racing competition organised by the CIK-FIA. Hosted annually since 1964, it is widely regarded as the ...

Ginetta Junior Championship

In 2019 O'Sullivan made his car racing debut in the Ginetta Junior Championship with Douglas Motorsport. He scored five podiums in the first ten races of the season, however his results improved after he made a switch to R Racing in the middle of the season. O'Sullivan won two races at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population ...

and one at Thruxton, and thanks to a podium streak that lasted for nine consecutive races he finished second in the championship, which made him the highest-placed rookie.

F4 British Championship

For the 2020 season the Brit moved up to the

F4 British Championship The F4 British Championship (full name Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA, formerly known as F4 British Championship certified by FIA — powered by Ford (2016–21), MSA Formula (2015)) is a single-seater motorsport seri ...

, partnering

Christian Mansell Christian Mansell (born 9 February 2005) is an Australian racing driver, who most recently competed in the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship for Trident. He previously competed in the FIA Formula 3 Championship from 2022 to 2024, finishing fifth ...

and

Matías Zagazeta Matías Zagazeta (born 8 September 2003) is a Peruvian racing driver currently competing in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship for DAMS Lucas Oil, having previously competed with Jenzer Motorsport the previous year. He is the 2021 F4 British ...

at Carlin. He started the season off strongly, with a win at the season-opening round at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport Race track, circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, sti ...

and two victories at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit. Throughout the following three rounds however, O'Sullivan was overtaken in the standings by Luke Browning, who had won all three races at

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced Race track, track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England, from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection a ...

and another two at

Knockhill Knockhill Racing Circuit is a motor racing circuit in Fife, Scotland. It opened in September 1974 and is Scotland's national motorsport centre. The circuit is in the countryside about north of Dunfermline. It is the only FIA-approved circui ...

. O'Sullivan bounced back with a run of nine consecutive podium finishes, which included four race wins as well as four second places. At the final race of the season, O'Sullivan won the race and was initially crowned champion. However, it turned out that, due to a red flag, only half the number of points were distributed, meaning that O'Sullivan fell behind Browning in the championship and became vice-champion, only three points behind his rival.

GB3 Championship

O'Sullivan remained with Carlin for 2021, progressing to the

GB3 Championship The GB3 Championship is a single seater motorsport series based in the United Kingdom. The championship is the UK's premier single-seater category, and is aimed at young racing drivers moving up from FIA Formula 4 championships, the GB4 Cha ...

with his previous teammate

and American

Bryce Aron Bryce Aron (born September 30, 2003) is an American people, American racing driver who competes in the 2025 Indy NXT driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. Aron raced in the 2023 Euroformula Open Championship with Motopark Academy where he achieved th ...

. His first race win in the series came at the second race of the first round at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

, which led to him taking an early championship lead. A pair of victories from

Reece Ushijima Reece Ushijima (born 13 January 2003) is an American racing driver who most recently competed in the 2023 USF Pro 2000 Championship with Jay Howard Driver Development. He previously competed in the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship for Van Amersfo ...

at the next round put O'Sullivan's lead under threat, but the Brit was able to get away from his championship rivals by winning the first two races of the third weekend at

, having started both from pole position. He extended his advantage further by finishing second twice at both

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

and

respectively, and would get back to winning ways in the reversed-grid race in

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

. Another victory followed in the first race at

, and a sixth place in race 3, one where he overtook ten of his rivals, put O'Sullivan on the cusp of winning the title. He would go on to control the first race of the final round, thus clinching the title in dominant fashion. For his efforts, O'Sullivan was nominated for the 2021

Autosport BRDC Award The Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award is an award set up in 1989, following the demise of the Grovewood Awards, to reward and recognise young racing drivers from the UK. As its names suggest, the award is backed by Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, ...

, and in February 2022, received that honour ahead of

Jonny Edgar Jonny Edgar (born 13 February 2004) is a British people, British racing driver racing in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship with TF Sport. He previously competed in the 2024 European Le Mans Series for AO Racing, AO by TF. Alongside his te ...

Louis Foster Louis James Foster (born 27 July 2003) is a British racing driver. He competes in the IndyCar Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He is the 2024 Indy NXT champion and also won the 2022 Indy Pro 2000 championship. Foster previously comp ...

and

Oliver Bearman Oliver James Bearman (; born 8 May 2005) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Haas F1 Team, Haas. Born in London and raised in Chelmsford, Bearman began competitive kart racing aged seven, winning several national and cont ...

. In addition, in December 2021, the BRDC awarded O'Sullivan with the Jim Clark Trophy for winning the GB3 title.

FIA Formula 3 Championship

2022

For 2022, O'Sullivan once again reunited with Carlin to contest the

FIA Formula 3 Championship The FIA Formula 3 Championship (FIA F3) is a third-tier international Open wheel car, single-seater racing championship organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship launched in 2019 as a feeder series for ...

. The Briton qualified 12th for reverse pole for the sprint race in

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

. He would slip back, but managed to score points in sixth place. In

Imola Imola (; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, located on the river Santerno, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. The city is traditionally considered the western entrance to the historical region Romagna ...

he would qualify eighth, but was penalised three places for the sprint race for impeding

. His sprint race would be disappointing, losing the car and crashing out on lap 9. In the feature race, he stayed out of trouble and brought sixth place. O'Sullivan had a poor round in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

scoring no points, but bounced back in

with an unexpected pole position, describing it as "really nice". He would lose his lead to

Arthur Leclerc Arthur Leclerc (; born 14 October 2000) is a Monaco, Monégasque racing driver who is set to compete in the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for AF Corse, having previously competed for Olivie ...

on Sunday, but was able to narrowly hold off Ollie Bearman for second, scoring his first podium in the category. Another positive surprise came in the

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

feature race. Having changed to dry tyres as the damp conditions were disappearing in the last third of the feature race, O'Sullivan was able to make his way up, overtaking car after car to finish fourth place by race's end. He had a disappointing

round despite starting from reverse pole, as he damaged his front wing during a first lap battle with

Juan Manuel Correa Juan Manuel Correa Borja (; born August 9, 1999) is an American-Ecuadorian racing driver who currently competes in the 2025 Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports. He previously competed in the FIA Formula 2 Championship from and with Van Amersfoort R ...

. After qualifying tenth and starting third in the sprint at

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

O'Sullivan took his second podium which ended up being his final points finish of the season. In the feature race, he ran in tenth for majority of the race but was overtaken by Bearman in the final stages, and O'Sullivan was given a penalty for contact with him, dropping him to the back. After failing to score points during the Monza finale, O'Sullivan ended his rookie campaign 11th in the standings with 54 points and two podiums, whilst helping Carlin to seventh place and its best year yet. During the F3 Prize Giving ceremony, O'Sullivan won the Comeback Of The Year for his comethru drive in Budapest.

2023

O'Sullivan drove for

Prema Racing Prema Racing, previously known as Prema Powerteam, is an Italian motorsport team, owned and operated through the '' DC Racing Solutions'' parent company. Founded in 1983, the team is based in Grisignano di Zocco and currently operates out of It ...

on all three days during the post-season test at the Jerez Circuit. In November 2022, it was announced he would be joining Prema for the 2023 F3 season. O'Sullivan had a disappointing start to the season as he failed to score points during the first round in Bahrain. O'Sullivan qualified in fifth for

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, and got his first podium of the season by finishing second in the sprint race. However, following the disqualification of

Franco Colapinto Franco Alejandro Colapinto (; born 27 May 2003) is an Argentine racing driver who competes in Formula One for Alpine F1 Team, Alpine. Born and raised in Pilar, Buenos Aires, Colapinto began competitive kart racing aged nine, winning several reg ...

, who had originally finished first, O'Sullivan was promoted to race winner and thus scored his first victory in Formula 3. He remained in fifth place for the feature race. O'Sullivan had another tough round in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, qualifying 13th which limited points opportunities at a circuit where overtaking was tough. Despite that, he made a strong getaway during the feature race and an incident ahead secured him seventh place at the end. In

, O'Sullivan qualified on reverse pole, and would fend off fellow Williams Academy member

Luke Browning Luke Browning (born 31 January 2002) is a British racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for Hitech Pulse-Eight, Hitech Toyota Gazoo Racing, TGR as part of the Williams Driver Academy. A member of the Williams Driver Aca ...

to secure his second win. He added more points to his tally in the feature race, finishing eighth. In

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, O'Sullivan qualified in sixth but was penalised three places during the sprint race for impeding. Despite the setback, O'Sullivan would charge forward to fourth. Sunday was much better, O'Sullivan mastered his way into the lead, taking advantage of his rivals fighting and breakthrough for his first Formula 3 feature race win. O'Sullivan had a difficult weekend in his

home race, failing to score points. In

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, O'Sullivan stormed to pole position, his first of the year. His sprint race was compromised by making contact with

Nikola Tsolov Nikola Dimitrov Tsolov (; ; born 21 December 2006) is a Bulgarian racing driver who is currently competing with Campos Racing in the 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship, after racing with ART Grand Prix for two seasons. He won the 2022 F4 Spanish C ...

, which forced the Briton to pit for a new front wing and was classified 21st. He then went on to dominate the feature race from pole, equalling the F3 win record with his fourth victory, propelling him to second in the standings. O'Sullivan qualified sixth in

, but his races would be unlucky. During the sprint race, he impressed by finishing fourth, but was penalised for passing Hugh Barter by gaining time off-track, dropping to 15th. His feature race started on the wrong foot, starting on the dry tyres which proved to be the wrong choice. He could not recover from there, ending the race in 12th, and knocked himself out of title contention. O'Sullivan qualified sixth for the Monza season finale. After a penalty demoted him out of the points in the sprint race, he bounced back with a second place finish in the feature race. The result meant that O'Sullivan finished runner-up in the standings, scoring 119 points, four wins, one other podium and one pole.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

In October 2023, O'Sullivan was announced to step up to

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009 to 2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name returned aga ...

with

for the 2024 season, teaming up with 2022 FIA Formula 3 champion

Victor Martins Victor Martins (; born 16 June 2001) is a French racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for ART Grand Prix as part of the Williams Driver Academy. A former member of the Alpine Academy and a member of the Williams Driver A ...

. Despite it being his rookie year, he stated that he saw "no reason why ighting for the championshipshouldn't be possible". Unfortunately, ART was one of many teams to struggle with the new-for-2024 F2 car and a championship challenge didn't materialise. O'Sullivan qualified sixth on his debut in

and finished seventh on his debut during the sprint race. A strong start moved him to second in the feature race, but faded slightly late in the race to finish fourth. A difficult round followed in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

, where he stalled in the sprint race and spun out late in the feature race. In

, O'Sullivan managed to avoid the chaos and claim a point in eighth. A scruffy feature race followed with contact with

Roman Staněk Roman Staněk Jr. (; born 25 February 2004) is a Czech racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for Invicta Racing. He previously competed in FIA Formula 3 Championship, FIA Formula 3 for three seasons, where he placed fif ...

on the opening lap, before his race ended after colliding with

Joshua Dürksen Joshua Dürksen (; born 27 October 2003) is a Paraguayan racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula 2 Championship for AIX Racing. Dürksen previously raced for Arden International, Arden in the Formula Regional European Championship in 202 ...

. A pointless weekend followed in

, before O'Sullivan earned his breakthrough in

. Starting 15th, O'Sullivan ran long on the harder tyres, and pitted right before the

virtual safety car In motorsport, a safety car, or a pace car, is a car that limits the speed of competing cars or motorcycles on a racetrack in the case of a ''caution period,'' such as an obstruction on the track or bad weather. The safety car aims to enable the ...

was deployed on lap 40. Due to this, he was able to jump the entire field, including net race leader

Isack Hadjar Isack Alexandre Hadjar (, ; born 28 September 2004) is a French and Algerian racing driver who competes Formula One drivers from France, under the French flag in Formula One for Racing Bulls. Born and raised in Paris to an Algerian family, Hadj ...

to secure his first Formula 2 win. In

, starting 12th, a long stint on the harder tyres allowed him to score points in the feature race with ninth. In

, O'Sullivan was making a charge in the sprint from 14th and made his way to the points until he tipped teammate Martins into a spin, taking both out of the race. He narrowly missed points with 11th in the feature race. Qualifying on reverse pole for the sprint in

, he controlled proceedings and won the shortened sprint race affected by heavy rain. He ended the feature race in a strong fourth place. Unfortunately for O'Sullivan, he pulled out of the championship following the Monza round, meaning that he did not see out the remaining three rounds of the season. Media coverage suggested the end of O'Sullivan's championship was connected to an issue with ART but he has since confirmed it was purely down to funding, and he had a great relationship with the team. He would eventually place 16th in the overall standings with two wins and 59 points.

Super Formula

In December 2024, O'Sullivan took part in a

test at the

Suzuka Circuit The , the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka, Mie, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda, Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. It is most well known by i ...

, later stating that he "considered tan option for 2025".

2025 season

Shortly after his test, O'Sullivan was confirmed to be competing in the

2025 Super Formula Championship The 2025 Japanese Super Formula Championship is the fifty-third season of premier Japanese open-wheel motor racing, and the twelfth under the moniker of Super Formula. The season started in March at Suzuka Circuit and is due to be contested ov ...

with

Kondo Racing Kondo Racing is an automobile racing team founded, owned and headed by Masahiko Kondo. The operating body is MK Company Co., Ltd. MK is an abbreviation for Masahiko Kondo. The team competes in Super Formula as well as in Super GT in both the GT ...

Formula One

In February 2022, it was announced O'Sullivan would join the

. During late October, O'Sullivan got his first taste of F1 machinery, driving the Aston Martin AMR21 at the

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 British Grand ...

as part of his reward for claiming the Autosport BRDC Award the previous year. O'Sullivan debuted in

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

machinery while driving the Williams FW45 during

free practice Formula One race weekend refers to an auto racing event which takes place over three days (usually Friday to Sunday), with a series of practice and qualifying sessions prior to the race on Sunday. Current regulations provide for two free practi ...

(FP1) at the

2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix The 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023) was a Formula One motor race held on 26 November 2023 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It was the twenty-seco ...

. He ended the session in 18th place, 1.3 seconds off the fastest time. He returned driving the FW45 during the young drivers' test, racking up 50 laps.

Formula E

O'Sullivan is set to make his

debut during the rookie free practice session at the

Diriyah ePrix The Diriyah ePrix was a race of the single-seater, electrically powered Formula E championship, held in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. It was first held as part of the 2018–19 season and was the first Formula E race to be held in the Middle East. Th ...

, driving for

. Additionally, he was also named as their simulator driver for the 2024–25 season.

Super GT

O'Sullivan was announced that he will make his debut and compete in Super GT GT300 Class with new entry of CarGuy MKS Racing as would race with Ferrari 296 GT3. O'Sullivan will race alongside

Rikuto Kobayashi is a Japanese racing driver and sim racer currently competing in Super Formula Lights and Super GT. A member of the TGR Driver Challenge Program, Kobayashi won the F4 Japanese Championship in 2023. He is not related to the 2021 24 Hours of ...

Personal life

O'Sullivan was born in Chelsea in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and moved to

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

when he was eight years old. His racing hero is seven-time Formula One champion

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in ...

Karting record