Photo: Gedlich Racing

Alexander Ruta and Arjen Kraling were the winners of Formula Winter Series’ second and third races around Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes from qualifying set race two’s grid, putting Van Langendonck on pole. The laptime used was 0.001 seconds slower than the one that earned him pole for race one.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ruta qualified second, 0.171s behind, with Pedro Lima (VAR), Ludovico Busso (US Racing), Thomas Bearman (VAR), Jensen Burnett (Mathilda Racing) and Rocco Coronel (VAR) filling the next places on the grid.

Ruta and Lima either side of Van Langendonck at the start, and at turn one Ruta took the lead on the inside while Lima passed on the outside. The team-mates ran side-by-side through turn two, and Coronel was into fourth but got spun by Bearman which led to the latter being penalised five seconds.

Ruta went off into the gravel exiting turn five kept the lead and actually began pulling away despite lock-ups. He was 1.4s clear when the safety car was summoned on lap three due to AKM Motorsport’s Vittorio Orsini crashing out. Coronel had also retired from the race, and Rodin Motorsport’s Alfie Slater was at the back after pitting.

The field was bunched up at the last corner by Ruta before the lap six restart, which he nailed to build a 1.9s lead within a lap. He was unchallenged thereon, taking his maiden victory.

Lima went off exiting turn one on the restart, allowing Van Langendonck to dive down his inside at turn two. There was a lock-up, contact, Lima went off again and Bearman went past both on the inside of turn three. Bearman held onto second place despite his penalty, and Lima got back past Van Langendonck on lap 11 of 13 but then a track limits penalty demoted him to seventh.

Van Langendonck completed the podium, and was hounded by Busso after Lima, and US’s Ary Bansal won a lengthy pack battle with Burnett for sixth before his own five-second track limits penalty was applied and put him ninth.

Cram Motorsport’s Oscar Repetto was another to be penalised but retained 10th place as the drivers behind also got penalties.

Arjen Kraling set the fastest lap in a lapped 29th place, putting him on race three pole ahead of Bearman, Ruta, US’s Olexandar Savinkov, Bansal and Slater. Van Langendonck lined up 12th, and Coronel was last. Kraling and Savinkov had been late to leave the pits for race two so they could focus on taking the fastest lap.

Ruta got alongside Kraling on the run to the opening corner of race three, but had to tuck in behind as they went through the corner. Bearman held third, Slater lost four places while fighting, and Coronel broke his front wing so had to pit.

The safety car then came out due to Cram’s Andre Rodriguez crashing out, and racing resumed on lap four. Kraling was unchallenged up front, and when a second safety car period was called for on lap nine after Jenzer Motorsport’s Levi Arn crashed he was left with two laps of racing.

There was no change in the top four, completed by Savinkov, and initially Bansal was fifth ahead of Lima and Busso. Lima had to hold off Busso several times, and when he saw the opportunity to pass Bansal into turn 11 on the penultimate lap he took it. Busso also then got past as Bansal nursed front wing damage, and after the second restart Van Langendonck rose from 11th to ninth with clinical overtakes. Coronel recovered to 15th, three spots behind Slater.

Results round-up
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Alexander Ruta Van Amersfoort Racing 22m26.498s
2 Thomas Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing +5.978s
3 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +6.988s
4 Ludovico Busso US Racing +7.172s
5 Jensen Burnett Mathilda Racing +8.590s
6 Teodor Borenstein Jenzer Motorsport +10.272s
7 Pedro Lima Van Amersfoort Racing +10.332s
8 Roman Kamyab US Racing +11.615s
9 Ary Bansal US Racing +12.517s
10 Oscar Repetto Cram Motorsport +17.463s
Pole: Van Langendonck, 1m34.818s
Fastest lap: Arjen Kraling, 1m34.614s

Race 3 (12 laps)
1 Kraling US Racing 21m50.876s
2 Ruta +0.685s
3 Bearman +1.595s
4 Olexandar Savinkov US Racing +1.982s
5 Lima +3.414s
6 Busso +4.278s
7 Bansal +5.609s
8 Samuel Ifrid Cram Motorsport +6.136s
9 Van Langendonck +6.225s
10 Repetto +6.738s
FL: Kraling, 1m34.452s

Championship standings
1 Van Langendonck 153   2 Ruta 92   3 Bansal 84   4 Bearman 78   5 Savinkov 71   6 Rocco Coronel 70   7 Alfie Slater 48   8 Ethan Lennon 47   9 Busso 47   10 Kraling 36

The post Alexander Ruta and Arjen Kraling win at Valencia in FWinter Series appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

New McLaren junior Christian Costoya has been announced as doing a double Formula 4 programme in Europe with Prema.

The 15-year-old Spaniard will race full-time in Italian F4 and sister championship E4 with the team, which he made his single-seater debut with last month in UAE4. He took a win in round three, and sits sixth in the points with one round to go.

Costoya became a McLaren junior last December, at the end of a year in which he was CIK-FIA European Karting champion, WSK Euro Series champion and WSK Super Master Series runner-up on OK karts. He had previously been European championship runner-up at the junior level.

“Very happy to join Prema for the 2026 F4 season,” said Costoya. “This marks a new chapter for me in a new category. I’m fully committed to giving my best, continuing to progress and improve as a driver, and making the most of this opportunity.”

Stephen Mitas has become Prema’s team principal and chief executive officer amid off-season overhaul of the Italian outfit.

“Christian showed great potential in karting and we are delighted to welcome him to our team for a very challenging and important step in his career,” he said of the team’s latest driver signing.

“We will give him our best support as he approaches the transition to single-seater and gets ready for the year ahead.”

Also racing in E4 and Italian F4 this year is Ludovico Busso, who will be part of US Racing’s line-up. He is currently racing for the team in the Iberia-based Formula Winter Series, and sits 10th in the standings with one podium.

The 16-year-old Italian debuted in single-seaters with a FWS cameo last year. He drove for Viola Formula Racing, and remained with the team for Italian F4. After round three he was the team’s only driver, and after round five he switched to US’s line-up. That also meant a team switch following one E4 round. Busso failed to score in both championships, and came 23rd in E4’s standings.

The post McLaren junior Christian Costoya to race for Prema in E4 and Italian F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Gedlich Racing

Dries Van Langendonck starred again in the second round of the Formula Winter Series at the Algarve circuit, claiming two dominant wins from the three races.

In wet conditions that would persist throughout the race weekend, McLaren junior Van Langendonck was pipped to pole position by Rodin Motorsport team-mate Ethan Lennon in Saturday morning’s opening qualifying session. Just 0.08 seconds separated the two Rodin drivers – with half a second back to third-placed Ary Bansal of US Racing – but Lennon did enough to claim a double pole thanks to also having the leading second-fastest time.

Van Langendonck struck back in the second session, claiming race three pole by 0.844s over US Racing’s Oleksandr Savinkov with Lennon in third.

Despite the damp track, race one began with a grid start but Van Langendonck may have wished it hadn’t, since he stalled when the lights went out. He was able to get going at the rear of the field, running 27th at the end of lap one, but the same wasn’t true for team-mate Alfie Slater who didn’t get away from fourth and was struck by the right-rear tyre of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Lima.

Lennon led from Bansal during 20 minutes under safety car conditions while the stranded cars were recovered, but Bansal grabbed the lead into the first corner at the restart. Lennon and Bearman then banged wheels as they fought over second place two corners later.

Having kept Bearman at bay, Lennon was pressuring Bansal to regain the lead when the safety car was deployed again after Emmilio Del Grosso’s car needed recovering.

Bansal slowed the field enough at the restart to ensure the clock ran down and only one lap remained, holding on to win by 0.319s over Lennon – who was later penalised five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. That dropped him to eighth, one place behind the recovering Van Langendonck. Bearman was promoted to second ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Teo Borenstein, while Rocco Coronel beat Savinkov to fourth.

Race two did start under the safety car, with Lennon initially retaining the lead until Van Langendonck slid down his inside at Turn 5 to move ahead.

A wide moment for Lennon over a kerb a couple of laps later helped Van Langendonck to escape and allowed Slater the chance to pass for second. Slater couldn’t do anything about Van Langendonck, who won by 8.138s. Coronel survived first-corner contact with Savinkov to finish a distant fourth after a thrilling late battle with Bansal.

Van Langendonck’s winning margin would be a slightly smaller 7.98s in race three. From a standing start he fell behind Savinkov off the line, but once again claimed the lead on the inside of Turn 5 for the first time.

Following a safety car period after Vittorio Orsini and Tomas Rudokas tangled on lap one, Savinkov ran well wide through the final corner on the restart, putting him under pressure from team-mate Ludovico Busso and giving Van Langendonck the chance to escape out front. Savinkov soon shook off Busso to finish a lonely second, with Busso rounding out the podium after beating the battling Lennon, Alexander Ruta and Bearman.

Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Ary Bansal US Racing 32m27.584s
2 Thomas Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing +1.202s
3 Teo Borenstein Jenzer Motorsport +1.877s
4 Rocco Coronel Van Amersfoort Racing +2.976s
5 Oleksandr Savinkov US Racing +3.527s
6 Alexander Ruta Van Amersfoort Racing +4.142s
7 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +4.414s
8 Ethan Lennon Rodin Motorsport +5.319s
9 Ludovico Busso US Racing +5.478s
10 Noah Killon US Racing +5.494s
Pole: Lennon, 2m05.468s
Fastest lap: Bansal, 2m06.909s

Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Van Langendonck 33m03.718s
2 Slater +8.138s
3 Lennon +10.584s
4 Coronel +20.223s
5 Bansal +20.530s
6 Ruta +21.332s
7 Bearman +22.230s
8 Pedro Lima Van Amersfoort Racing +29.136s
9 Busso +29.303s
10 Borenstein +32.276s
Pole: Lennon, 2m05.752s
FL: Van Langendonck, 2m05.705s

Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Van Langendonck 31m58.707s
2 Savinkov +7.980s
3 Busso +17.656s
4 Lennon +18.145s
5 Ruta +18.768s
6 Bansal +19.209s
7 Bearman +21.880s
8 Slater +22.331s
9 Coronel +23.017s
10 Samuel Ifrid Cram Motorsport +28.709s
Pole: Van Langendonck, 2m05.389s
FL: Van Langendonck, 2m05.429s

Championship standings
1 Van Langendonck 108   2 Bansal 66   3 Savinkov 59   4 Coronel 52   5 Bearman 45   6 Lennon 45   7 Slater 40   8 Ruta 34   9 Arn 21   10 Busso 21

The post Van Langendonck shines in wet Algarve Formula Winter Series races appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Winter Series

Ary Bansal was fastest in Formula Winter Series pre-event testing at Algarve, which featured several new drivers.

For this weekend Rodin Motorsport has added a fourth car for new Mclaren Formula 1 junior Ella Stevens, who will be making her single-seater racing debut. She will race for Rodin in the all-female F1 Academy championship later this year.

Oscar Repetto is out and Alexandre Louza is in at Cram Motorsport, as had been planned, and Mathilda Racing has filled its second car with Italo-Venezuelan racer Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso. He came 18th in entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior in 2025.

Nicolas Cortes joins Jenzer Motorsport’s line-up for the rounds at Algarve and Motorland Aragon. The 15-year-old Mexican raced for the team last year, coming fourth in Formula 4 Central European Zone and cameoing in E4 and Italian F4.

Campos Racing fielded the all-female trio of Chiara Battig, Rafela Ferreira and Alisha Palmowski in FWinter Series’ season opener at Estoril, with Batting making the podium and Palmowski claiming a pole. Only Battig remains for Algarve, and will be joined by Zoe Florescu Potolea and Leon Hedfors. Megan Bruce has also been signed, but will not race until a later round.

Florescu won the junior classification in the third edition of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme in 2023, when the Italo-Romanian was 13 years old.

The FDA-funded karting campaign that followed in 2023 lack strong results, but on KZ2 shifter karts last year (racing under an American license) she showed improved form and came 19th in WSK’s Super Master Series and 25th in the CIK-FIA World Championship. There were also F4 test outings with multiple teams.

Hedfors, 17, hails from Sweden and his career is guided by Infinity Sports Management. He began his F4 career last November in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy, coming 22nd in the standings.

US Racing’s Bansal set the pace in the first test session on Thursday. His final lap, a 1m49.773s, put him 0.051 seconds ahead of Dries Van Langendonck (Rodin) and 0.149s clear of Roman Kamyab (US).

Rocco Coronel (Van Amersfoort Racing) was 0.462s behind in fourth, with Noah Killion (US) and Alfie Slater (Rodin) the only other drivers within a second of Bansal.

All 33 drivers improved in session two. Bansal lowered the pace to 1m46.6s, leading Olexander Savinkov (US) by 0.573s, Van Langendonck by 0.692s, Coronel by 0.731s, Arjen Kraeling (US) by 0.884s and Ludovico Busso (US) by 0.952s.

In session three, Bansal was one of only four non-improvers. Coronel set a 1m46.703s to top the timesheet, pipping Bansal and Savinkov by 0.056s. Alexander Ruta (VAR) was also within 0.1s of Coronel, and half a second covered the top eight.

Excessive track limits violations and worse conditions meant laptimes were a lot slower on Friday. Van Langendonck’s 2m03.466s on his final lap was the fastest of session four, 0.377s clear of Bansal. He topped session five with a 1m59.579s, and had a 1.244s gap to Ethan Lennon (Rodin).

Slater posted a 2m06.111s in his final lap of testing to secure top spot in session six. Van Langendonck and Lennon were 0.136s and 0.369s behind, with Coronel trailing by 0.584s. Ruta, Teodor Borenstein (Jenzer) and Bansal were also within a second of Slater’s pace.

The post Bansal tops Algarve test as Campos revises FWinter Series line-up appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Mat Acton

US Racing has announced its first three signings for the 2026 Formula Winter Series, E4 and Italian Formula 4 seasons.

Remaining with team for a second year is Ary Bansal, who came 19th in E4 and did one Italian F4 round in 2025 with the German outfit.

The 16-year-old Indian primarily raced in Britain, taking the GB4 title with four wins and seven other podiums and coming 11th in British F4 with a part-time campaign that featured a victory and three other podiums.

Later in the year he did two Saudi Arabian F4 rounds, with a win and two second places putting him seventh in the standings, and finishing fifth in the FIA F4 World Cup in Macau.

“I am looking forward to hitting the ground running with US Racing in 2026,” said Bansal.

“The momentum from last season gives us a strong platform to build on as we head into a full European campaign. Together, our aim is to maximise the package across each round and push hard to fight at the front consistently.”

US’s team principal Gerhard Ungar called Bansal “a very talented race driver with big potential”, who “has improved and developed a lot over the last year, and I am sure he will have a strong season in 2026″.

He won’t be the only single-seater champion in US’s line-up, as it has also signed Noah Killion. The Australian won his home country’s AU4 championship this year, then came 13th in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy for F4 cars.

Ukrainian racer Olexander Savinkov joins US after a very busy first two years in car racing. He raced for AKM Motorsport in 2024, and came a points-free 32nd in E4, 37th in FWinter Series and 42nd in Italian F4. For 2025 he switched to R-ace GP, and enjoyed an instant provement as he was 11th in F4 Middle East.

However Savinkov then scored only one point in both E4 and Italian F4, coming 21st and 27th in his sophomore campaigns. His part-time British F4 campaign with Virtuosi Racing was more productive, as he had five top-10 finishes.

Prema has annnounced it has added Chinese youngster Kingsley Zheng to its 2026 E4 and Italian F4 line-ups after a prolonged testing programme this year.

“Starting a single-seater career in this way is the best opportunity,” said Zheng, who has past karting experience.

“Being able to work with such a prestigious team, where I can grow learn and grow quickly race by race, is something truly special.”

Embarking on a triple European programme like the US drivers is Pedro Lima, who joins Van Amersfoort Racing. He raced on home soil this year, coming third in Brazilian F4 with two victories and seven other podiums.

“Joining the upcoming Italian F4 season is a pivotal step in my career. I am ready for all the challenges and extremely excited to race for VAR, a team with a victorious history that has been home to great names in motorsport,” said Lima.

The post US Racing signs GB4 and AU4 champions Bansal and Killion for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: ACI Sport

Italian F4 added more races in 2025, but it didn’t mean more starts compared to previous seasons and Kean Nakamura-Berta had to rely on consistency to set a new record in the longest-running F4 championship

After 11 years with regularly massive grids, the Italian Formula 4 championship had to revisit a format change for its seven-round 2025 season. Rather than every event featuring three races, a fourth was added at rounds where entry lists exceeded the 42-car cap. It was a tweak previously needed for 2016’s first two rounds, once in 2022 and for the 2023 season opener.

For those events, qualifying was split into two and the results determined which of three lettered groups drivers would be put into. Three ‘qualifying’ races followed, with groups A and B in the first, A and C in the second, then B and C in the third. Those all lasted 25 minutes-plus-one lap, five minutes shorter than the regular race length, then the event’s points table determined the 36 drivers who progressed into the fourth ‘final’ race. A full season therefore meant, as in previous years, 21 starts.

Since Italian F4 does not use reversed-grid races, and despite historically having had one of the category’s strongest fields in terms of depth, the championship has had a tendency to be dominated and most often by Prema drivers. Six of the first 11 champions won nine or more races, and 2025’s format change rewarded winning with the opportunity to do more winning.

Freddie Slater delivered 15 of Prema’s 16 wins last year, with the odd one out being Kean Nakamura-Berta’s maiden success at Paul Ricard. He had made the podium once in the first 14 races, suffering a dip in confidence that his victory reversed.

“It’s a relief that finally I’ve won a race and I think I’ll treasure this win over many wins I’ve done before because I got a bit of confidence back,” he told Formula Scout at the time, before a run of top-four finishes (including three podiums) to end 2024.

Nakamura-Berta was edged to fifth in the standings and the rookie title by team-mate Alex Powell, and the pair were the highest placed drivers to stay on the grid for 2025. While Japanese-Slovak racer Nakamura lost his Alpine Academy backing in the off-season, he was the title favourite for this year as Powell moved to R-ace GP which had only ran one car full-time in 2024.

Prema’s sophomore star delivered on the title-fighting expectation in the season-opening round at Misano, topping his qualifying group and converting pole into three wins out of three. Rookie Salim Hanna Hernandez topped the other qualifying group but was beaten to race one victory by Prema team-mate Sebastian Wheldon, then came fourth and third in the next two.

A sign of things to come were Powell’s results. He was seventh in Nakamura’s qualifying group, set the fastest lap in his first race but finished 11th, struggled to overtake in the next one and finished eighth, then was a penalised 11th in the ‘final’ race.

Before any precedents could be truly set though, wet weather shook things up during round two at Vallelunga. PHM Racing’s David Cosma Cristofor, who would go on to come 26th in the standings with just seven points, was fastest in qualifying by a huge 1.549 seconds. He jumped from outside of the top 10 to top spot before red flags waved and prevented rivals from reasserting themselves as ahead.

Nakamura topped the other group, which Powell was eighth in, and converted pole into victory in race one. A slow-starting Cosma lost the lead immediately in race two, and Nakamura then looked set for an easy victory. But he came under lots of late pressure and had to put in a defensive masterclass to hold off Wheldon. His fifth win marked the best ever start to a season in Italian F4 history, with no other driver having begun their season with such a long unbeaten run.

He got to watch race three from the garage, and in the chaotic first few laps Wheldon and Powell went from fifth and 10th to first and second. Powell had no answer to Wheldon’s pace, but he was at least back on the podium.

Cosma finished 14th, a result he repeated in race four but by climbing up from 21st rather than falling down the order. Nakamura’s victory hopes ended on lap one as he lost his front wing on the rear of Wheldon’s car, and after pitting he recovered from 28th to 11th as US Racing’s Formula Winter Series champion Gabriel Gomez claimed his first race win after three third places from the first five races.

Most podiums in Italian F4 season

The four-race format was not needed in the next rounds, and at Monza things were super close in qualifying. Pole for all three races was decided by under 0.03s, and the track’s pronounced slipstream effect set up races key for learning wheel-to-wheel skills as well as qualifying’s fine margins.

Wheldon won race one from pole, but at one point Gomez and Nakamura were ahead and he got back past them after going three-wide. Nakamura gained 10 spots from 13th on the grid, while Powell went from 18th to fifth and back again.

Defensive prowess earned Nakamura victory in race two while Wheldon frequently overdid it at the first chicane and Gomez got between them after starting 10th. The Prema team-mates collided in race three, and Newman Chi won.

Powell showed what had been missing at Mugello, although not immediately. He was 0.425s off the pace in Q1, enough for fourth on race one’s grid as Nakamura went quickest, but then he topped Q2 by 0.36s to earn two poles.

Nakamura led lights-to-flag in the safety car-filled race one, then Powell nailed the challenge of a race which included rain and strong winds to land his first win then followed it up with a dominant second victory. His 65-point haul from the weekend equated to 51% of his total tally for the season, and after over six-and-a-half years with its support the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team now no longer has Powell’s name on the list of its junior drivers.

A ninth podium of the season significantly grew Nakamura’s points lead as closest title rival Wheldon finished 14th, and it also marked the start of a run of nine podiums in a row.

Round five was at Imola, and the stars of qualifying were Gomez and Prema’s Sasha Bondarev although Nakamura was less than 0.04s off pole twice. Gomez led home Hanna in race one to move up to second in the standings, then race two lasted 17s and was ultimately cancelled.

Newman Chi, Alex Powell and Reno Francot

Chi and Hanna stalled at the start, and were collected by several cars. Yellow flags waved but Kornelia Olkucka still crashed, leading to her Maffi Racing team-mates going off in avoidance of debris but ending their races.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov spun, other drivers had heavy crashes and when red flags waved 16 drivers were already out. Due to noise curfews preventing a restart, the race was rescheduled to feature in the final round at Misano.

Race three was the next day. Nakamura fought his way past poleman Bondarev on lap one before the safety car appeared, then pulled away after the restart. Bondarev closed back in, along with Popov, and Nakamura was warned over his defending before the safety car reappeared. Once again he got his tyres up to temperature to get a gap on the restart, but a lap later was back defending. Bondarev got past on the outside into Tamburello with two laps to go to win, as Popov lost out to Chi and later Gomez and Hanna.

The season’s only round abroad took place at Spanish track Barcelona, and sophomore Emanuele Olivieri returned to form to become R-ace’s lead driver in the standings. He had made the podium twice at Misano, finished second in the fourth Vallelunga race and then taken top-five finishes in the next two rounds but not reached similar heights to Powell despite comfortably beating him to the F4 Middle East title at the start of the year.

In Barcelona qualifying, Olivieri claimed two poles and was 0.118s shy of a third while Powell was 15th and 13th in the two sessions. Nakamura claimed race one pole, and Gomez and Wheldon were on the front row of the next two races.

Gomez stalled, got hit at turn two, punctured then pitted on race one’s opening lap, and retired shortly after. Nakamura dominated, extending his championship lead over Gomez to 80 points while Wheldon faded to sixth late in the race.

Race two was declared wet, and began behind the safety car since the field thought it was dry enough to start on slick tyres. Olivieri appeared to make an error bringing the pack up to racing speeds, and lost out to Gomez and Nakamura who were evenly matched until the safety car returned late on. Popov landed his fourth podium as Olivieri finished fifth.

Emanuele Olivieri

Heavy rain meant race three was red-flagged early. Wheldon led Nakamura, but as the race was abandoned it counted for nothing. The four-race format returned for the 44-car Misano finale, but the rescheduled encounter made it a five-race event.

Wheldon pipped Gomez to race one pole by 0.078s, Gomez returned the favour by 0.044s for race two, then also clinched race three pole. A controlled display by Wheldon to win race one wasn’t enough to keep his title hopes alive as Nakamura put in a composed display in second place, earned by passing Popov.

Gomez’s group was back on track for race two, but he didn’t get to line up from pole as an alternator meant he couldn’t even get to the grid and joined the race for one lap later on. Nakamura was already one point away from the title due to dropped scores, so it was comfortably secured as he finished third behind Wheldon and Chi.

Wheldon returned to second in the standings, but was not in race three in which Gomez handled a late attack from Hanna for his fourth win and move back ahead by 16 points.

The combined results put Wheldon and Gomez first and sixth on race four’s grid, and Gomez lost ground early on with a grassy moment. Wheldon was fastest on track throughout but lost the lead to Nakamura early on took a while to recover it. The championship’s top thee finished where they started, and Wheldon moved one point ahead of Gomez.

The ball was back in Gomez’s court for the season-ending rescheduled Imola race, as he had pole. Nakamura also had an opportunity to not only break Italian F4’s record podium tally for a season, but to do it in 20 races rather than 21.

Gomez led all the way until the last lap when, having held off many overtaking attempts, Nakamura got a run on him onto the back straight and after putting two wheels on the grass snatched first place. The champion got his ninth win and podium record, Gomez clinched runner-up spot as Wheldon finished seventh and Williams junior Bondarev took his second podium.

Gabriel Gomez

Hanna came fourth in the standings with sixth podiums, and will step up to a 2026 Formula Regional European Championship seat with Prema, but on a points-per-race basis Tomass Stolcermanis had the potential to be in that position. He only did the first two rounds with Prena, but claimed a podium and three other top-five finishes that still put him 11th in the championship.

PHM’s Reno Francot was another impressive part-timer, his three-round run beginning with a double podium at Mugello.

Existing under the same promoter as Italian F4 is E4, a sister ‘continental’ championship contested by most of the paddock and is essentially three further Italian F4 rounds with their own points table.

Ugo Ugochukwu and James Wharton’s 2023 record of five podiums in a season was thoroughly beaten by Nakamura this year as he picked up four victories, three runner-up finishes, a third and a fourth from the nine-race campaign. Despite taking the title by 47 points, it wasn’t wrapped up until the final race which was two weeks after his Italian F4 crowning.

The wins were shared by Gomez and Francot in round one at Paul Ricard in France so Gomez left the track as points leader, then Powell denied Nakamura a triple pole at Mugello. Nakamura resisted Powell’s early attacks in race one there to win, then did the same in race two but a track limits penalty demoted him to second between Powell and Francot.

Wheldon romped to race three victory ahead of Powell, and Francot overtook Nakamura to cause his sole podium-free race.

At the Monza finale, Nakamura won a dramatic race one, fended off title rival Gomez in race two then undid the places lost at the start of race three to become the first ever champion of both Italian F4 and E4 with another win. Francot was third in the points.

Had those events been incorporated into Italian F4’s schedule, here’s how the points table would have looked…

Combined 2025 Italian F4 + E4 table

The post How Nakamura-Berta broke podium records en route to F4 title double appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Formula Regional, GB3 and Formula 4 teams have concluded their 2025 testing schedules in Europe over the last week.

There was an Italian F4 test at Vallelunga on November 29/30 featuring 23 drivers, and 0.064 seconds split the top four.

Arjen Kraling was quickest, topping the day two afternoon session with a 1m34.538s that put him 0.018s ahead of US Racing team-mate Ludovico Busso and with a 0.064s gap to Prema’s Sasha Bondarev.

In the morning, the driver of US’s #460 car had set a 1m34.551s that put them third fastest overall. They had edged Kraling by 0.051s, Bondarev by 0.057s and Busso by 0.095s in the session.

Including two drivers who did not improve on their day one bests, a second covered the top 16.

The driver of US’s #460 car had started the test on top, posting a 1m34.726s on their final lap of the morning on day one to lead Bondarev by 0.078s and the driver of US’s #17 car by 0.128s. In the afternoon, that driver lowered the pace to 1m34.751s to pip Bondarev by 0.002s, US’s #460 driver by 0.066s and Busso by 0.1s.

Barcelona hosted junior single-seater testing for three days, with multiple categories on track. The nine-car contingent of FIA Formula 3 cars included entries from Campos Racing, Prema, DAMS and Hitech GP, who ran Michael Shin and Jin Nakamura.

There were 10 GB3 cars in action, but Elite Motorsport’s drivers were on their own on day one. Other teams joined for the next two days, and Hitech’s drivers set the pace in all but two sessions where Rodin Motorsport’s Maxim Rehm and Hillspeed’s Dante Vinci led the way.

Global Racing Service was running Gianni Giovanelli in one of its Eurocup-3 cars, with Palou Motorsport also on track from that championship, while Elite was the only team gathering mileage with GB4 machinery.

There were also 13 F4 drivers testing, entered by Van Amersfoort Racing, Monlau Motorsport, SG Motorsport and AKM Motorsport. The VAR drivers were comfortably quickest, and AKM’s line-up included Vittorio Orsini and Williams Formula 1 junior Dean Hoogendoorn.

Orsini won the 22nd edition of the Italian motorsport federation’s annual Supercorso Federale award last month, beating four other finalists over a four-day programme of “psychophysical assessments, simulator activities, track driving and specific training”. This included F4 running with Prema, formated to mirror a race weekend.

Coaching Orsini through the final was 1993 Italian F3 champion Christian Pescatori.

Euroformula team Motopark rented the Paul Ricard circuit this Tuesday and Wednesday, and it ran six of its cars. Double R Racing, which last raced in Euroformula back in 2021, and BVM Racing joined in with three cars each, but they were all outpaced by MP Motorsport. While it ran two cars in the test, Formula Scout understands MP is not the new team that the championship has teased will join the grid in 2026.

In separate sessions were a contingent of FEED Racing’s Formula 4 cars and several FRegional European Championship teams.

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri started off as fastest, then Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta topped the next three sessions on the dry first day. In slower conditions on Wednesday, Oliveri and team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri topped the timesheets.

Test results

The post FRegional, GB3 and F4 teams do final tests of 2025 in Europe appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Ludovico Busso pipped Prema’s Niccolo Maccagnani to top spot in this week’s Italian Formula 4 test at Misano.

The 30-car field was split into two groups for the two-day test, and Prema’s Sasha Bondarev was usually the driver to beat in group A which headed out first on Monday.

In session one he set a 1m37.678s to edge Maccagnani by 0.04 seconds, with PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese 0.874s off in third. Bondarev improved to 1m37.004s in session two, this time leading Maccagnani and Martinese by 0.147s and 0.77s respectively.

Busso was on top in group B’s two Monday morning sessions, setting a 1m37.608s to lead two of his team-mates by just 0.044s in session one, then improving to 1m36.934s in session two to grow his advantage to 0.142s as a second split the group’s top 11.

Maccagnani got within 0.06s of Busso by topping group A’s third session, having his own 0.203s gap to Bondarev while Martinese trailed 0.92s behind.

Laptimes were slower thereon due to rain. R-ace GP’s Kenzo Craigie led group B’s remaining Monday sessions, and Maccagnani beat Martinese by 0.142s when group A headed back out.

All personal bests were set in the second sessions, with the exceptions of Maffi Racing’s Igor Polak, who only did the last session, Maccagnani and PHM’s Alex Chartier.

Nobody lapped sub-1m51s in the wet on Tuesday. Jenzer Motorsport’s Florentin Hattemer, Bondarev, Craigie and Maccagnani were among the group of drivers who topped session timesheets, and the day’s fastest laps came at the very end. Maccagnani set a 1m51.472s, edging Bondarev by 0.024s and Martinese by 0.577s.

Test results

The post Busso pips Maccagnani in Italian F4 test at Misano appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Trident

The Formula Regional European Championship and Italian Formula 4 held a collective post-season test at Mugello this week.

On Tuesday they shared the track for two sessions, then had four sessions each on Wednesday. F4 drivers were alone on Thursday, which had a morning and afternoon session.

Maximilian Popov was fastest on day one. In session one he set a 1m42.550s to lead R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri by 0.285 seconds and Trident team-mate Andrija Kostic by 0.306s. There were eight drivers on track, and Tatuus was also testing its new-for-2026 second-generation FRegional car.

Popov improved slightly to 1m42.501s in the afternoon, with Al Dhaheri 0.187s behind and Race Performance Motorsport’s drivers also within half a second of him.

The pace was lowered to 1m41.291s by Popov the next morning, putting him 0.386s ahead of the driver of R-P-M’s #74 car as everyone improved. A 1m41.633s put the driver of R-P-M’s #210 on top by just 0.01s over their team-mate in session four, with Al Dhaheri and Popov 0.163s and 0.174s behind.

Laptimes were a lot slower in session five, with R-P-M’s #74 driver by 0.099s ahead of Popov at the top, as in session six where Kostic posted a 1m42.144s to sit 0.187s ahead of Popov.

In F4, the driver of AKM’s #55 had set the pace on Tuesday morning with a 1m51.018s, leading Cram Motorsport’s Rafael Vaessen by 0.106s, then Vaessen set a 1m50.914s in the afternoon to move ahead of them by 0.16s.

The F4 entry list grew from four cars to 31 on Wednesday, and the driver of Jenzer Motorsport’s #21 car set a 1m50.360s early in the day. Closest to him was Prema’s Niccolo Maccagnani, who recently did private Formula 2 testing at Monza, 0.975s off the pace.

Maccagnani improved to 1m49.427s in session four, pipping team-mate Alp Hasan Aksoy by 0.009s while US Racing’s Ludovico Busso was 0.544s back in third as a second split the top seven.

In session five, Maccagnani lowered the pace further to 1m49.302s, leading Jenzer’s #21 driver by 0.156s, the driver of US’s #998 car by 0.373s and US’s Noah Killion by 0.412s. The top 10 were covered by a second, and all but seven drivers set personal bests.

Wednesday concluded with Busso topping session six. He set a 1m50.420s, and PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese and R-ace’s Emilty Cotty were his closest rivals. A second seperated first and 15th place as only two drivers improved.

It was grippy on Thursday morning, and 22 of the 26 drivers on track found gains with a close top 15 again. Killion posted a 1m49.158s that would go unbeaten, and he ended up fastest by 0.077s over Maccagnani and with a 0.329s gap to US’s Ary Bansal. Just 0.069s split he and three team-mates behind.

There were 11 improvers in the afternoon, and Jenzer’s #21 driver topped the timesheet with a 1m49.337s that put them third overall. They were 0.021s quicker than Bansal, with gaps of just 0.033s and 0.093s to Aksoy and Busso. A second covered the top 13.

Test results

The post Popov and Killion set the pace in FREC and F4 test at Mugello appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Gabriel Gomez bounced back from a non-start in race two to win from pole in Italian Formula 4 race three at Misano.

The US Racing driver was ruled out of race two, which he was also supposed to start from pole, by an alternator problem on the formation lap.

This time he not only made it to the grid but after the lights went out quickly pulled away from Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez and Newman Chi.

In fourth was US team-mate Luka Sammalisto, who had to fight off Prema’s Andrea Dupe and Sacha Bondarev through lap one. Further down the order, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dante Vinci had an off that cost him many places and BVM Racing’s Niccolo Maccagnani had to pit for a new front wing.

US’s Jan Koller was sent spinning on lap two, and on lap three Hanna briefly got alongside Gomez up front. There was further drama down the field, with Jenzer Motorsport’s Teo Schropp having an off and Cram Motorsport’s Oscar Repetto picking up damage that required him to pits to change his front-left wheel.

Sammalisto had the pace to catch back up to the top three, but so did those behind and a six-car train formed on lap four. A diving move on Chi was attempted by Sammalisto, and two laps later Chi’s defences bunched up the drivers behind so much that Bondarev had a go at Sammalisto.

The pressure was on, and despite a lock-up Sammalisto was able to pull off an overtake on Chi, who ran wide later on and lost out to Bondarev and Dupe.

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri and US’s Kabir Anurag were slightly behind the train, but then they collided and Anurag was forced out of the race. Jenzer’s Bart Harrison and US’s rapid Andrija Kostic became the next challengers to Chi, as the drivers ahead spread out slightly.

Sammalisto was gapped by the top two, but he still traded fastest laps with them during the race’s second half. Gomez got his lead up to 0.863 seconds, with small gains and losses until the final lap when Hanna rapidly closed in. He got close enough to attempt an overtake for the lead but was unsuccessful, and finished 0.564s behind.

Chi gained back one place on Dupe, who was left to hold off Harrsion late on.

Race results (17 laps)

The post Gomez bounces back with victory in Italian F4 race three at Misano appeared first on Formula Scout.