Three weeks after his last appearance in a karting event, Jesse Carrasquedo was back in the OK category, with a strong desire to show his potential despite being behind his competitors. "With the pandemic, it's not always easy to travel from one country to another at the moment and I wasn't able to go to Italy the week before to compete in the third round of the European Championship. So I had to get my bearings against my opponents. Also, it was my first time racing at this level on the Zuera circuit, which has several technical features that need hard work," said Jesse.

Brilliant progress in all heats

Jesse and his team used Free Practice to optimise the set-up of his Parolin chassis and TM Racing engines, but Qualifying did not meet his expectations. "The gaps between us are so close that even a tenth of a second can have serious consequences. I was hoping for better than 41st out of 54, especially as my time of 1'00"838 could have put me in 20th position if I had been in Group 2."

This setback meant that Jesse Carrasquedo had to make up places in each of the Qualifying Heats. He moved up four positions in the first heat, two in the second and no less than six in the last. The Mexican hopeful was again very active and effective in the field, despite being one of the youngest drivers in the OK category. Overall, Jesse was 36th in the heats overall. In an FIA Karting race, he could have qualified directly for the Final. But in the Champions of the Future series, a "repechage" race is organised for drivers ranked 31st or below.

His 9th fastest time in the warm-up on Sunday morning gave Jesse and his Parolin Motorsport team the opportunity to look forward to the Repechage. Unfortunately, a few jostles in the pack caused him to lose precious positions. He missed out on a well-deserved place in the Finals by finishing 10th. "I only want to remember the positive points of this meeting. I know that by improving some small details, I can do much better, especially during the last race of the European Championship at the end of the week."

About Jesse

Born on 27th April, 2007, Jesse Carrasquedo Jr is today one of the great Mexican hopes. Already behind the wheel of a kart at the age of six, the discipline that he started for fun quickly became a passion. Since then, he has been devoted 100% with motivation, work and determination to reaching his ultimate goal: Formula 1.

Winner of several karting events on the American continent, Jesse has progressed a lot thanks to Sergio Perez's racing school located in Guadalajara and the team of Antonio Perez, the brother of the famous driver. The Mexican didn't hesitate to come to live in Europe to compete against the best karting hopefuls. Competing in Mini in 2017 and 2018, then in Junior in 2019 and 2020, this promising driver finished 5th in the Rok Cup International Superfinal in Italy last year at the end of a season that was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now 14 years old and a member of the official Parolin Motorsport team, in 2021, Jesse has moved up from Junior to OK, the category before ascending to single-seaters. The young Mexican is preparing his debut in Formula 4 racing very seriously. Closely followed by Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver Sergio Perez, he is training intensively with the prestigious Campos Racing academy, which has produced drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Luca Di Grassi and Sergio Perez. He benefits from the advice of a driver trained by Adrian Campos, Marc Gené, the former F1 driver, winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and still a test driver for Ferrari.