{"id":796897,"date":"2026-07-13T05:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796897\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T05:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:26:13","slug":"joanne-ciconte-is-in-the-fast-lane-to-achieving-her-f1-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796897\/","title":{"rendered":"Joanne Ciconte is in the fast lane to achieving her F1 dream!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind the wheel of her single-seater race<\/a> car, Joanne Ciconte loves the thrill of carving a perfect<\/a> racing line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m going fast, everything around me slows down and I\u2019m in my own world \u2013 because a slight distraction might decide whether I\u2019m first or 10th in a race,\u201d Joanne tells Woman\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a pinch-me moment to feel the wind rush past your helmet. I love the sensation of speed!\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old from Melbourne is so fast and so good at racing, she\u2019s qualified for and competed in multiple Formula 4 championships around the globe \u2013 all before getting her driver\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it funny that I can do 260km\/h down a straight, but can\u2019t drive on the roads here,\u201d Joanne laughs. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut by the end of the year I should have my P plates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Joanne\u2019s family support her passion. (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

STEPPING STONE<\/p>\n

Joanne first felt the need for speed when she was nine, watching her little brother Cosimo race go-karts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a family we\u2019d watch him practice and it was truly exciting,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember begging my dad to let me have a drive one day. He brushed it off at first, as there weren\u2019t many females in the sport, but I showed him how eager and determined I was, and I\u2019m grateful I never let anything push me down.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Joanne admits she was initially frightened, she soon became obsessed and addicted to racing.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Joanne made the switch to Formula 4, and a year later, she was one of two Australians who qualified for the F1 Academy \u2013 an all-female international racing championship, and a stepping stone to F1, where Joanne hopes to race with some of the world\u2019s best drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ultimate dream is to be Australia\u2019s first female Formula 1 driver,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dreamed about it since I was little, and every day I\u2019m a step closer to that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2025 season, she raced for Dutch team MP Motorsport against 17 other drivers all over the world \u2013 from Shanghai to Miami, Montreal, Singapore, Las Vegas, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

She placed 14th overall, and her best result was eighth place in Singapore.<\/p>\n

Joanne points to fellow fast Aussies Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo as the F1 heroes she looks up to.<\/p>\n

At the 2019 Melbourne Grand Prix, a nine-year-old Joanne escorted Daniel to the track as his grid kid.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanny and Oscar are amazing drivers and I still learn from them every day,\u201d says Joanne.<\/p>\n

\"\"With Aussie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. (Image: Instagram)<\/p>\n

SEEING SUCCESS<\/p>\n

Joanne is competing in the Japanese Kyojo Cup this month \u2013 where she\u2019s already seen success on the corners and straights of the legendary Fuji Speedway.<\/p>\n

On May 9, Joanne placed second in the cup\u2019s opening round \u2013 and she\u2019s hoping that early success continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve changed so much as a driver in a really good way,\u201d Joanne says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a good result for the first round and we\u2019ll see for the next one!\u201d<\/p>\n

While she loves tearing up the race tracks at breakneck speeds, there\u2019s a more modest milestone she\u2019s really looking forward to \u2013 finally getting her driver\u2019s licence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I do that, I\u2019ll definitely be picking my friends up and going for a nice drive somewhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"harry\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHarry Mulholland\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tNews writer\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Harry Mulholland is a news writer for Woman\u2019s Day, Australia\u2019s best-selling women\u2019s weekly magazine. In his six years of journalism across community and national news across Australia, Harry has become a trusted authority in Australian and international news, true crime and entertainment.
\n
\nSince joining Woman\u2019s Day, Harry has interviewed everyday heroes making a difference in their communities, criminology experts, victims of crime \u2013 and two cast members from Harry Potter (Miriam Margolyes likes him!). Before joining Woman\u2019s Day, Harry covered community news at Coast Community News, delivered radio bulletins at Coast FM, and reported on drilling results, exploration updates, and M&A activity for Mining.com.au. Harry holds a Bachelor of Communications from Charles Sturt University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind the wheel of her single-seater race car, Joanne Ciconte loves the thrill of carving a perfect racing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-796897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}