Hüseyin Çetinkaya

Cetinkaya making his Formula 1 debut in S5.

**Hüseyin Ismail Ahmet Süleyman Çetinkaya** is a Turkish racing driver who competes in MMS F1 S5 with FIRST Racing.

## **Personal Life**

Born in Trabzon Turkey, Hüseyin's father, Ismail Çetinkaya is the owner of Çetinkaya Demir A.Ş. (ÇEDAŞ), one of the largest exporters of steel and other metals in Turkey. This gave Hüseyin the backing needed to pursue his racing career.

Çetinkaya resides today in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States along with his family, and his dog Tony. Usually reviled by the entire paddock for his driving ability, Çetinkaya was not the most popular with the drivers, and normally only hanged around the paddock with his father. After being partnered with Matthew O'Hara in Formula 2 for the inaugural season of the championship, Çetinkaya and O'Hara seem to have become quite good friends as of recently. Çetinkaya, in an interview with DailyDriver states that his racing idol is Halil Şahin.

## **Racing Career**

### Karting and junior formulae

Hüseyin started racing in karts, aged 7 and with a very wealthy backing. His results were not indicative of anything good at all, and he continued racing karts all the way until he was 14, where he would finish tenth in the Turkish Karting Championship. Around this time was when the Çetinkaya family moved to Berlin, Germany, so father Ismail could branch out his company to Europe. Hüseyin would next compete in the ADAC Formula 4 championship, where he would pick up a best finish of third place at the Oschersleben round, however he would later have to pull out of the series midway through due to stomach problems. Results improved massively for next season, as Çetinkaya was in contention for the championship, however after crashing with championship rival Tony Michaels at the final round of the season, Hüseyin was disqualified from the championship with a 4 point lead. For the next season, Hüseyin entered European Formula 3, where his father along with a few of his friends in the paddock would establish ÇEDAŞ Motorsport, a Formula 3 team solely dedicated to the Çetinkaya family. Being the best funded team on the grid, Çetinkaya would amass a grand total of 5 points, finishing P21. Finding no luck in the European scene for both Hüseyin's racing adventure and Ismail's business ventures, the Çetinkaya family would later move to the United States.

### American campaign and IndyCar debut

Hüseyin fell in love with IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500, and decided that he wanted to compete in the series that he now adores. Aged 18, Çetinkaya would compete in the Indy Lights series with ÇEDAŞ Motorsport, who moved operations to America. His results were very poor, however a very chaotic race at the final round at Watkins Glen saw Çetinkaya take his first and only victory in Indy Lights. Çetinkaya would remain in Indy Lights for the next season, determined to win the championship. Over in IndyCar, CMS Scuderia Italia were struggling with finding a reliable second and third driver to partner Rikke Vernersen. Many drivers were considered, however after what the team principal of CMS Scuderia Italia described as "a wealthy investment from our friends in the East", Çetinkaya would make his IndyCar debut, aged 19 with CMS Scuderia Italia at the GP of Estonia.

Çetinkaya struggled massively in his first season of IndyCar and didn't achieve a single point, however he would make headlines at the Grand Prix of Portland when he intentionally crashed into the Zenithworks car of long-time rival Tony Michaels. Çetinkaya would receive a suspension from IndyCar for the rest of the season, and he had to sit out the remainder of the races.

### Formula 2

Big news would strike though, as ÇEDAŞ Motorsport secured a deal with Formula 2 team Trident to let Hüseyin race for them next season. Çetinkaya is now planned to be partnered alongside returning MMS driver Matthew O'Hara, both already getting along with each other.