The Australian rising star on her quest to make history in Japan’s Kyojo Cup
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
Joanne Ciconte has enjoyed a breakthrough rookie campaign in Kyojo Cup so far, displaying brilliant performances in the opening rounds to place herself in the fight for the championship. With the chance to become Kyojo Cup’s first-ever foreign champion on the horizon, the Melbourne racer is eager to rewrite history in the final three rounds of the Fuji-based series.
Over the last 15 years, select female racers from all over the world have flown to Japan to prove their worth against the country’s best drivers. Most of them have competed in sportscar racing, starting with Switzerland’s Cyndie Allemann, who became the first foreign-born female to race and score points in Japan’s ultra-competitive Super GT’s GT300. Twelve years later, Lilou Wadoux stunned the paddock by becoming the first female to take a podium in the series, doing so at Sugo for Ponos Racing.
Fast forward two years later and another foreign-born female racer is rewriting Japanese motorsport history, albeit in the world of single-seater racing. That driver being Melbourne's Joanne Ciconte, who currently competes in Kyojo Cup for Team KCMG as one of two Australians on the grid.
Coming off a rookie campaign in F1 Academy last year, Ciconte was given a rather unique next step of her career by her management Pro Racing Motorsport, who gave her the chance to participate in Kyojo Cup’s auditions in December.
“The opportunity came through my management, so I'd love to say a big thank you to Pro Racing Management,” said Ciconte. “Kyojo Cup has always been an option for my career and my development. They've always been a huge pioneer in females in motorsports. So, to participate and see an invitation to come down and do a shootout was a huge opportunity for my development.
“The transition was quite tough at the start, but it was a different car, so obviously I had to get used to adapting to the track and the car. But, I do think that now that I'm more used to all of that, it's a great series, and I'm really thankful to do well in the tryout.”
With an invitation to the auditions secured, Ciconte flew to Japan to try out the KC-MG01 chassis around the Fuji Short Course, a car-track combination she was a complete stranger to. Up to this point, Ciconte had primarily driven a Tatuus F4-T421 chassis, which has seen countless mileage across three different continents since 2021. By comparison, the KC-MG01 chassis had only been used for that year’s Kyojo Cup season, as well as the 2019 and 2022 editions of the FIA Motorsport Games, and rather uniquely, featured a hybrid system.
The Fuji Short Course also proved to be a new challenge for her and the other drivers present at the auditions. Located just outside the main course, the short counterpart is only used for testing and its length of just under a kilometer produced very short lap times.
Heading into her first racing venture in Japan, a country she had been itching to visit for years, Ciconte felt surrounded by many emotions: “Japan's always been a country that I've always wanted to visit, and to be driving, or to be even standing at the iconic circuit, Fuji Speedway, was a huge privilege.
“I was a bit skeptical at first, driving on the Short Course, because the track is insanely short. So, to see a Formula car on such a short track was a bit interesting, but looking back on it, I could see why they made us do that. Saying it out loud, a Formula car driving on a 30-second track, is quite challenging, because that means we're only finding such fine detail to be the best, and the times are so close. It was kind of cool looking back on it, and driving a new car was something different, but luckily for me, one of my strong points is that I'm easy to adapt to new things around me.”
Ciconte quickly adapted to the new challenge, as she was one of the fastest drivers during the auditions, which earned her an offer to be part of KCMG’s four-car lineup for the following year, an opportunity she couldn’t turn down.
“I placed as the top time throughout the days in most of the sessions,” said Ciconte. “I felt confident that I'd have a seat in Kyojo Cup. KCMG offered me to be their driver, which I was insanely happy of. KCMG are one of the top teams in Asia, and to be part of their team and their part of my journey is developing as a driver in Formula, I'm really grateful to have them on board."
"Honestly, I was really happy, because obviously I wanted to participate in Kyojo Cup. This series is a really strong development point, and in comparison of the last series that I've done, I believe that I do get to do more laps, experience more wheel-to-wheel racing in Kyojo Cup, and I do think it's incredible to be racing against Japan's top female racers.”
As the only rookie in the KCMG garage in the Fuji-based series, Ciconte headed into the first of five Fuji rounds with an open mind to learn as much as possible on her first racing weekend at the main Fuji Speedway layout.
Her mindset and extensive pre-season training paid off, as she defied expectations by finishing second in both the opening races in May, becoming the first non-Japanese driver to score a podium in the KYOJO Formula era.
“I like to have a mentality where I change expectations to goals,” Ciconte explained. “[In] this sport, there's so much pressure, and it's one of the most intense sports in the world, so I try to keep the pressure off my shoulders and rather chase goals. I came into this season with an open mind, just wanting to develop and learn. I trained hard in the gym, on track, and in the simulators. I trained really hard, and for that I had really good results in my debut race. I'm really happy for that, because I do believe that we can work only up from there.”
“My team was on the right track, we had the perfect set-up,” Ciconte added. “It was my first, it was my debut race in this season, so all the nervousness, I had to just push it back because I was really excited to just get on track. After all the tests, pre-season tests that we've done, I did build confidence that this first round was going to be great. We did a really good qualifying, and then from there it was only up. So, I'm grateful that I was able to have a really high consistency throughout that whole weekend.”
The second round in July provided a bigger challenge for the Melbourne racer, as Ciconte faced early setbacks, which saw her qualify eighth. Even with a lower starting position, Ciconte proved her worth by fighting valiantly in both races to finish sixth and fourth to clearly place herself in the title fight by entering the summer break third in points.
“In the last round, due to some complications from the start, I was kind of put at a disadvantage, but it was also great to show a different side of myself,” said Ciconte, looking back at the July round. “I was able to race, I was able to fight for positions, and I do believe that I do have some sort of potential in the championship. I'm still P3 [in points], so it'd be great to take the title, but again, I'm open-minded, and I'm just here to really learn and progress forward.”
Outside of the car, Ciconte has found herself in an environment where key people around her speak English, thus allowing her to be on the same rhythm as her Japanese teammates in the garage. In KCMG’s four-car operation, she and American Kelsey Pinkowski are paired up with seasoned veterans Miki Onaga and Rami Sasaki, who both speak English with their teammates.
As well as that, Kyojo Cup’s paddock is rather unique for a Formula 4-level one, with many passionate fans supporting each individual driver, support that only becomes greater when the series is part of the Super Formula support package. Despite being surprised at the beginning by the support, Ciconte quickly embraced the fans’ passion, as she is also learning Japanese to minimize the language barrier between her and the rest of the paddock.
“Japanese are so enthusiastic in motorsport. The paddock, the vibe, the atmosphere was super strong on race weekend, which honestly got me a bit surprised,” Ciconte said. “I was really happy to see how many people were so intrigued and supportive, especially with me, because I'm a new driver for this season. My team is Japanese and I'm grateful to also have a team principal and an engineer who speak English."
"I am also learning the language, but of course the language barrier is there. My teammates, they're amazing. They're also such strong drivers and speak English as well. I think the series overall, most of the drivers don't speak much English, but they're very strong and competitive and that's what makes the racing real.”
