Gosia as an Audi driver
Malgorzata Rdest, always known as Malgosia or Gosia, is a Polish driver who races saloons and single-seaters in Europe.
She was born in 1993, and started karting quite late for someone who would go on to drive professionally; she was a teenager. At the age of twelve, she went to a car show, which sparked an interest in all things automotive. In 2011, she won the Polish championship in the KF2 class, and went on to race in Italy, winning some races.
Her first steps in senior competition were in 2012, a year later. She took part in the Formula BMW Talent Cup, held at Oschersleben in Germany, hoping to win a funded season of single-seater racing for 2013. Her inexperience showed, but she managed to finish all three races, with two sevenths and one tenth place. She was tenth in the championship.
She competed in Formula 4 in Great Britain in 2013, in the form of the MSA Formula series. Her best finish was eleventh, at Snetterton, and she was 18th in the championship, out of 27 drivers. After the main season had finished, she entered the Formula 4 Winter Series, and managed two eighth places, at Brands Hatch. This year, she took her first steps in saloon racing, and drove in three rounds of the Volkswagen Castrol Cup, in Austria, Hungary and Poland, with three top-ten finishes. These included a fifth place at the Red Bull Ring.
In 2014, she raced in the Volkswagen Castrol Cup in Eastern Europe. Her best result was sixth, at her home track of Poznan, and she finished in the top ten on three more occasions. She was fourteenth overall. A guest appearance in the Volkswagen Scirocco-R Cup gave her a DNF, and as a result, she could not start the next race.
Saloon racing, in particular, one-make series, became her chief focus for 2015. Remaining with Volkswagen power, and in a Polish-based championship, she signed up for the Polish VW Golf Cup, which runs all over Eastern Europe. At the time of writing, she has finished in the top ten in five of her six races, with eighth places at Oschersleben and the Slovakiaring being her best results. In another VW Golf, she has also tried endurance racing, joining the KPM Racing team for the Dubai 24 Hours. She shared the car with Tom Wilson, Lucas Orrock and Javier Morcillo. They were ninth in class, and 51st overall. The next round of the 24 Hour series was a 12-hour race at Mugello, and Gosia drove a similar Golf, for the R6 Motorsport team. She was sixth in class, 37th overall, driving as part of an all-Polish team.
In Germany, she took part in the successor to the Scirocco-R Cup, the Audi Sport TT Cup. She was not as competitive in the Audi as she was in the Golf, and so far, she has managed one eighth place, at the Red Bull Ring. The rest of her finishes are much lower down the order.
Gosia has stated that her aim is still to become Poland’s first Formula One champion, following on the path begun by one of her role models, Robert Kubica. With only one full season of single-seaters behind her, this seems unlikely now, although a drive in the WTCC or the DTM is within her reach, and could bring her success.
(Image from http://audi-motorsport-blog.blogspot.co.uk/)