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[Frood]

 
(As I've been meaning to do for a while, I've finally gotten around to starting an F4 thread prior to the majority of the 2024 season - will post links to races, news, etc. here!)
 
The lowest step on the FIA ladder, Formula 4 has been growing considerably since the FIA introduced the category in 2014, and now reaches its 10-year anniversary. All the series feature slicks and wings, and engine power is around about the 160 hp mark. As a result, it has become the first step for drivers straight out of karting. Generally the racing is frenetic and exciting - though that’s to be expected of grids consisting of mainly fearless teenagers…
 
The current FIA-sanctioned series are as follows:
 
F1 Academy (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube
F1 Academy has its own dedicated thread here.
 

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Italian F4 & Euro 4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube
The Italian series is seen by most as the “headline” F4 series at present. It’s the longest-running of all the FIA F4 series, having been introduced in 2014. Four drivers from Italian F4 have made their way to F1 (though one has since flunked out) - inaugural champion Lance Stroll (with Prema), 2015 runner-up Zhou Guanyu (also with Prema), 2016 runner-up Mick Schumacher (also also with Prema), and 2021 champion and recent F1 débutant Ollie Bearman (with Pre… I mean, Van Amersfoort). Having a Prema car will likely get you some of the way there, though last year the champion came from outside of the usually-dominant Italian outfit. Prema looked to be well on their way to winning the title with Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad, the Briton having a comfortable championship lead mid-year. That was until Kacper Sztuka and his US Racing team suddenly hit their stride, with the young Pole sweeping all but one of the last nine races to take the Championship and a berth alongside Lindblad in the Red Bull Junior Team.
 
The two men to keep an eye on this year are likely teamed up at Prema, in the form of Mercedes junior Alex Powell, from Jamaica, and the prodigiously talented Freddie Slater. US Racing will look to keep the drivers title as well, and their most likely title challengers will come in the form of Akshay Bohra, Jack Beeton, and Alpine junior Matheus Ferreira.
 
Euro 4 was set up in 2023 as a “European” F4 series, but essentially boiled down to extra rounds for the Italian series entrants. Kacper Sztuka elected to sit out the last round at Catalunya, with Prema team-mates James Wharton and Ugo Ugochukwu going for the title. It was Ugochukwu who prevailed and took home the first Euro 4 championship trophy.
 

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British F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube
It’s hard to gauge what the second-most prestigious F4 series is currently, but it’s likely either the British or the Spanish series. The British series uses the same chassis, engine, and tyres as the Italian series so is likely the closest allegory. The series takes place mainly on the same national tracks as the likes of the BTCC due to being on the same TOCA package, though does have an overseas round at Zandvoort. Again, three names have come through the series to take their places in F1. The first British F4 champion was Lando Norris (for Carlin) in 2015; and 2017’s runner-up and third-placed spots went to Oscar Piastri (Arden) and Logan Sargeant (Carlin) respectively. Spare a thought for the man who beat the pair of them, Jamie Caroline!
 
In 2023, it was a two-way fight until the end of the year, with Carlin’s Louis Sharp eventually getting the better of Hitech’s Will Macintyre by 13 points. Other recent winners were GB3 driver Matthew Rees in 2021, and the talented Irishman Alex Dunne dominated in 2022. British F4 differs slightly from Italian F4 in that Race 2 of each weekend is a Top-10 reversed grid race. Of the drivers confirmed so far this year, keep an eye on Hitech’s Mika Abrahams (who looked fast in a part-campaign last year) and Deagan Fairclough (3rd in 2023), as well as Rodin’s Alex Ninovic. British F4 will also be notable this year for having a strong female contingent, with current F1 Academy racer and Alpine junior Abbi Pulling, former F1 Academy racer Chloe Chong, and open-wheel newcomers Nina Gademan and Ella Lloyd.
 

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Spanish F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Hankook tyres) | Website | YouTube
Spanish F4 again uses the same Tatuus chassis and Autotecnica-built Abarth engine as the Italian and British series, though uses Hankook tyres in place of Pirelli. The series has very much been a two-team affair in recent years, with Campos and MP Motorsport entering up to six cars each. Indeed, the two teams pretty much locked out the top 10 in the standings last year, with Campos and MP cars finishing in 2nd down to 9th in the final table. It was somewhat surprising, then, that a team in only their second full year of open-wheel competition came through to take the driver’s title in the shape of Saintéloc Racing’s Théophile Naël. Other recent champions were F3 driver Nikola Tsolov in 2022, and the sadly late Dilano van ‘t Hoff in 2021. No Spanish F4 drivers have yet made it to F1, though 2017 champion Christian Lundgaard is now an IndyCar race-winner. Mind you, the 2018 champion is failing his way up the ladder…
 
2024 will likely be once again a battle between Campos and MP Motorsport. Campos will be fielding two Red Bull juniors in James Egozi and Enzo Tarnvanichkul, as well as Peruvian talent Ándres Cárdenas, who is already a race-winner in the series. MP’s charge will likely be headed by second-year driver Keanu Al Azhari; the team has already won this year’s Formula Winter Series with Griffin Peebles, so look for the young Aussie to be strong too. They’ll also run a couple of promising rookies in René Lammers and Maciej Gładysz.
 

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French F4 (Mygale–Alpine M21, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube
French F4 is a little different to the other series so far mentioned, in that all of the Mygale-built cars are run centrally by the French motorsport federation (the FFSA), and drivers swap between cars over the course of the season to nullify any small differences there may be. This results in some close racing over the course of the year, and a championship that usually goes down to the wire. This was the case in 2023, when Evan Giltaire and Enzo Peugeot fought until the final race at Paul Ricard, with the former winning out. Both have now progressed into FRECA with backing from the FFSA, so the winner stands to gain a good stepping stone into higher formulae.
 
The main contenders this year will likely both be rookies - Jules Caranta has already shown good speed and overtaking prowess in F4 UAE this year, and Augustin Bernier is a very highly-rated karter who has chosen to make his first steps into cars in the French championship. Drivers returning for a second season include Yani Stevenheydens, who finished 7th in his rookie year, and will be looking to build on a good first year. Those familiar with sportscars will also see a couple of familiar names, with Sacha Maassen’s son Montego and Kévin Estre’s brother Dylan making their open-wheel débuts.
 

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UAE F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Hankook tyres) | Website | YouTube
The main off-season F4 championship has already concluded for 2024, with the very promising Freddie Slater taking home his first championship win ahead of team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta. A few other names also took starring roles during the season, with Keanu Al Azhari, Rashid Al Dhaheri, Alex Powell, Gabriel Stilp, and Doriane Pin all picking up their first wins at F4 level.
 

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There are a few more FIA (and FIA-affiliated series) throughout the world:

• CEZ F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube — F4 CEZ came into being in 2023, focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. This year will take the series to Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Czechia over the course of 6 weekends. The grids will still likely be small as the series finds its feet. Jenzer Motorsport dominated last season, and will likely look to do the same again this year.
• US F4 (Ligier JS F422, Hankook tyres) | Website | YouTube — The premiere F4 series in North America, F4 USA often attracts a bumper grid of up to 30 cars, and is a jumping-off point for drivers looking to both the US and European ladders; previous winners include IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood, and FIA F3 driver Noel León. Onroak have introduced a brand-new Ligier car for this year, featuring an in-house built V4 engine. Issues with the new car have delayed the start of the season, and only three drivers have signed up so far. Hopefully everything will be resolved soon, as it would be a shame to see the series reduced to basically nothing.
• NACAM F4 (Tatuus-Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website (en español) | YouTube — The North and Central American series, centered on Mexico. This year the championship swapped their old Mygale chassis and Ford engines for the current Tatuus/Abarth chassis/engine combination regularly seen in Europe. Competition has been sparse for the last few years, however.
• Brazilian F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Hankook tyres) | Website (em português) | YouTube — Now entering its third season, Brazilian F4 has assumed the mantle of the leading national open-wheel series. One of the rounds will feature on the Brazilian Grand Prix package, so provides an opportunity for the drivers to impress infront of a large crowd and the F1 paddock.
• Japanese F4 (Toray–Toyota MCS4-24, Dunlop tyres) | Website (日本語で) | YouTube — Another series introducing a new second-generation car this year; Dome have been bought out by Toray Carbon Magic, who’ve produced the new Toyota-powered car, with an engine upgrade that will likely make the Japanese F4 cars the most powerful (and likely fastest) of any series around the world. The championship battle usually comes down to, like many Japanese domestic series, drivers backed by either Honda or Toyota. Japanese F4 also has a separate class for gentleman drivers, such as the legend himself “Dragon” - this contributes to busy grids that, at times, run well over 40 cars!
• Chinese F4 (Tatuus–Geely T421, Kumho tyres) | YouTube — The little-publicised Chinese championship is actually one of the longest-running, having been established in 2015. The two most recent champions, Gerrard Xie and Tiago Rodrigues, are both starting to forge a career in Europe.
• Indian F4 (Mygale–Alpine M21, MRF tyres) | YouTube — And in contrast to the Chinese championship, the Indian series is one of the newest. The cars are all run by MP Motorsport; like French F4, it uses a Mygale chassis. Australia’s Cooper Webster was crowned the inaugural champion in December; the series also featured the first Vietnamese race-winner as far as I can tell in any FIA open-wheel series, in the form of Alex Sawer Hoàng Đạt.
• South East Asian F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Giti tyres) | Website | YouTube — F4 SEA was revived in 2023 after 3 seasons on the sidelines. Jack Beeton took the championship win, but a few notable names used the series as their first open-wheel championship, including Kean Nakamura Berta and Doriane Pin. The SEA championship also features the Macau Grand Prix as a non-championship race, won last year by Arvid Lindblad.
• Australian F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Giti tyres) – The Australian championship is also being resurrected this year after 4 years out, using the same Tatuus/Abarth/Giti package as the reconstituted South East Asian series. There is little information yet, apart from a calendar, so there will likely be more to come before the start of the season.
• Saudi Arabian F4 (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Races streamed on Meritus GP's Facebook — Finally, the FIA’s newest F4 series is the Saudi series, being run in the off-season, though this seems to clash somewhat with the UAE series. All cars are centrally-run by Meritus GP. The season has one round to go, with Serbian open-wheel rookie Andrej Petrović currently leading ahead of the more experienced Federico Rifai; three cars are also driven by the Al Qubaisi siblings (F1 Academy drivers Hamda and Amna, along with their brother Abdullah).

Additionally, there are a number of F4 level series run outside of the FIA system:

• Formula Winter Series (Tatuus–Abarth T421, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube — Essentially an off-season offshoot of Spanish F4, but with a few extra teams from the Italian series. The 2024 Winter Series season saw a lot of drivers making their first foray into open-wheel racing, but the championship was dominated by two second-year drivers in MP Motorsport’s Griffin Peebles, and Campos’ Ándres Cárdenas.
• GB4 (Tatuus–Abarth T014, Pirelli tyres) | Website | YouTube — MSV in the UK has positioned GB4 as a lower-cost alternative to British F4, using the first generation Tatuus chassis instead of the second-generation one used in the FIA series. As a result, GB4 isn’t eligible for superlicence points, but many of the drivers choose to move over to British F4 or up to MSV’s own GB3 series, which now does provide superlicence points and is a cost-effective alternative to Formula Regional. GB4 is also notable for a strong female presence on the grid; this year the championship has announced a cash prize to help the top woman on the grid into an F1 Academy seat. Expect the GB4 front-runners to include the returning Harry Burgoyne; Alisha Palmowski has also been very fast in pre-season testing.
• Nordic 4 (Mygale–Renault M14, Pirelli tyres) | Website (på dansk) — Previously known as Danish F4, the series now takes on the moniker of Nordic 4, due to increasing numbers of F5 and Formula Nordic cars on the grid, as well as an increasing number of rounds in Sweden. Often a jumping off point for many youngsters starting their open-wheel journey, as the series allows 14-year-olds, unlike the FIA championships, which require a driver to be 15.
• USF Juniors (Tatuus–Mazda JR-23, Continental tyres) | Website | YouTube — The USAC-sanctioned F4-level series in the US firmly positions itself as the bottom rung of the Road to Indy ladder. The drivers here generally don’t have their sights set on racing in Europe, though at least one alumnus in Nikita Johnson is now looking to racing in the UK instead of in the US. The Tatuus chassis is a modified version of that used in other F4 series, and can also be modified further in order to upgrade it into the USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 cars, which are the next two steps on the Road to Indy ladder below Indy NXT. Some drivers to keep an eye on here are the International Motorsports duo of Augie Soto-Schirripa (who finished 3rd running only a partial season of US F4 last year) and Ariel Elkin, who moves across from Italian F4. Last year’s Brazilian F4 champion Vinícius Tessaro also moves to USF Juniors; there are further IndyCar-related interests with Dan Wheldon’s son Sebastian and IndyCar team boss Ricardo Juncos’ son Leandro also present.

[Frood]

Both French F4 and GB4 have their first events this weekend.

 

GB4 is at Oulton Park, and has already had one race, which you can watch here. Races 2 and 3 (the latter being the reverse grid race) are at 11:35 and 16:30 local (GMT+1) on Monday, and will also be streamed on YouTube: Race 2 | Race 3.

 

Spoiler

Race 1 was uneventful, with Alisha Palmowski taking the lead from the slow-starting Brendan McCaughan straight away, and never looking back. Palmowski controlled the race perfectly, and took a win on her open-wheel début. Second-year driver Harry Burgoyne beat team-mate McCaughan to second place.

 

French F4 is at Nogaro this weekend. Race 1 was not streamed, and pole-sitter Yani Stevenheydens, starting his second season in the championship, took victory ahead of Japanese rookie and Honda junior Taitō Katō. Another rookie, Jules Caranta, took third place.

 

Race 2, at a very soggy Nogaro, is live as of this message! Race 3 will take place at 09:45 GMT+1 tomorrow, and can be seen here.

[Muppetmad]

The reverse-grid race in GB4 descended into farce, with Palmowski an innocent victim.

[Frood]

Yes, it did, sadly.

 

A summary of the remaining races, behind spoilers:

 

GB4 Race 2

Spoiler

A very wet race! Palmowski stalled from second on the grid, which left the KMR duo of McCaughan and Burgoyne fighting out front with Palmowski's Elite team-mate, Finn Harrison. McCaughan made the most of having no spray and started to pull away from Burgoyne. Harrison eventually worked his way past Burgoyne and almost immediately started setting best sectors in order to catch McCaughan in the lead. In doing so, however, he pushed beyond the limit and buried the car into the tyre barriers. At the same time, Mayer Deonarine and Dan Hickey had a coming together fighting over 7th, with Deonarine ending up spinning and stalling perpendicular to the track. This brought the race to a premature end, with McCaughan winning ahead of Burgoyne and Branden Templeton. Erstwhile championship leader Alisha Palmowski recovered to 6th place.

 

GB4 Race 3

Spoiler

The reverse grid race three was dry. Front-row starter Marcus Luzio had a slow getaway, with Callum Baxter further back stalling. Poleman Dan Hickey immediately had pressure from Mayer Deonarine. The first lap was very scruffy, with Race 2 winner McCaughan spinning off into the muddy grass and getting beached; almost simultaneously, Linus Granfors spun whilst trying to go around the outside of Megan Bruce through the hairpin. Burgoyne and Palmowski made quick progress through the field from the back before the safety car was called for McCaughan's stranded car. After the restart, Deonarine was straight onto Hickey's case again, as the two pulled a gap on third-placed Chloe Grant. Hickey then made a mistake at the second chicane, slowing both himself and Deonarine, which allowed Grant through into second through Druids; Hickey then made another mistake, allowing Grant through into the lead. At this point, Burgoyne was squabbling over 6th with the two Elite cars, until Harrison crashed whilst attempting an overtake on Palmowski, marking his third crash in as many races. Later in the lap, Deonarine lost half of his front wing against the back of Hickey's car. Hickey made yet another mistake to fall to the back, whilst the ailing Deonarine lost second to Burgoyne who made up a number of positions in the melee. With 6 minutes to go, Grant had a 3 second lead over her team-mate, as Deonarine left no room for the overtaking Palmowski and eliminated them both from the race. This left Linus Granfors in 3rd, whom only 5 minutes prior had been in last place! The Swede pulled off a great dummy on Burgoyne into Turn 1 the following lap, and closed the gap to Grant very quickly, overtaking her with two laps to go. Burgoyne would not find a way past Grant by the end of the race, with the two Scots finishing 2nd and 3rd behind Granfors. Baxter recovered from his stall to finish 4th. As a result, Burgoyne leads the championship following Round 1.

 

French F4 Race 2 was cancelled due to inclement weather.

 

French F4 Race 3

Spoiler

The weekend's dominant driver Yani Stevenheydens made a very quick start from pole, immediately pulling a good gap to Jules Caranta and Montego Maassen. The safety car was called early on, after Paul Roques crashed into the tyre barrier in the last sector. As the race restarted, it transpired Stevenheydens' start was too quick, and he was issued with a 5-second penalty for jumping the start. There was a good battle between Caranta, Maassen, Rayan Caretti, Taitō Katō, and Leo Megna over the podium positions, with Maassen gradually falling back from third as the race progressed. Stevenheydens was doing a good job of negating his penalty out front, until Jules Roussel and Pacôme Weisenburger collided whilst fighting over 9th place, leaving the latter in the gravel. Almost immediately following that incident, Karel Schulz spun off and also found himself beached, leading to a safety car, which negated Stevenheydens' lead. The safety car came in with a lap to go, and Stevenheydens pulled away once more, but would drop to 7th after being first across the line. Caranta therefore inherited the win ahead of Caretti and Katō, the pair still fighting all the way to the flag.

 

Despite being far and away the quickest driver across the weekend, Stevenheydens comes away 5 points behind Caranta after Round 1. 

Edited by Frood, 01 April 2024 - 17:35.

[McPedro]

I watched the GB4 Race 3 and was surprised at how quickly Granfors caught Grant when there must have been double yellows (due to the two cars off the track). It was nearly 2s in that lap alone. 

I am still pretty new to the lower levels of spec racing. Is there "fast" spec cars and "slow" spec cars as well as driver skill, as it seemed as though some cars are driving in a different formula at times?

The 3rd race was more what I expected at this level to be honest, lots of mistakes on a drying track.

 

I will watch the rest of the season for sure now. 

[Sterzo]

I am still pretty new to the lower levels of spec racing. Is there "fast" spec cars and "slow" spec cars as well as driver skill, as it seemed as though some cars are driving in a different formula at times?

A fascinating question. The team does make a big difference, and I for one would like to understand better than I do exactly how that happens. The factors I can think of are:

• Standard of preparation, influenced by the number and quality of engineers and mechanics.
• Set up data from previous years, with a good understanding of each circuit.
• Funds to replace parts regularly rather than wait until they deteriorate.
• Driver coaching (I think this is huge at that level).
• Motivational skills of the team boss.

How much each one plays a part, and what other elements I've missed, would be good to know.

[Frood]

Winding the clock back earlier in the season, here's a quick look at how the drivers fared in general speed terms in F4 UAE and Formula Winter Series. This should give a fair gauge on who is likely to be fast in some of the European series this year.

 

A little bit of background on how I put these together – the data is taken from a driver's qualifying / fastest race lap, and compared against the fastest lap in each session, where 100% is pole position / fastest lap. I don't rank drivers who complete less than 50% of the season. Drivers who complete 50-75% of the season have one dropped score, and > 75% have two dropped scores, to account for any car issues that may affect the data. Fastest laps are less of a gauge, so I usually disregard a time if the drivers complete less than 50% of the laps in a race.

 

I don't profess this to be a holy grail of comparing drivers, nor do I claim it to be mathematically sound, so take it with a pinch of salt!

 

F4 UAE Qualifying Pace

 

Spoiler

 

Interesting one this. Nakamura Berta and Pin are the least experienced drivers in the Top 10. The fact that Nakamura Berta was actually faster on average than the eventual champion Slater was a surprise to me, and Nakamura Berta outqualified his very highly regarded team-mate 7–3 across the season. Al Azhari was impressively fast, especially taking into account his car was in all but name an Xcel car, but does also have a slight experience edge on most of the Top 10 bar Bedrin.

 

F4 UAE Fastest Lap Pace

 

Spoiler

 

Al Azhari and Slater had a fair advantage here. Nakamura Berta, having less experience than the pair, didn't quite show the same race pace, which eventually bore itself out in the final result.

 

Another driver to watch here is Jules Caranta, who finished 15th in the standings, but was on the fringes of the Top 10 in both metrics – this was his first car racing season of any kind, and his speed was impressive for his lack of experience.

 

Formula Winter Series Qualifying Pace

 

Spoiler

 

FWS' shorter season means a driver partaking in only two rounds still completed 50% of the championship, hence Tye's result is counted; he's helped by a dominant pole position for the last race of the season (over 6 tenths of a second!). FWS is a bit more interesting as there were a lot of drivers making their single-seater débuts, so seeing drivers like Tye and Gładysz means we might have a good bunch of rookies coming through. Disappointments for me were Bohra, who didn't really leverage his decent experience level, and the highly-rated Lammers, who was behind all of his team-mates bar Bouzinelos (and even then, it was 5-4 in Qualifying).

 

FWS Fastest Lap Pace

 

Spoiler

 

Griffin Peebles took the title comfortably in the end, and this is borne out here by just how relentlessly consistent his speed was. I have to admit that he was a pleasant surprise, seeing as he was a lower midfield driver at best in Spanish F4 last year, though he was saddled with uncompetitive machinery at Tecnicar/FdC. Still, he was a long way off of team-mate Yamakoshi last year, so it's impressive how well he's turned it around after a move to MP Motorsport. Colnaghi and Gładysz were probably the best looking rookies in terms of race pace.

[Frood]

This weekend will see the start of one F4-level championship, and the conclusion of another.

 

USF Juniors will be at NOLA for their first round of the year. The championship is now in its third season, and gaining a lot of traction as a great starting point for youngsters wishing to follow the open-wheel pathway in the Americas. Whilst the inaugural season in 2022 attracted 17 cars for its season opener, dropping to 13 for 2023, this year there will be a healthier 26 cars for the season's first round. As touched upon in my opening post, some of this is down to the issues that US F4 has been having with its new chassis, but the Road to Indy pathway is also proving better value for money for both drivers and teams. The fact that the Tatuus chassis can be upgraded from USF Juniors spec, to USF2000 spec, to USF Pro 2000 spec, is going down well with the teams. Arguably the biggest change on the grid is Jay Howard switching his focus from US F4 to USF Juniors, as he brings a whopping seven car team over from F4.

 

Second-season drivers to look out for are Exclusive Autosport's Jack Jeffers (3rd in 2023) and VRD Racing's Max Taylor (6th in 2023). Other drivers who had a good 2023 were Vinícius Tessaro (DEForce Racing, 2023 Brazilian F4 champion) and Sebastian Wheldon (VRD Racing, 2023 Skip Barber champion). The latter has been the man to beat in the practice sessions this weekend, topping the second and third test sessions and the practice session; Wheldon has been looking especially fast as two of those three sessions he topped by over 6 tenths of a second. Other drivers up the sharp end all weekend so far have been Tessaro and his team-mate Leandro Juncos, son of Ricardo, as well as Inter MS driver Augie Soto-Schirripa, who despite only competing in 4 of the 6 rounds in US F4 last year, finished 3rd in the championship, and likely could have challenged Patrick Woods-Toth for the title had he driven the full season.

 

Meanwhile, over in Jeddah, it'll be the final three races for the first ever F4 Saudi Arabian Championship, and three drivers go into the round with a mathematical chance of the title. The least likely of these to take the championship is third-placed Kirill Kutskov, the 2023 FIA Karting World Champion in the OK class. He's 60 points off the lead, with 62.5 points on offer, so it'll take a miracle for the "Kyrgyz" driver to triumph. Whilst he's been consistent, he's never shown the outright pace of the top two in the season, taking one win and 4 further podiums so far. 2nd place, 26 points behind the leader, is the season's surprise driver, Andrej Petrović. The Serbian has had a fairly decent karting career, though not outstanding, so it has been a surprise to see him take so quickly to the F4 cars; he'll still need a good weekend to take the title. The championship favourite, therefore, is points leader Federico Rifai. The Dubai-based driver showed good speed in UAE F4 in 2023, but had a difficult season in Spanish F4, scoring points only twice and finishing 22nd in the standings. Still, he's leveraged his experience well against more more green opponents, and should be able to take the trophy home with a safe and steady weekend.

[Frood]

Will post an update on last weekend's action later today, but in far more important F4 news:

SATOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!1111one

(For those who'd rather not visit Twittxr, Takuma Sato's son Rintaro will be in Japanese F4 this year)

[FLB]

[HistoryFan]

Will post an update on last weekend's action later today, but in far more important F4 news:

SATOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!1111one

(For those who'd rather not visit Twittxr, Takuma Sato's son Rintaro will be in Japanese F4 this year)

 

would like to see him and Takuma compete against each other at the Indy 500

 

The same with both Montoyas...

[Frood]

It's a busy F4 weekend:

 

• Round 2 for GB4 at Silverstone

• Round 2 for USF Juniors at Barber Motorsports Park

• Round 1 for British F4 at Donington Park 

• Round 1 for CEZ F4 at Balaton Park

 

USF Juniors is already in the books:

 

 

 

Spoiler

It was an almost perfect weekend for InterMS' Ariel Elkin, who is possibly the most promising racing driver Israel has produced (unless Robert Shwartzman counts). The form drivers from NOLA, Sebastian Wheldon and Liam McNeilly, didn't quite have the pace they showed in Round 1, which left the door open for a few other drivers to show some speed. Elkin took pole for Race 1, with Bruno Ribeiro joining him on the front row, ahead of second-year driver Jack Jeffers and Elkin's InterMS team-mate Augie Soto-Schirripa. Jeffers immediately jumped ahead of Ribeiro at the start, and set about chasing Elkin. There was an early caution period to clear Timmy Carel's front wing from the track; Elkin managed the restart perfectly and pulled clear, eventually pulling Jeffers and Ribeiro along with him. At half distance the caution was out again, due to series débutant Jeshua Alianell crashing at Turn 1. Elkin managed the restart well again, taking Jeffers with him, with Ribeiro and Soto-Schirripa squabbling over 3rd. However, the yellow flag was out again as soon as it was withdrawn, as further back in the pack, a concertina effect on the restart caused an accident between Michael Suco, Patricio González, and Christian Cameron (cousin of sportscar driver Dane). At the restart, Jeffers was more on the ball, but Elkin just held him off through the first few corners. Soto-Schirripa passed Ribeiro into Turn 1, but ran wide; the two ran side-by-side through Turns 2, 3, and 4, but Ribeiro ran into the dirt off-line through Turn 4 and spun in front of the pack. He clipped Leonardo Escorpioni's car as he rolled across the track; Aidan Potter just missed Ribeiro's car as the rest of the field crested the hill, but his JHDD team-mate Ava Dobson was not so lucky, crashing heavily into the side of Ribeiro's stopped car. This ended the race; luckily, both Ribeiro and Dobson walked away from their badly-damaged cars. Elkin took the win from Jeffers and Soto-Schirripa; McNeilly recovered to 4th from 7th on the grid, whilst championship leader Wheldon lost a position over the course of the race to finish 6th.

 

Dobson and Ribeiro, unsurprisingly, didn't make the start of Race 2. Elkin and Jeffers were on the front row again, ahead of the championship 1-2 Wheldon and McNeilly on Row 2. Elkin again took the initiative into Turn 1, with the three cars behind battling down into the Turn 5 hairpin. Unfortunately what happened at Turn 5 wasn't clear, but only Wheldon made it out of the corner unscathed; McNeilly was left beached on the inside curb, whilst Jeffers ended up in the pits with damage. After the yellow flag period, Elkin led from Wheldon and Soto-Schirripa, though the yellows were back out again 3 laps later, after Leonardo Escorpioni ended up in the gravel at Turn 5. Yet again, Elkin handled the restart well, with the Top 6 or 7 cars following line astern. Brady Golan went onto the grass at Turn 5, but continued, saving the field from yet another restart. Soto-Schirripa's podium position was soon under attack from Leandro Juncos, who made a move stick; behind them, the battle for 5th was intense, with 6 or 7 cars fighting over the lower Top 10 positions. In the resulting fight, Evan Cooley ran into the back of Max Taylor and went off, but managed to keep his car out of the wall. Elkin and Wheldon began to pull away from Juncos and Soto-Schirripa, with the latter finding a way back into 3rd after a mistake from Juncos. The race went green until the end, with Wheldon staying within half a second of Elkin, but never looking like he quite had the pace to make a move. Elkin therefore swept the weekend, with Wheldon's 2nd place finish ensuring he keeps the championship lead ahead of Elkin. McNeilly's relatively poor weekend sees him drop back behind Elkin in the standings, ahead of Taylor and Soto-Schirripa.

 

GB4 will be live at 16:30 UK time (GMT+1). Race 1 sees Finn Harrison bouncing back from a miserable triple retirement at Oulton Park to take pole, ahead of Linus Granfors, Leon Wilson, and Alisha Palmowski. The KMR cars struggled in Qualifying, with McCaughan, championship leader Burgoyne, and Grant all being well over 1.5 seconds off the pace.

 

 

British F4's first race has already concluded (without being televised). Rodin's Alex Ninovic topped Qualifying, ahead of team-mate James Higgins, and the surprise package in Fortec's Kai Daryanani, who spent most of 2023 as a backmarker. Race 1 takes its grid from the second-best times, putting Higgins on pole ahead of Ninovic, ahead of the Hitech pair of championship favourite Deagan Fairclough and Reza Seewooruthun, with the other two Rodins of Abbi Pulling and Jack Sherwood on row 3. 

 

Fairclough made an excellent start and immediately took the lead – a lead which he wouldn't relinquish. Higgins was not able to challenge Fairclough and settled into second, whilst Ninovic dropped behind Seewooruthun into 4th. Later in the race, Ninovic passed Seewooruthun and set about trying to pass Higgins, but wouldn't find a way past and settled for third. Mercedes junior drive Cui Yuanpu went from 9th to 4th during the race, ahead of Seewooruthun and Sherwood. Abbi Pulling spent most of the race battling with Ella Lloyd, who was very impressive, considering how much less experience she has than Pulling, with the pair ending up 7th and 8th. Lloyd's team-mate, ex-F1 Academy driver Chloe Chong, had a miserable race, ending up 21st.

[Muppetmad]

Spoiler

The only thing really holding back Palmowski in GB4 are her starts. She dropped right to the back after stalling on the start, but worked her back to 4th. Only Granfors looked faster than her (albeit he was considerably faster than everyone else).

Edited by Muppetmad, 28 April 2024 - 16:56.

[Frood]

First round for Italian F4 is this weekend at Misano, and will be the series most people have their eye on.

Race 1 is approximately 25 minutes from now, and can be seen on YouTube here: https://www.youtube....ive/ydvkUDyrD4o

Freddie Slater is on pole for all three races, and Prema team-mate Alex Powell will join him on the front row for all three races as well. Their closest challengers across the weekend so far have been US Racing duo Akshay Bohra and Gianmarco Pradel; a third Prema in the form of Kean Nakamura-Berta, and VAR's Hiyū Yamakoshi.

[Muppetmad]

Spoiler

A comfortable win for Slater, who is surely the best bet to win the title this year.

[FLB]

 

[Frood]

I think the new car launch has been a bit embarrassing for Japanese F4 - 10 cars couldn't start race 2 due to engine issues. Ten!

[FLB]

[Muppetmad]

Spoiler

A perfect start to the season for Slater. He's going to be tough to beat if he stays in this form.

[Frood]

I know Australian F4 has only just been re-launched, but I hope it can start attracting some more competition. Jimmy Pisczyk was already fairly competitive in British F4 last year, and running rings around this field is going to do nothing for his career (I assume he ran out of funding for his European career?). Half the grid is older than me, and I'm over twice the minimum age to race in F4...

[Frood]

A more detailed round-up of Italian F4:

 

Race 1

 

 

Spoiler

Slater and Powell were very even away from the start, with the two US Racing cars of Bohra and Pradel falling into line behind them. The opening laps at the very front were fairly tame, with much of the action coming at the lower reaches of the Top 10 - with Enzo Yeh and Davide Larini having a battle, and another between Slater and Powell's Prema stablemates Kean Nakamura-Berta, Tomass Štolcermanis, Rashid Al Dhaheri and Dion Gowda; the stewards would issue Al Dhaheri a warning for his aggressive defending. The first safety car of the year was called after issues towards the back of the grid, the first being a collision between the pretty hopeless Everett Stack and Nathanël Berreby, with Luca Viișoreanu, Oleksandr Savinkov, Kai Daryanani, Max Popov and Andrija Kostić also running into issues. Once Daryanani's car was cleared from the track, Slater made a good restart; further back, Štolcermanis made a great pass on Larini, with Nakamura-Berta following him through. Jack Beeton made a nice move on Hiyū Yamakoshi for 5th, and set about chasing his two team-mates ahead. Slater started putting in a string of fastest laps to stretch his lead ahead of Powell, with the Top 5 breaking away from Yamakoshi in 6th. The race settled down after this point, with Slater leading home Powell, and Gianmarco Pradel completing the podium for US Racing. His team-mates Bohra and Beeton finished 4th and 5th ahead of Yamakoshi in 6th; Enzo Yeh held off the fighting Premas for 7th. Nakamura-Berta, Štolcermanis, Al Dhaheri and Gowda all crossed the line nose-to-tail, with Gowda missing out on a point by less than half a second.

 

Race 2

 

Spoiler

 

Slater made away quickly again; Powell was challenged by Akshay Bohra into Turn 1 but fended him off well. The gaggle behind were fighting fiercely again, but at the start of the second lap Larini and Nakamura-Berta collided, with Larini ending up perched on top of Nakamura-Berta's right-rear wheel. This collision also eliminated Jack Beeton from contention as the Australian took to the gravel in avoidance. Slater made the best of the restart to quickly pull a decent gap on Powell; soon after the restart, Reno Francot made a pass on Yamakoshi for 5th place. The race was soon neutralised again though, after Alvise Rodella and new Alpine junior Kabir Anurag came to blows, leaving Rodella stranded on the track and Anurag without a front wing. Slater wasn't fazed by the subsequent restart and immediately set about restoring his comfortable lead to Powell. Bohra soon fell back from the leading pair and into the clutches of Francot, with the Dutchman looking to score Jenzer's best result in the series for a good couple of years. Behind them, Al Dhaheri was also beginning to put pressure on Yamakoshi; meanwhile, Slater set about pumping in a string of fastest laps to cement his advantage. 

 

Once again, though, this was thwarted by the reappearance of the safety car, triggered by a mechanical failure on Gustav Jönsson's car, and damage to his VAR team-mate Kostić's car. When the race resumed, Slater, true to form, gave Powell no chance to capitalise. Further back, a good battle was brewing between Al Dhaheri, Ethan Ischer, Dion Gowda, and Luka Sammalisto over 6th place. A collision near the back between Kamal Mrad and Enea Frey threatened to stop the race again, but the incident was cleared under waved yellows. Slater therefore duly took his second win ahead of Powell, with Bohra fending off Francot's attention on the last lap to clinch 3rd. Francot's joy was short-lived as he was demoted to 9th for leaving the track and gaining an advantage; this promoted Yamakoshi, Al Dhaheri, Gowda and Štolcermanis up a place each, with Andrej Petrović scoring his first point in the series by passing Sammalisto two corners from the flag.

 

 

Race 3

 

 

Spoiler

In this episode of the "Freddie Slater doesn't put a foot wrong" show, Slater once again showed no signs of relinquishing his lead off the start, and Powell was resigned to watching his team-mate slowly pull away. Meanwhile, Beeton embarked on his second sojourn through the gravel of the weekend, narrowly avoiding crashing into Rashid Al Dhaheri in the process. The series' safety car driver wasn't allowed any respite either, being scrambled early on following a contretemps between Kamal Mrad and Kai Daryanani, now both having their second accident of the event. Slater once again left Powell for dust at the restart, with third-placed Yamakoshi coming under pressure from his compatriot Kean Nakamura-Berta. Down towards the tail end of the points, the two R-ace cars of Sammalisto and Yeh were fighting hard with Štolcermanis and Matheus Ferreira; Sammalisto subsequently receiving a sportsmanship flag after unceremoniously pushing Ferreira onto the grass. The top 6 cars started to gap the following pack, as Slater again set a string of fastest laps in the lead. There was some wheel-banging between Yamakoshi and Nakamura-Berta, but the two Japanese drivers came away unscathed.

 

This was all too much for Kabir Anurag and Andrija Kostić, who decided they enjoyed crashing to each other so much that they did it twice in quick succession; with Enea Frey also stopping on track, the safety car was called again. Having now performed six safety car restarts, Slater was becoming a professional; though Powell was as close as he'd ever been, Slater easily rebuffed him as Powell's attention quickly turned to defending from Yamakoshi. Not long after the restart, Kabir Anurag crashed yet again. Hopefully the money he brings to the Alpine Academy is worth it... This was covered under waved yellows, much to Nakamura-Berta's delight, as he finally fought his way past Yamakoshi into third place. Gianmarco Pradel then also made an attempt to pass Yamakoshi, but was rebuffed and fell behind Al Dhaheri as a result. 

 

There was time for one final safety car as R-ace GP's race completely fell apart in the space of one lap, with Sammalisto finding the gravel and Yeh being wiped out by a wayward Emanuele Olivieri. The mess was compounded by backmarker Maffi Racing's Gabriel Holguin also finding himself visiting one of Misano's gravel traps. Slater made it through one last restart unchallenged, with Nakamura-Berta not quite making an impression on Powell. Thus it ended as a Prema 1-2-3, with Yamakoshi surviving in 4th place ahead of Al Dhaheri, Pradel, Štolcermanis, Francot, Larini and Dion Gowda grabbing the last point on the final lap. Štolcermanis would later be given a 5-second penalty, demoting him to 14th, handing Gustav Jönsson his first point.

 

Final thoughts

Spoiler

The first weekend has me thinking that the field quality doesn't quite match that of the last couple of years, but hopefully that will go away as we get further into the season. I was disappointed with Nakamura-Berta's showing considering he was close to Slater's pace in UAE F4, but there was a similar thing last year with Taponen showing very well in the off-season and then not really being on-song throughout the main part of the year. Yamakoshi was a pleasant surprise; he does have a couple of years of F4 experience already, though his part campaign in Spanish F4 last year was with Monlau Motorsport, who were fairly terrible. I'm not seeing anyone who can challenge Slater at this point, though.

[William Hunt]

F4 is not regional, it is at national level and allowed a maximum of 2 races outside the main country, an exception was granted to the CEZ F4 championship

[jonpollak]

Is this the FRECA thread and do we have a YouTube or similar for Hockenheim?

Thanks,
Jp

[midgrid]

FRECA is here: https://forums.autos...pionship-freca/.

[jonpollak]

Thanks midgrid
Jp

[sportyskells]

You missed the brands hatch round that just happened for British f4 

[Frood]

I'll try and put together an update for the last couple of weeks' worth of F4 tomorrow, but an... interesting one from British F4.

Apparently Bart Harrison has been disqualified and suspended for 2 weeks after physically assaulting another driver in the paddock. Never a good look, that one.

[sportyskells]

I think the British type weather in zandvoort has caused race 2 of today to be postponed in you are looking for it on YouTube f you want British f4 action race 1 had the green I going to correct myself here as maybe there was water in the works for the start lights as we had a lights out then lights on which confused a lot of drivers and caused a crash not weather related all drivers ok 

Edited by sportyskells, 13 July 2024 - 15:18.

[Muppetmad]

https://x.com/Vincen...129880739303695

 

Here's a video of that. The light sequence was the culprit.

[sportyskells]

There been another red flag in British f4 but this time it was maybe an unsafe rejoin that caused this one and as we know that is frown upon. Drivers ok again.

[billm99uk]

Good wins in GB3/GB4 for Nikita Johnson (his first, not sure about the mustache though!) and Alisha Palmovski (her second, first since the season opener) today.

Edited by billm99uk, 14 July 2024 - 21:04.

[Frood]

Lucas Blakeley and Alisha Palmowski went from the back row to first and second in the reverse grid GB4 race, also somewhat helped by the top 4 taking each other out on the last lap!

[Frood]

Palmowski inherited the GB4 Race 3 win following a jump start penalty for Blakeley, and pulls herself back into championship contention.

[billm99uk]

That last lap was wild!

[ANF]

Don't know if anybody else noticed this Italian F4 incident in Race 3 at Mugello the other day.

The two pictures below show Matheus Ferreira (1) stopping his car on the grass on the right-hand side between the two Arabbiata corners, and (2) ninety seconds later walking back on the wrong side of the barrier while some of the other 35 cars stream past...

...and at this point there was no safety car. And more importantly, as far as I can tell there were no yellow flags.

If you want to look for yellow flags, here's the video: https://www.youtube....bsYASN7k?t=1428

[Frood]

A lot has gone on in the world of F4 since I last updated this thread, and I will get around to summarising each championship over the next couple of weeks or so.

 

Still, there's been a bit of controversy in the French F4 finale, which if you've followed the series previously, isn't something new. In 2022, Hugh Barter should have been champion, but the series organisers decided that since he'd previously raced at Spa, he wouldn't be scored at all for the Spa round. The points he would have scored would have given him the title instead of Alessandro Giusti. In 2021, the title went down to the wire in the last race between Esteban Masson and Macéo Capietto. Masson looked like he'd take the title, but Capietto crashed into him on the last lap of the season, ensuring Capietto won the championship - until he was excluded from the weekend, handing Masson the title instead.

 

This year, there was a three-way battle between Yani Stevenheydens, Taito Kato, and Jules Caranta. Stevenheydens lead the way coming into this weekend's finale at Paul Ricard, and took pole position for the first race. Kato, however, got the better of the Belgian in the race, and took the win. However, he was later penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, which handed Stevenheydens the win and extended his championship lead. Kato appealed this, and the penalty was later overturned, reinstating his win and closing the championship to one point. Caranta was third, but fell away further from the two leaders.

 

The reverse grid race two saw Kato battle through to 5th from 9th; Stevenheydens managed to go from 10th to 7th, and Caranta didn't make any progress from his 8th place starting position. This put Kato into the lead of the championship by three points going into the last race, with Caranta needing both Kato and Stevenheydens to have a poor race to win the title.

 

Kato was on pole for the final race, which was wet, and there was drama on the first lap - Stevenheydens made a divebomb on Kato on the first lap; Kato went off the track in avoidance, but Stevenheydens himself also didn't make the corner. Stevenheydens didn't forfeit the position, and Kato later spun off. The race at the front ended up being fought between Gabriel Doyle-Parfait and Dylan Estre, with Doyle-Parfait taking the win on the road but losing out to Estre after a penalty. Estre was later given a penalty himself, putting him back behind Doyle-Parfait again; Stevenheydens finished third with Kato only 10th after his spin, duly winning the title.

 

...until the stewards intervened and gave him a 5-second penalty, dropping him to 11th and handing the title to Kato instead. The Belgian motorsport federation is now protesting the result, and it's all a bit of a mess.

 

Stevenheydens was ultimately the fastest driver over the year as a whole, though it being his second year in the series, it can be argued that Kato and Caranta were more impressive. Indeed, Caranta has shown enough to win a place in the Red Bull Academy, and it looks like both he and Kato will be heading to FRECA next year.

[Sterzo]

^ Just once in while there's a car race meeting I'm glad not to have attended.

[Frood]

Okay, time for the first F4 roundup of the season.
 
The reconstituted Australian Formula 4 season was the first to wrap up this year, after four 3-race rounds - two at The Bend, one at Sydney Motorsports Park (i.e. Eastern Creek), and an international round at Sepang.
 
There really wasn't much to write home about, at least in the domestic races. AGI Sport's James Pisczyk, off the back of finishing 5th in British F4 last year, was the overwhelming favourite going into the year. However, I didn't expect "overwhelming favourite" to equal "win every race, take every pole position, and every fastest lap except one", which is what actually happened. The only sustained challenge to Pisczyk's dominance was that of former S5000 race-winner Blake Purdie, who was runner-up to Pisczyk four times in the six races he competed in, and Pisczyk's AGI team-mate Nicolas Stati, whom was the only other driver on the full-time grid with any meaningful F4 experience. Even then, Stati only managed 5 runner-up positions, and would only end up getting the better of Pisczyk in the final two races of the season.
 
Pisczyk's winning run came to an end with the fly-away round at Sepang, however. For this round, AGI added Costa Toparis, already somewhat competitive in Formula Regional and GB3 machinery. Also present were two teams usually present in F4 South East Asia, Evans GP and BlackArts racing. Evans looked particularly strong, bringing experienced F4 driver Kai Daryanani, and two former F4 champions in 2023 Indian F4 victor Cooper Webster, and the 2023 Chinese F4 champion, Tiago Rodrigues. Between them, the Evans cars swept the weekend, with their three drivers winning a race a piece, and Pisczyk only stood on the podium once over the three races. It wasn't enough to dethrone him, of course, but sadly spoke of the competitiveness of the rest of the Australian F4 grid over the season. Still, it was only the first season back for the series, so onwards and upwards.
 
On the women in motorsport front, the series saw two girls take their first steps into open-wheel racing. Joanne Ciconte competed in the first round of the season for the under-prepared-looking Formula Race Academy team, picking up a pair of seventh places. Imogen Radburn had a better-prepared AGI car, though missed the first round of the championship. She finished in 6th place overall, scoring a podium at Eastern Creek and slowly getting closer to her team-mates over her three rounds.
 
Here's how the Top 10 in the championship shook out:

Pos  Driver            Team                  Pts
 1.  James Pisczyk     AGI Sport             256  (9 wins, 10 podiums, 6 pole positions, 8 fastest laps)
 2.  Nicolas Stati     AGI Sport             175  (8 podiums)
 3.  Sebastien Amadio  Jam Motorsport        124  (2 podiums)
 4.  Seth Gilmore      AGI Sport             110  (2 podiums)
 5.  Blake Purdie      Jam Motorsport         97* (5 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 6.  Imogen Radburn    AGI Sport              74* (1 podium)
 7.  Cooper Webster    Evans GP               58* (1 win, 3 podiums)
 8.  Kai Daryanani     Evans GP               50* (1 win, 2 podiums, 1 pole position, 1 fastest lap)
 9.  Costa Toparis     AGI Sport              48* (2 podiums)
10.  Nathan Gotch      Formula Race Academy   46*

*did not run a full season  

Anyway, here's a Quali pace comparison, where 100% is the pole time in each Quali session. One dropped score for all drivers competing in 50% or more of the races. Some of the guys at Formula Race Academy were a little bit slow...

Spoiler

And how they fared, team-mate on team-mate

Spoiler

And a Fastest Lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race. Two dropped scores for full-time drivers, one for drivers competing in two or three events

Spoiler

And Fastest Laps, team-mate on team-mate.
 

Spoiler

 
Next up, F4 Central European Zone. We need to get the smaller series out of the way first, so don't expect to see any massive stars of the future popping up quite yet...

Edited by Frood, 07 October 2024 - 20:03.

[Frood]

Next stop, Formula 4 Central European Zone. This is a series still finding its feet, in only its second year under the FIA's banner. The series is a lower-cost alternative to the bigger European series, and is promoted by the ACCR, the Czech motorsports federation. The series covered four countries in its six-round 2024 season, taking in Hungary (Balaton Park), Austria (the Red Bull Ring and the Salzburgring), Slovakia (the Slovakiaring) and the Czech Republic (Most and Brno).

 

As a result of having little history, the series really only has one well-known team competing full-time - Jenzer. This has also lead to drivers not committing for the full season, either due to having drives in other series, or not having the funding to even complete a full season in CEZ. As it was, only three drivers ended up competing in every round, two of which fought down to the final round for the title.

 

These two drivers were Jenzer's Oscar Wurz, son of former F1 driver Alex and brother of FIA F3 driver Charlie, and 2023 FIA Karting World Champion in the OK class, Kirill Kutskov, competing under a neutral licence with the inexperienced Maffi Racing team. The two had already raced each other over the winter, as both made their open-wheel débuts in Saudi Arabian F4; Kutskov got the better of Wurz on that occasion with 3rd in the championship to the Austrian's 6th

 

As you will see when we get to the Italian F4/Euro F4 round-up, Maffi isn't the most well-prepared team to say the least, so it was a surprise that they could challenge Wurz and Jenzer, given the Swiss outfit's experience in single-seaters. Ultimately Wurz had a pace advantage over Kutskov, and a penchant for staying out of trouble. This is borne out in the final standings, with Wurz winning the championship by a healthy 25 points, despite only winning two races to Kutskov's six. It was a punishing round at the Red Bull Ring, where Kutskov scored no points over the three-race weekend, that put paid to his championship challenge.

 

The Red Bull Ring round also showed another thing in common between F4 CEZ and the Australian F4 championship I wrote about yesterday - whilst for the other five rounds, the CEZ series on average saw a field of 11 cars, the Red Bull Ring saw the grid swell to 24 cars, Jenzer adding three cars to their usual three, and BVM Racing and PHM AIX Racing making a one-round cameo as well. And, just like in Australian F4, the single-round entry from PHM saw them sweep the weekend; Kamal Mrad, Max Popov, and Andrej Petrovic scoring a win a piece whilst the usual grid had to settle for lesser placings. This is where Kutskov scored nothing; the 34 points Wurz managed to scrape together would win him the title at the end of the season.

 

Outside of the top two, Jenzer's second driver Max Karhan also performed well. The Czech won four races on his way to 3rd in the standings, again losing out to Wurz through missing the Red Bull Ring round. Outside of these drivers, and the aforementioned PHMs, the only other winners on the grid were 2023 champion Ethan Ischer in the first weekend, though he wouldn't be scored as he was competing as a guest driver; and the single-car JMT Racing's sole entry Miroslav Mikeš, who won on home soil at Most.

 

Incidentally, the third full-time driver other than Wurz and Kutskov was Michalina Sabaj, who finished fifth in the standings for Slovenian minnows AS Motorsport. She and her team started to get closer to the pace as the season wore on, but never quite got into podium contention.

 

On a more sour note, an unseen Friday practice incident at Most between Jenzer's Teodor Borenstein and Janik Motorsport's Franek Hałatnik put both drivers in hospital and neither would return for the rest of the season (Borenstein would later appear in Qualifying at the Salzburgring but withdrew before any races took place) so I hope they're recovering well.

 

The Top 10 in the standings:

Pos  Driver               Team                Pts
 1.  Oscar Wurz           Jenzer Motorsport   301   (2 wins, 14 podiums, 1 pole position, 6 fastest laps)
 2.  Kirill Kutskov       Maffi Racing        276   (6 wins, 11 podiums, 2 pole positions, 3 fastest laps)
 3.  Max Karhan           Jenzer Motorsport   242*  (4 wins, 9 podiums, 3 fastest laps)
 4.  Miroslav Mikeš       JMT Racing          161*  (1 win, 5 podiums, 1 pole position)
 5.  Michalina Sabaj      AS Motorsport        84
 6.  Jonathan Correrella  Gender Racing Team   66*  (2 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 7.  Nathanaël Berreby    Maffi Racing         57*  (1 podium)
 8.  Simon Schranz        Renauer Motosport    54*
 9.  Davide Larini        PHM AIX Racing       51*  (2 podiums)
10.  Kamal Mrad           PHM AIX Racing       46*  (1 win, 2 podiums, 1 pole position, 1 fastest lap)

*not a full season entry

Qualifying comparison, where 100% is pole position in each Quali session.

 

Spoiler

 

Team-mate comparison in Quali (this is very fragmented, with not many full-time entries)

 

Spoiler

 

Fastest lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race:
 

Spoiler

 

And team-mate on team-mate in race fastest laps:

 

Spoiler

 

Again, like Australian F4, I wouldn't be expecting any of these drivers on Academy radars any time soon. Wurz likely has the means to move up through the ladder. Kutskov doesn't appear to have a lot of money at all, but the fact he got so close to the championship in a Maffi car suggests that he definitely has some talent, and I'd like to see him in a better F4 series next year to see how he stacks up.

Edited by Frood, 08 October 2024 - 21:25.

[Frood]

A hectic real-life meant I had to put these on hold for a bit, but I've got some time to finish up some of these F4 round-ups.
 
GB4 is up next. The series isn't necessarily on the FIA F4 pathway, and used the previous-generation F4 cars (i.e. the old Tatuus chassis, pre-halo) to position itself as a lower-cost alternative to the FIA-sanctioned British F4. This was the final year of the pre-halo cars, and a new car will be introduced next year that is more in line with current F4 specs. The series is notable for a couple of other reasons; I'm choosing one good and one bad to highlight here - on the good side, GB4 has always tried to be open and friendly to young women starting their open-wheel journey. There were quite a few women who tested at the start of the year; ultimately, 4 would start races over 2024, and one would be in championship contention. The series organisers put together a package to help the top female racer with funding for a seat in F1 Academy; hopefully, this will bear out to be true once the grid for F1 Academy is announced for 2025. On the negative side, GB4 is also notable in the fact that both of the champions since its 2022 inception have run out of funding - neither Nik Taylor nor Tom Mills have found full-time seats since winning the title. Taylor had a few sporadic starts for Renauer in F4 CEZ last year, whereas Mills has since only raced the final GB3 round this year.
 
Speaking of Mills, the team run by his father, KMR Sport, came into the year looking like the team to beat. Harry Burgoyne had a decent year in 2023 with Graham Brunton Racing, finishing 6th in the standings. Being the highest-placed returning driver in the series and scoring a seat with the reigning champions, he went into the year as the overwhelming favourite. However, things didn't turn out that way for him. Instead, it was his team-mate Brandon McCaughan (a former Formula Ford race winner) who took the first two pole positions of the year at Oulton Park, joined on the front row by the impressive Alisha Palmowski, making her open-wheel début after a couple of years in Ginetta Juniors. Palmowski would get the better of McCaughan at the start, and started her open-wheel career with an impressive win. McCaughan bounced back in the second race, and the reverse-grid third race saw a first win for Linus Granfors, younger brother of former GB3 runner-up Joel. With Palmowski and McCaughan both retiring from the reverse grid race, and Granfors having a quiet opening couple of races, the consistent Burgoyne took the initial championship lead.
 
From there, Granfors really picked up pace, dominating the first Silverstone round, and then scoring a third win in a row at the first Donington round. McCaughan was also back in the mix at Donington, taking his second win of the year, and Branden Templeton won the reverse-grid race. After Donington, sadly, McCaughan ran out of money, and his place at KMR would be taken by sim racer Lucas Blakeley from round 4 onwards. Blakeley had participated in the final round of 2023 and had immediately been on the pace, and his first round in 2024 was no different, taking a win on his first appearance of the year without any pre-season testing. Palmowski won both the second and third races at Snetterton; in doing so, she closed in on the two championship leaders Burgoyne and Granfors. Burgoyne was still leading the championship at this stage, despite still not having taken a maiden victory in the championship. The series moved back to Silverstone, and Granfors picked up where he left off in the first Silverstone round to leave the weekend with a healthy championship advantage. Blakeley won again in the second race, and Palmowski's team-mate Finn Harrison took his maiden win in the reverse grid race. Harrison had looked rapid over the course of the season, but was also very prone to silly accidents, most notably in the first round at Oulton Park where he crashed out of all three races. Indeed, Harrison actually looked the quickest driver at the second Donington weekend, taking both pole positions, but losing out in both normal grid races to Blakeley and then to Granfors. Burgoyne *finally* took a maiden win on his 38th attempt in the reverse grid race, and went into the final weekend of the season in mathematical contention for the championship, 2 points behind Palmowski and 37 behind Granfors.
 
Granfors set pole position for Races 1 & 2. Burgoyne did all he could in the first race, taking a win from team-mate Blakeley, with Granfors 3rd and Palmowski 4th. Granfors again lost out in the second race, finishing 2nd behind Blakeley with Palmowski 3rd and Burgoyne 4th. Harrison proved to be the spoiler in the final race of the year, winning the reverse grid race; Granfors by this point had already sealed the championship, but finished the year working his way through the field with Palmowski, finishing 3rd. Palmowski's 2nd place, and Burgoyne's lack of speed coming through the field, meant she took the runner-up spot (and the €30,000 prize money towards an F1 Academy seat) by one point from Burgoyne.
 
Despite a bizarre end to his season, spinning twice on the formation lap in the final race and not even making it to the start, Blakeley ended the year 5th despite missing the first 9 races. His rate of scoring would have seen him comfortably take the championship had he competed for the full year.
 
KMR's third driver, former F1 Academy driver Chloe Grant, showed very little pace over the course of the year, and was almost always a lot further back than Burgoyne, Blakeley, or McCaughan. Things were even more one-sided at champion Granfors' Fortec team - Jack Taylor and Dan Hickey showed absolutely zero pace for the whole year; Granfors was in a completely different universe comparatively.  

Here's how the Top 10 shook out at the end of the year:

Pos  Driver             Team                   Pts
 1.  Linus Granfors     Fortec Motorsports     467   (6 wins, 10 podiums, 6 pole positions, 3 fastest laps)
 2.  Alisha Palmowski   Elite Motorsport       422   (3 wins, 12 podiums, 2 pole positions, 1 fastest lap)
 3.  Harry Burgoyne     KMR Sport              421   (2 wins, 9 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 4.  Branden Templeton  Fox Motorsport         317   (1 win, 4 podiums, 2 fastest laps)
 5.  Lucas Blakeley     KMR Sport              306*  (4 wins, 9 podiums, 7 fastest laps)
 6.  Finn Harrison      Elite Motorsport       291   (2 wins, 5 podiums, 4 pole positions, 1 fastest lap)
 7.  Callum Baxter      Graham Brunton Racing  285   (2 podiums)
 8.  Chloe Grant        KMR Sport              208   (1 podium)
 9.  Jack Taylor        Fortec Motorsports     202   (1 podium)
10.  Leon Wilson        Arden Motorsport       202   (1 podium, 2 fastest laps)

*not a full season entry

Qualifying comparison, where 100% is pole position in each Quali session. Two dropped scores.
 

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Team-mate comparison in Quali. The biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.
 

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Fastest lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race. Three dropped scores for full-timers, two for drivers doing more than 50% of races but less than a full season.
 

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And team-mate on team-mate in race fastest laps. Again, the biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.
 

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Edited by Frood, 20 November 2024 - 13:53.

[Frood]

On the other side of the Channel, French F4 had another season which ended mired in controversy, as I brought up here. Still, it featured another good season of racing, which is to be expected from the biggest series on the FIA's list which utilises centrally-run cars. As a result, the midfield seems to chop and change a little more than the other F4 series, but ultimately it was always the same group of usual suspects up front.
 
Yani Stevenheydens was the highest-placed returnee from 2023, and he set about making his mark immediately in 2024. The young Belgian firmly planted his flag on the championship by dominating the opening round at Nogaro, taking both non-reverse grid pole positions, winning both races, and setting both fastest laps (the reverse grid second race was abandoned due to the weather). However, a penalty in the third race for a jump start meant he had a win taken away, and instead rookie Jules Caranta left Nogaro with the championship lead. Caranta had been impressive in the Middle East at the start of the year, finishing as the top car racing rookie in the UAE F4 championship, and he set about making sure Stevenheydens didn't have his name written over the year after all.  Another rookie, Honda protégé Taitō Katō, also somewhat quietly two podiums at Nogaro, and thus the three drivers who ultimately battled for the championship were set.  There were two further drivers in the mix after the second round at Lédenon - Luxembourger Chester Kieffer, and French-Thai rookie Rayan Caretti. Kieffer especially looked strong at Lédenon, taking the pole for Race 1 and winning it, and adding a runner-up position in the third race to make sure he was still in championship reckoning. Katō also took his maiden win in Race 3 at Lédenon.
 
The two international rounds kicked off at Spa, with Stevenheydens again looking imperiously fast in Qualifying. However, this didn't fully translate to race pace - he was beaten by both Kieffer and Kato in Race 1, and by Caranta in Race 3, and Kato also secured good points by winning the reverse grid race. After this point, three rounds into the season, Kieffer's form completely dropped off a cliff. Having scored 101 points in the first three rounds, he would only score 15 points in the remaining four! Caranta and Stevenheydens shared the wins in the second international round at the Nürburgring, and then again at the following round in Magny-Cours (with a cameo from Karel Schulz, winning the reverse grid race).
 
Following a couple of rounds rather taking a back seat to Stevenheydens and Caranta, Katō was back on form at Dijon, taking maximum points in both Races 1 and 3; with sportscar ace Kévin Estre's younger brother Dylan Estre taking his maiden win in Race 2. This meant Stevenheydens carried a 6-point advantage over Katō into the final round at Paul Ricard, with Caranta a further 11 back after a quieter Dijon weekend.
 
The mess that was the final round of the season is described in post 36, but the end result was finally confirmed last week - the appeal from the Belgian motorsport federation on behalf of Stevenheydens was not upheld, and Katō has been confirmed as this year's champion. Caranta also impressed a certain Helmut Marko, and has subsequently been added to the Red Bull Academy. A great fight between three very good drivers somewhat soured by the controversial end, sadly, though ultimately Stevenheydens would arguably have been less impressive winning the championship in his second year, compared to Katō or Caranta in their first.
 
The top 10 in the championship:

Pos  Driver              Pts
 1.  Taitō Katō          280  (5 wins, 12 podiums, 4 pole positions, 5 fastest laps)
 2.  Yani Stevenheydens  274  (4 wins, 12 podiums, 8 pole positions, 5 fastest laps)
 3.  Jules Caranta       266  (4 wins, 11 podiums, 2 fastest laps)
 4.  Chester Kieffer     116  (2 wins, 3 podiums, 1 pole position, 1 fastest lap)
 5.  Augustin Bernier    115  (1 podium, 1 pole position)
 6.  Frank Porté         111  (1 win, 4 podiums)
 7.  Rayan Caretti       111  (2 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 8.  Montego Maassen      79  (3 podiums, 2 fastest laps)
 9.  Dylan Estre          69  (1 win, 2 podiums, 2 fastest laps)
10.  Jules Roussel        65  (1 podium)

No team-mate comparisons for French F4 as there are no teams!

Qualifying comparison, where 100% is pole position in each Quali session. Two dropped scores.

Spoiler

 
Fastest lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race. Three dropped scores.

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[Frood]

Back on the shores of these fair isles, British F4 had a big year, with 33 drivers starting races over the course of the year, the highest number in the series' decade of existence. Also worth mentioning that 9 of those 33 drivers were female, which is the biggest proportion of any mixed-gender open-wheel series.

 

The championship fight, sadly, was a foregone conclusion after about two rounds. Deagen Fairclough won a competition to gain a seat on the grid in 2023, and he made the most of his opportunity by finishing 3rd in the championship with JHR. With 2023 winner and runner-up Louis Sharp and Will Macintyre moving onto GB3, Fairclough moved to Macintyre's vacant seat at Hitech and immediately installed himself as the championship favourite.

 

He definitely made the most of his position.

 

Fairclough completely crushed the competition. Of the 20 non-reverse grid races, Fairclough won 14 of them (he didn't take any of the reverse-grid races). His only sustained competition came from the Rodin team, mainly headed by former Spanish F4 racer Alex Ninovic, and from rookie team-mate Reza Seewooruthun. However, neither would be able to hold a candle to Fairclough over the course of the year. 

 

Elsewhere on the grid, a couple of F1 team academy drivers participated in the full season - the first being Alpine junior Abbi Pulling, who scored a victory in the reverse grid race at the first Brands Hatch round. Pulling was always there or thereabouts in the top pack, but was outclassed by Rodin team-mates Ninovic, James Higgins, and Jack Sherwood over the course of the year. The second academy driver was Mercedes junior Cui Yuanpu, who also managed a reverse-grid race win at Snetterton, and just edged out Argenti team-mate Rowan Campbell-Pilling in the final standings.

 

Other standouts included the JHR duo of Leo Robinson and Ella Lloyd. Robinson was always just behind the lead pack, leading him to make the most of the reverse-grid races. He would end up winning three of the reverse-grid races, ending up third in the win column behind Fairclough and Ninovic. His team-mate Lloyd was comfortably the second fastest woman on the grid, and was often challenging the more experienced Pulling in arguably a worse car. Hungarian rookie Martin Molnár, driving for Virtuosi, had a great second half of the year, ending up well inside the Top 10 in the championship by the end of the year.

 

There were a few low points in the championship as well, such as promising drivers Mika Abrahams and Joel Bergström running out of money part-way through the season. Rodin driver Jack Sherwood was always the bridesmaid and never the bride, taking 8 podiums but never standing on the top step - he was well on his way to victory in the final reverse-grid race of the year at Brands Hatch before suffering an absolutely massive accident that he was lucky to walk away from. Finally, CDR's Bart Harrison showed pace at points throughout the year, but also got himself thrown out of the series for the Thruxton round after assaulting Mika Abrahams in the paddock at Snetterton. It seems he learnt his lesson after this point, but had more than half of his total points docked by the stewards for the altercation.

The Top 10 in the standings at the end of the year:

Pos  Driver                  Team                   Pts
 1.  Deagen Fairclough       Hitech Pulse-Eight     579.5  (14 wins, 22 podiums, 15 pole positions,  18 fastest laps)
 2.  Alex Ninovic            Rodin Motorsport       357    (5 wins, 18 podiums, 3 pole positions, 5 fastest laps)
 3.  Reza Seewooruthun       Hitech Pulse-Eight     271    (2 wins, 8 podiums, 1 pole position, 3 fastest laps)
 4.  James Higgins           Rodin Motorsport       268.5  (2 wins, 7 podiums, 1 pole position)
 5.  Jack Sherwood           Rodin Motorsport       230    (8 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 6.  Leo Robinson            JHR Developments       164    (3 wins, 6 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 7.  Abbi Pulling            Rodin Motorsport       130*   (1 win, 3 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 8.  Martin Molnár           Virtuosi Racing        117.5  (5 podiums)
 9.  Cui Yuanpu              Phinsys by Argenti     102.5  (1 win, 2 podiums)
10.  Rowan Campbell-Pilling  Phinsys by Argenti     100.5  (2 podiums)

*not a full season entry

Qualifying comparison, where 100% is pole position in each Quali session. Two dropped scores.

Spoiler

 
Team-mate comparison in Quali. The biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.

Spoiler

 
Fastest lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race. Three dropped scores for full-timers, two for drivers doing more than 50% of races but less than a full season.

Spoiler

 
And team-mate on team-mate in race fastest laps. Again, the biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.

Spoiler

[Frood]

A kind-of-side event next - Euro 4. Due to the organisers (the Automobile Club of Italy) and the teams present, Euro 4 essentially served as an extra three rounds of Italian F4, with a couple of absences and additions (e.g. Hitech turning up for a cameo at the Red Bull Ring round with British F4 drivers Fairclough and Seewooruthun). However, interestingly, the dominant driver in Italian F4 (more on that when we get there!) was not the dominant driver over these three weekends, and actually lost out on the Euro 4 title.
 
That driver, one Freddie Slater, still scraped together two wins on his way to the runner-up position, but his consistency in the main series somewhat eluded him here. Indeed, it was the eventual champion Akshay Bohra who looked like the man to beat in Round 1 at Mugello, taking all three pole positions and two of three wins. Slater, meanwhile, only had one podium to his name after Mugello, and had more of an uphill struggle than he faced at any point in Italian F4. VAR's top driver, Hiyu Yamakoshi, also took a win at Mugello, to show that his good form in Italian F4 was no fluke. 
 
Slater was back on form in a major way at the Red Bull Ring, taking two pole positions and the race 1 and 2 win. He did, however, show some lack of polish, with a silly collision with Race 2 pole-sitter and team-mate Tomass Štolcermanis robbing him of another on-track win. Yamakoshi was again the man to pick up the pieces in Race 3, with Bohra having a quiet weekend comprised of a brace of 4th places, and a non-score. 
 
With only three rounds, the championship battle going into Monza was still wide open. This time, the three pole positions would go the way of three drivers not really in championship contention - Bohra's US Racing team-mate Maxim Rehm in Race 1, PHM's Davide Larini in Race 2, and Alpine junior and Slater's Prema team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta in Race 3. Despite taking pole for Race 1, Rehm had a miserable time in the race itself, eventually crashing out. Bohra drove himself into the championship favourite spot by taking 2nd place in Race 1, Slater only managing 5th and Yamakoshi failing to score at all, leaving Mercedes junior Alex Powell to take a win. Like Rehm in Race 1, Larini fell away from pole quickly in Race 2, Bohra once again finishing runner-up behind Nakamura Berta, whilst Yamakoshi and Slater struggled to 7th and 9th respectively. 
 
In the final race of the year, Bohra eased to the title in 5th, with Slater not scoring again. Yamakoshi also didn't score, and eventually lost out on 3rd overall to Nakamura Berta. Rehm made up for his awful Race 1 in an impressive way, charging to his first open-wheel victory from 12th on the grid; Larini likewise putting his Race 2 disaster behind him to take 2nd place. A fun diversion from the main Italian F4 season.

The Top 10 in the standings at the end of the year:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Pts
 1.  Akshay Bohra         US Racing              124  (2 wins, 4 podiums, 3 pole positions, 1 fastest lap)
 2.  Freddie Slater       Prema Racing           106  (2 wins, 4 podiums, 2 pole positions, 1 fastest lap)
 3.  Kean Nakamura Berta  Prema Racing            97  (1 win, 3 podiums, 1 pole position, 1 fastest lap)
 4.  Yamakoshi Hiyū       Van Amersfoort Racing   89  (2 wins, 4 podiums, 1 fastest lap)
 5.  Tomass Štolcermanis  Prema Racing            83  (2 podiums, 1 pole position)
 6.  Maxim Rehm           US Racing               63  (1 win, 1 podium, 1 pole position)
 7.  Gustav Jönsson       Van Amersfoort Racing   56  (3 podiums)
 8.  Jack Beeton          US Racing               51  (1 podium)
 9.  Alex Powell          Prema Racing            49  (1 win, 1 podium, 1 fastest lap)
10.  Gianmarco Pradel     US Racing               49  (1 podium, 1 fastest lap)

Qualifying comparison, where 100% is pole position in each Quali session. Two dropped scores.

Spoiler

Team-mate comparison in Quali. The biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.

Spoiler

Fastest lap comparison, where 100% is the fastest lap in each race. Three dropped scores for full-timers, two for drivers doing more than 50% of races but less than a full season.

Spoiler

And team-mate on team-mate in race fastest laps. Again, the biggest gap in each direction was a dropped score.

Spoiler