The early days - Nikola Tsolov’s childhood

Tsolov was born in the city of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, in 2006. His mother, Mira, is a musician and his father, Dimitar, is a computer scientist with a lifelong passion for motorsports. 

A karter with a motorsport dream in his own childhood days, his father passed the hobby on to his son when Tsolov was about nine years old, in 2015. The two visited the karting track every day after school, and it was not long before Tsolov’s talent and natural feel for the track became obvious, and what started as just a family activity grew into an all-encompassing passion for him.

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Getting competitive - Nikola Tsolov’s karting career

In 2016, just one year after he first stepped into a go-kart, Tsolov made his competitive debut in the Mini category of the Bulgarian Republic Championship. He impressed immediately by winning the title in his debut year, and then repeated the accomplishment once again in 2017. The two national titles put him front and center as the talent to watch in Bulgarian motorsports and kicked off his international karting career.

The shift to international karting came with a much bigger pool of talent to contend with and, naturally, much tougher competition to face off against. This put Tsolov’s skills in overtaking, defending, and driving in the middle of a pack to the test. Tsolov took it all in stride, winning his first international karting title in 2019, coming in first in the 60 Mini category of the WSK Open Cup with Team Driver Racing Kart.

The following year, he switched over to DPK Racing. With them, Tsolov secured a third place finish in the 2021 Champions of the Future, and a second place finish in the 2021 Italian Championship (X30 Senior category) and the WSK Final Cup. It was performances like these that caught the eye of two-time F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso himself; Tsolov teamed up with Alonso for the 2021 Dubai Kartdrome 24 Hours, and the two finished on the podium with an impressive third place.

Oh his time with DPK Racing, Tsolov said in an interview with Oorjit Mishra of Feeder Series, “Really it was difficult for me in the beginning to understand the difference between racing in Bulgaria and outside, but the team DPK really helped me improve myself, improve my driving, and just everything about me.”

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The move to single seaters - Nikola Tsolov’s career in F4 and F3

In the middle of a busy and successful 2021, Tsolov and his camp decided that he would take the next big step of his career the following year, and move up to F4 as part of Campus Racing with the support of the Alpine F1 Academy. A late call on the decision meant that Tsolov had a much tighter timeline to prepare compared to his racing peers. Despite this, he not only made his debut at the F4 Spanish Championship, but dominated the whole way through and took home the title in his rookie year.

His immediate success in the national series was the driving force behind Tsolov taking the leap into F3 in 2023 as a member of ART Grand Prix. Reminiscent of his transition from national to international karting, however, the move to a higher level proved to be a challenge, and Tsolov–who, at 16, was the youngest driver in the Championship–finished his debut season in 22nd. Nonetheless, it was still a year of accomplishments; Tsolov finished sixth and ninth during the Spa-Francorchamps and Monza sprints, and with that became the third-youngest driver ever to score points in F3, and the first Bulgarian driver to do so.

The following year, Tsolov made massive progress in his performance, once again mirroring the growth he showed as a karter at the international level. He took his first win at the 2024 Monza sprint, and followed that up with two more first place finishes for the Austrian sprint and Hungarian feature race. Along with Arvid Lindblad, Tsolov was the only driver that year to take three or more wins during the season. Overall, he finished 11th, a massive improvement from the previous year.

Going into the 2025 season, Tsolov reunited with Campos Racing and joined the prestigious Red Bull Junior Team. The current year is proving to be his best one yet, with two wins and five total podium finishes in just the first half of the season. While it hasn’t been without its trials and tribulations–after winning the 2025 Hungarian feature race, his car was disqualified for breaching technical regulations–he has already outscored his total points from the previous two years combined, and is on the right track to achieve his biggest goal of racing in F1 one day.

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#RoadtoF1 – When will Nikola Tsolov be in F1?

Like many junior Formula drivers, Tsolov has his eyes trained on the F1 grid. His website has a page dedicated to his mission, simply called #RoadtoF1, which is described as “not just a hashtag; it’s a commitment to excellence and a bold declaration of Nikola's ambitions. Every lap, every corner, and every second spent on and off the track is part of a carefully crafted plan to reach Formula 1.”

But the road to F1 is long and, like any young prospect, Tsolov must first prove himself in F2 before joining the big leagues. And this is something that he is very much aware of. Speaking on the Zdravey Bulgaria (Hello Bulgaria) news program, the young driver said that he hopes to reach F2 in 2026. From there, he knows that it will be up to him to show his talent, skill and adaptability and get the right kind of results to catch the eyes of F1 teams looking for bright new talent. 

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It may take a few years before we see Tsolov in F1, but if he continues developing as a driver the way he has so far, then achieving his goal is certainly on the horizon for him. In the meantime, he was given the opportunity to drive the RB7, Red Bull’s 2011 model in a showrun in June 2025. While the RB7 is too old to use for testing of previous cars, it certainly gave Tsolov a taste of what the future could look like for him. 

Yet even more impactful was the fact that this showrun took place in the city center of his hometown, Sofia. Tsolov does not dream of just becoming an F1 driver; he dreams of becoming the first Bulgarian F1 driver in the history of the sport. In doing so, he hopes to not just shine as an individual driver, but put his country’s motorsport community on the racing map over the next few years.

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Mentored by one of the greats - Nikola Tsolov and Fernando Alonso

One of Tsolov’s biggest racing mentors is the one and only Fernando Alonso. The two-time F1 World Champion has been a part of Tsolov’s journey from the early days; DPK Racing–the team that Tsolov spent most of his karting career with–is also the team officially repping Alonso’s FA Alonso Karting chassis. The relationship grew from there, and the two eventually paired up for 2021 Dubai Kartdrome 24 Hours, a huge learning experience that the young Bulgarian has looked fondly back on.

In his 2022 interview with Feeder Series, Tsolov spoke about the mentorship Alonso had also offered since their 2021 team-up. Specifically, he spoke about Alonso’s guidance on setting up his F4 car during his transition into single seater competitions in 2022. Pre-season testing was a particularly busy time; Tsolov recalled the chats he had after each testing session, and how much advice Alonso had on everything from tire management to getting a handle on standing starts (karting typically uses a rolling start). 

And the mentor-mentee relationship continues to this day. Tsolov is part of the A14 Management roster, managed by Alonso himself. Alongside him are F1 Academy driver Chloe Chambers, F2 driver Pepe Marti, and another one of Alonso’s protegees and current F1 rookie, Gabriel Bortoleto. All in all, this is a great position for Tsolov to be in, keeping him close to the biggest names in the sport and on a proven path to F1.