Branko Ristic
Branko Ristic (born 22nd September 1998) is a Macedonian racing driver known for his career in F3RWRS.
Racing career
Up to 2014
Inspired by the Croatian racing driver Mirko Bosevic and his return to racing in 2013, Ristic decided to compete in hill-climb championships in Macedonia using his grandfather's Zastava, and soon his edgy driving style caught attention of Anton Bosevic, whose racing team looked for young drivers to compete in F3RWRS. For 2014 he was signed for the F3RWRS Academy to keep him busy while waiting for him to reach the minimum age of 16 required to compete, but the series never took off. Ristic kept training with the old Dallara chassis Hydook recommissioned for training purposes.
2015
F3RWRS
By 2015 Ristic was already 16 years old and therefore eligible for a drive in F3RWRS. His first run in the in-house Hydook F3-1 car proved Ristic to be underprepared for F3 racing. Despite subpar results, he was signed by the team alongside German Scuderia Alitalia protege Carsten Jancker. Signing Ristic sealed the sponsorship deal between Hydook Junior Team and Aegean Airlines, with Macedonia Tourism Board chipping in to make sure that Ristic won't be left without a drive.
After pre-season testing it was obvious that both Jancker and Ristic will struggle, but surprisingly enough Macedonian driver often matched or even outpaced his teammate. But during the season it was proven that Ristic's hill climb racing pedigree was no match for Jancker's expertise in single-seater racing and therefore he spent most of the time closing the field or retiring early in the race. At times Ristic managed to outpace Jancker, but it mostly went unnoticed given the positions both drivers were finishing on. After the Japanese double-header Hydook decided that Colin Peynirci will take Ristic's seat for the Surfers SuperPrix.
F2RWRS
At one point Hydook brought Ristic in to take Rueckert's place in F2RWRS, but - given his poor results in F3RWRS and no prior testing - his four outings in the series ended prematurely, failing to prequalify for any of the races.
Results
F3RWRS
| Year | Team | DC | Pts | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Aegean Hydook Junior Team | AUS | TUR | MON | USA | GBR | GER | BEL | ITA | JPN | SUR | NC | 0 | ||||||||
| 22 | 25 | 34 | Ret | 47 | 29 | 28 | 19 | 35 | 39 | Ret | 23 | 31 | 25 | 27 | 31 | ||||||
F2RWRS
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Hydook Racing Team | TAS |
RSA |
TUR |
MON |
FRA |
GBR |
GER |
BEL |
AUT |
ITA |
NED DNPQ |
SIN DNPQ |
JPN DNPQ |
USA |
100 DNPQ |
NC | 0 |