How Olli Caldwell moved from single-seater race wins to ELMS victories

Olli Caldwell is a British driver who won races in four single-seater championships before turning to sportscars. His Formula 4 and Formula Regional years were spent largely with Prema, and his Formula 2 seasons with Campos Racing. From 2023 he raced in the LMP2 class of the World Endurance Championship and the European Le Mans Series, where he took his first ELMS win in 2025.

How did Caldwell start in cars and single-seaters?

Caldwell began karting in 2013 at the age of eleven, and after four seasons in karts he finished third in the 2016 Rotax Euro Challenge. That same year he represented Great Britain at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals. He then moved into cars with JHR Developments in the second half of the 2016 Ginetta Junior Championship.

His single-seater debut came at Croft in 2017, with Arden in the British F4 Championship. He had missed the opening third of the season because of age rules, which made him the youngest ever competitor in a British F4 race at fifteen. He finished that year fourteenth overall, with a highest race finish of seventh.

He also made his ADAC Formula 4 debut in 2017, driving for ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg in two weekends. In the Italian F4 Championship that year he scored ten points for Mucke Motorsport and finished eleventh overall, with a best result of sixth at Monza.

Race wins in four single-seater championships, then a steady move into sportscars with a first prototype win in Dubai.

What did Caldwell win in Formula 4 with Prema?

Caldwell moved to Prema for the full 2018 season. He finished seventh overall in ADAC F4, with 125 points and four podiums, including his only win of the season at Oschersleben. The same year he drove for Prema Powerteam in Italy, alongside Enzo Fittipaldi and Gianluca Petecof, and ended the championship third.

The Italian season had its high points. A pole and a race win in France came after an opening weekend that went badly. At Vallelunga he scored all three victories after taking pole for every race, which gave him a title chance. Two podiums at Mugello were not enough to take the title, and he finished third overall.

In the UAE that winter he raced for Silberpfeil Energy Dubai in the F4 UAE Championship. He contested only the first two rounds and won three races, finishing seventh in the championship.

How did the 2019 Formula Regional season go?

In 2019 Caldwell stayed with Prema and moved up to the Formula Regional European Championship, alongside Fittipaldi and Frederik Vesti. He opened with a fourth in race one at Le Castellet and then won race two, though a technical infringement on his car later disqualified him. He scored podiums at Vallelunga and on the rostrum in all three Hungaroring races.

Imola was his best weekend of the year. Despite a crash in race three, he took two second places in the opening races and then won the re-run race four, which had replaced a cancelled race at Vallelunga. The weekend was the one in which Anthoine Hubert was killed at Spa, and Caldwell dedicated the win to the late Frenchman.

At Barcelona he was fighting for a podium in race one until Fittipaldi forced him onto the gravel.

Mugello was his worst weekend, with three points and his only non-scoring finish of the season. He ended the campaign with three top-eight finishes at Monza and finished fifth in the championship.

Why did the Formula 3 years matter?

In 2019 he had raced at the Macau Grand Prix with Trident, starting seventeenth in qualifying and being caught up in an incident in the qualifying race that dropped him to 23rd. He retired from the main race after contact with Andreas Estner. The FIA Formula 3 season that followed was more productive.

In 2020 Trident signed him alongside David Beckmann and Lirim Zendeli. He had a strong start, finishing in the top six in both races at the second Spielberg round, but then endured four rounds without points, including a spin in the feature race at Silverstone. He broke that run with seventh in the Barcelona feature race, and his final points came at Monza, and he finished sixteenth in the standings.

For 2021 he moved to Prema with Arthur Leclerc and Dennis Hauger. He won race two at Barcelona after the leading pair collided on the penultimate lap, and he held off Victor Martins on the final lap to take his first Formula 3 win. He added second and third places at Spielberg and a second place in race one at Budapest after a penalty for the race winner. His championship ended eighth, two places ahead of Leclerc.

How did the Formula 2 seasons with Campos go?

Caldwell joined Campos Racing for the final two rounds of the 2021 Formula 2 season, alongside Ralph Boschung, and he set a fastest lap in the first sprint race after a late stop caused by a racing incident with Jake Hughes. He then joined the team for its post-season test. He then stepped up full-time for 2022, staying with Campos and still partnering Boschung.

The 2022 season began with an engine issue in Bahrain and a penalty-heavy Sunday, where he collected seven penalty points. Silverstone was his first home-track win over Boschung in qualifying, and at the Red Bull Ring he climbed from last to sixth after penalties ahead of him. At Hungary he qualified 13th and finished tenth in the sprint, but he ran out of fuel in the feature race and later picked up a track-limits penalty that excluded him from the Spa round.

The second half brought more retirements. Monza ended with two lap-one collisions, and Abu Dhabi ended with a mechanical failure. Caldwell finished the season twenty-first in the standings with 12 points, and it was his last Formula 2 season.

Did Caldwell reach Formula One?

Not as a race driver, though he came close to the sport. In February 2022 the Alpine F1 Team announced that he had joined its academy, alongside former rivals Jack Doohan, Victor Martins and Caio Collet. He drove the Alpine A521 at Silverstone in June 2022, covering 485.7 kilometres during the day, and in November he completed more than 100 laps at Bahrain.

He graduated from the Alpine Academy at the start of 2023, and that move led him into sportscars rather than a Formula One seat. The academy route did not lead to a race seat in Formula One.

How did the sportscar programme begin?

Caldwell's first GT race came at the end of 2018, in the Gulf 12 Hours. He led after six hours, won the Race 1 overall and then took the GT4 class with Bullitt Racing alongside Ian Loggie and Oleg Kharuk. A planned 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour drive ended when the team withdrew after a team-mate crashed in qualifying, which broke the car.

His World Endurance Championship debut came in November 2021 at the 8 Hours of Bahrain, for ARC Bratislava alongside Miro Konopka and Nelson Panciatici. The trio finished eleventh in the LMP2 class. A year later he set the second-fastest time among the rookies in the rookie test at Bahrain, and in 2023 he moved into the WEC with Alpine Elf Team, partnering Andre Negrao and Memo Rojas.

Alpine's LMP2 season was hard going. Caldwell retired at Sebring after an electrical issue, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the car was involved in a collision that cost several laps, leaving the team ninth in class. Caldwell also raced for Inter Europol Competition in the European Le Mans Series that year, and the team earned a podium at Le Castellet. Aragon brought third in qualifying before contact with a Ferrari ruined the team's podium chances. At Portimao they finished sixth after a driving-time penalty, then fourth on the Sunday.

How did the Algarve Pro Racing title fight unfold?

In 2024 Caldwell joined reigning ELMS champions Algarve Pro Racing for a second ELMS season, partnering Matthias Kaiser and Alex Lynn. The team finished second at Barcelona and claimed a podium at Mugello, and the year ended fifth in the drivers standings.

Le Mans in 2024 brought a new partner, Roman De Angelis, for the trio with Kaiser. They finished eighth in class after losing two laps in the first hour, when Caldwell tagged a barrier and the car needed repairs. Imola ended eighth after a poorly timed virtual safety car, and Spa left the team several laps down after a collision with a GT Ferrari in the first stint.

The 2025 season was the high point. Caldwell took his first ELMS win at Spa-Francorchamps after a late full-course yellow allowed the team to overtake its rivals. Silverstone brought a second win by just over a tenth of a second. The team arrived at the final round at Portimao with a nine-point gap, but a collision with an Iron Lynx GT car left them last in class, and the team finished second in the Pro-Am championship.

The season started with a second in class at Barcelona, and at Le Castellet both Caldwell and Quinn received penalties that left the team sixth in class. At Imola Caldwell pressed Dane Cameron for the lead, while Quinn survived contact with Mathias Beche to hold on to third.

When did the first prototype win come?

His first prototype win came at the 4 Hours of Dubai in February 2025. He had finished third in race one, then won race two in a race with several overtakes and a late collision for the leader, which allowed Alex Quinn to inherit the lead.

The Asian Le Mans Series that winter had been a steady run for the team, with sixth at Sepang in race one and third in race two. At Abu Dhabi he was second in race one, then charged through the field for a podium in race two before a steering column problem ended his chance of victory. The team finished fourth overall.

What is Caldwell doing in 2026?

At the start of 2026 Caldwell revealed that his racing plans had fallen through, leaving him without a seat. He stayed connected to Algarve Pro Racing as a driver coach for the 2026 ELMS season, a role that keeps him close to the team's drivers while he looks for a race seat again.

Career results by series