Photo: Top Speed

The 2026 calendars for international Formula 4 championships F1 Academy, F4 South East Asia, French F4 and Nordic 4 have been revealed.

The all-female F1 Academy will continue to run exclusively on Formula 1’s support bill, with seven rounds in six countries. More can be read about next season’s schedule here.

F4 SEA’s calendar has been distributed by Evans GP, one of the championship’s teams. From its inaugural season in 2016 through to 2019, F4 SEA’s grid was centrally run by Meritus GP.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to no racing until 2023, when the grid featured multiple teams for the first time. There was no 2024 season, then this year’s calendar was almost identical to what is planned for 2026.

Sepang will host round one (April 24-26) next year, then the field heads to Thailand to race at Buriram (May 23/24) and the Bangsaen street circuit (July 3-5). Bangsaen was first visted this year, with F4 SEA supporting its grand prix. The final two rounds of 2026 are at Sepang on August 21-23 and September 18-20.

French F4 is still centrally run, and reduces from six rounds to five next year but retains its event abroad.

The first four rounds, at Nogaro (April 4-6), Dijon (May 15-17), Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium (June 19-21) and Magny-Cours (July 31-August 2), are in the same order as and in very similar dates to in 2025. Long-time venues Ledenon and Le Mans are dropped, and Paul Ricard returns on October 9-11 as the finale after a year off the calendar.

The Denmark-based Nordic 4 has historically been open to F4 and Formula 5 cars, and is now part of Nordic Championship Formula (NCF) which combines its grids with Formula Renault 1.6 cars from Sweden’s Formula Nordic championship.

In 2026, the paddock’s first-generation F4 cars will be retired and Danish manufacturer Aquila has developed a faster, halo-shod car taking technical inspiration from Formula 1000 to replace it.

There will be nine NCF rounds next year, with four making up the Danish championships. The season starts with trips to Padborg Park and Jyllandsringen, mainstays since Danish F4’s inaugural season in 2017, then Karlskoga features for a fourth successive year as the starting point of a three-round Swedish leg.

Sturup Raceway returns, having hosted Danish F4 in 2022, then the paddock goes to Kinnekulle for the first time since 2019.

Norway’s Hermann Tilke-designed Rudskogen track was raced on by Danish F4 in 2018, and it will host NCF next August. The championship is then part of the Danish Grand Prix at Jyllandsringen and Padborg Park’s Night Race event.

Ring Djursland drops off the schedule after nine seasons, but in October there will be exhibition races at Dutch Grand Prix venue Zandvoort.

2026 Nordic 4 calendar

The post International F4 championships reveal their 2026 calendars appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

Niccolo Maccagnani dominated Formula 4 South East Asia’s finale at Sepang on September 20/21, as Alex Sawer was crowned.

Future Ferrari junior Maccagnani began his second weekend in car racing by dominating qualifying.

In Q1 he took race one pole by 0.348 seconds over Sawer, with Seth Gilmore 0.736s behind in third. The next three drivers were within 1.3s-1.6s of Maccagnani’s pace, and Thomas Lee in last was 5.069s off.

Maccagnani improved to 2m08.848s in Q2, claiming race three pole by 0.702s. Sawer beat Inigo Anton to second by 0.09s, and Gilmore trailed by 1.153s in fourth. Lee was further off the pace, rounding out the 10-car field with a best laptime 6.358s slower than Maccagnani’s. Since Gilmore missed out on the pole points, Sawer wrapped up the title.

Maccagnani made a great start to race one, while Sawer was slow but took a wide line into turn one to keep second. It took two laps for Maccagnani to build a one-second gap, and six more to break two seconds. In the remaining five laps the Pinnacle Motorsport driver pulled 5.508s clear for his first single-seater victory and to end Evans GP’s unbeaten 2025.

Gilmore was a lonely and distant third, and Anton and Ayrton Asdathorn fought over fourth on lap two. Anton then established himself ahead until the race’s final corner where he went very slow and was overtaken.

Debutant Rafael Vaessen tried going around Putera Hani Imran’s outside at turn one for sixth place on lap six, and they ran side-by-side through to turn four. Vaessen overtook on the inside there a lap later but was only ahead for one corner, and tried turn one again on lap 11 but Imran went deep to keep sixth.

Ben Nguyen attacked Joshua Berry for eighth on lap nine. He got ahead on the inside of turn one, Berry was back past through turn two, and Nguyen tried again at turn four. They clashed through turn five and Nguyen went off, but he ended the lap ahead as Berry spun at the final corner.

Anton had reversed-grid pole for race two. Maccagnani started fifth, and Imran stalled on the formation lap so was wheeled off.

Asdathorn got away slowly but held second until the rise to turn four where Gilmore got ahead. Maccagnani then dived down his inside at turn nine, which allowed Sawer to get past at turn 10 too.

On lap five, Maccagnani dived down Gilmore’s inside at the final corner but could not get ahead, nor at turn one. He took second before turn four, then had 1.58s to make up on Anton. The gap disappeared as Lee spun at turn 10 and the safety car was summoned on lap eight.

Maccagnani made another final corner dive on the restart lap and Anton ran way off at the exit, dropping to fourth and leaving Maccagnani to lead the last two laps.

Anton turned out to be severely unwell, so missed the 13-lap race three which Maccagnani won by a massive 19.645s. Sawer, with a 10s penalty, finished second.

Nguyen and Lee stalled, then the next moment of drama was on lap eight as Vaessen went into Asdathorn’s rear at turn one when trying to take fourth from him.

Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Niccolo Maccagnani Pinnacle Motorsport 28m12.016s
2 Alex Sawer Evans GP +5.508s
3 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +15.748s
4 Ayrton Asdathorn Star Performance +26.315s
5 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +26.715s
6 Putera Hani Imran BlackArts Racing +31.862s
7 Rafael Vaessen Evans GP +32.227s
8 Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing +48.595s
9 Thomas Lee Evans GP +53.240s
10 Joshua Berry BlackArts Racing +1m12.063s
Pole: Maccagnani, 2m09.027s
Fastest lap: Maccagnani, 2m09.322s

Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Maccagnani 28m02.482s
2 Gilmore +2.246s
3 Sawer +2.906s
4 Anton +4.271s
5 Asdathorn +4.695s
6 Vaessen +6.373s
7 Imran +8.754s
8 Berry +9.548s
9 Nguyen +17.117s
Ret Lee
FL: Maccagnani, 2m09.456s

Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Maccagnani 28m15.800s
2 Sawer +19.645s
3 Gilmore +20.819s
4 Asdathorn +22.104s
5 Vaessen +22.869s
6 Berry +29.523s
7 Nguyen +29.788s
8 Imran +1m05.796s
9 Lee +1m05.953s
P: Maccagnani, 2m08.848s
FL: Maccagnani, 2m09.470s

Championship standings
1 Sawer 359   2 Gilmore 261   3 Anton 182   4 Maccagnani 158   5 Rishon Rajeev 156   6 Asdathorn 136   7 Nguyen 93   8 Zhongwei Wang 93   9 T Lee 93   10 Kyuho Lee 58

The post Maccagnani dominates at Sepang as Sawer crowned F4 SEA champion appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F4 SEA

Alex Sawer is on the brink of becoming Formula 4 South East Asia champion after winning twice in the penultimate round at Sepang.

In qualifying the first representative laptimes of Q1 appeared with four-and-a-half minutes left of the 15-minute session, with debutant Kareen Kaur leading the way until then.

Inigo Anton posted a 2m10.332s to lead Rishon Rajeev by 0.616 seconds, and Sawer got within 0.011s of him a minute later.

Niccolo Maccagnaini, another debutant, went fastest by 0.102s with two-and-a-half minutes to go and it earned him race one pole. Seth Gilmore later went third fastest as Sawer was demoted to fifth by having his fastest lap deleted, then Kyuho Lee took third at the end.

Joshua Berry was first to the top five minutes into Q2, and the next flying lap came with six minutes remaining as Sawer set a 2m09.08s. But it was deleted, meaning Gilmore then had provisional pole for race three with a 2m10.512s.

Maccagnani soon set a 2m09.749s, leading Anton, but Sawer responded with a 2m09.298s that stuck. Lee again got into third late on.

Berry started race one from the pits, and Maccagnani comfortably led the field into the opening corner. Sawer made one overtake on lap one, then made moves at turn one on laps four and five. He then had 2.07s to make up on Maccagnani, and got onto his tail on lap 11.

Maccagnani tried breaking the tow into turn one, where Sawer attempted a move the next lap. The leader weaved his way down every straight, but a lock-up into turn one on the final lap allowed Sawer through and once ahead he pulled away to win.

Lee took third from Anton into turn one on the last lap too, and Rajeev held off Thomas Lee for sixth and reversed-grid pole for race two. Zhongwei Wang finished ninth after a race-long defence against Ben Nguyen.

Gilmore took race two’s lead into the opening corner but Rajeev got back ahead at turn two, then Gilmore repeated his move on lap two and Kyuho Lee followed him through two corners later.

Sawer was next to demote Rajeev by forcing him off at turn four on lap three, but both fell behind Maccagnani and Anton and Sawer got a five-second penalty.

Fourth place was reclaimed by Sawer into turn one on lap four, and he and Maccagnani hunted down Lee. Sawer overtook Maccagnani around the outside of turn four on lap 11, then Lee at turn six a lap later, but his penalty returned him to fourth.

Rajeev reclaimed a spot on the penultimate lap, Nguyen was eighth despite being spun by Putera Hani Imran between turns seven and eighth late on, and Thomas Lee was disqualified after multiple rule violations.

Maccagnanu was late off the line on race three’s formation lap, but nailed the actual start to take the lead. He built a 1.7s gap, but Sawer closed back in. He was all over him into turn four on lap nine, and Maccagnani locked up into the final corner.

His subsequent weaving did not prevent Sawer from then going down his inside at turn one and pulling away for victory. The top nine finished in the order they started.

Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Alex Sawer Evans GP 28m45.917s
2 Niccolo Maccagnani Pinnacle Motorsport +0.820s
3 Kyuho Lee Evans GP +12.761s
4 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +14.256s
5 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +15.955s
6 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +35.916s
7 Thomas Lee Evans GP +36.616s
8 Putera Hani Imran BlackArts Racing +37.061s
9 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +38.021s
10 Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing +38.123s
Pole: Maccagnani, 2m10.230s
Fastest lap: Sawer, 2m11.584s

Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Gilmore 28m31.253s
2 K Lee +8.937s
3 Maccagnani +9.767s
4 Sawer +11.901s
5 Rajeev +22.831s
6 Anton +26.412s
7 Wang +38.753s
8 Nguyen +47.846s
9 Imran +49.292s
10 Kareen Kaur Pinnacle Motorsport +52.601s
FL: Gilmore, 2m10.287s

Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Sawer 28m23.460s
2 Maccagnani +2.936s
3 K Lee +16.200s
4 Gilmore +17.953s
5 Anton +29.408s
6 Rajeev +32.241s
7 Nguyen +41.406s
8 Imran +42.290s
9 Wang +42.809s
10 T Lee +51.612s
P: Sawer, 2m09.298s
FL: Sawer, 2m10.024s

Championship standings
1 Sawer 295   2 Gilmore 203   3 Rajeev 156   4 Anton 155   5 Ayrton Asdathorn 94   6 Wang 93   7 T Lee 85   8 Nguyen 75   9 Maccagnani 64   10 K Lee 58

The post Sawer on brink of F4 SEA title after winning twice at Sepang appeared first on Formula Scout.

Niccolo Maccagnani, who will join the Ferrari Driver Academy next year, is making his open-wheel racing debut this weekend.

The Italian, who turned 15 a week ago, has signed with Pinnacle Motorsport to contest round four of the Formula 4 South East Asia season at former Malaysian Grand Prix venue Sepang.

Maccagnani will be one of the best prepared young drivers to ever make their race debut in an entry-level category, since he has been testing single-seaters (and road cars) since 2022 when he was just 11 years old.

Having spent several weeks of each year driving in private sessions at tracks across Europe, which took priority over establishing himself in karting, after Maccagnani turned 14 a switch of strategy was made and through 2025 he has primarily driven in group F4 tests.

In those he has been his family-run car, a Tatuus T-421 of the specification used in F4 SEA and European championships, or driven for teams such as R-ace GP and Rodin Motorsport. His first appearance in an official group F4 test was in late 2023, and he has privately tested higher-level machinery since then including a Euroformula car.

Maccagnani was a finalist in the Italian motorsport federation’s annual Supercorso Federale award last year, and received recognition for his ability to adapt to the cars used by ACI for the award.

A month ago it was announced he would join the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2026, and ahead of that he is set to make further outings in F4 championships.

His team-mate at Sepang this weekend will be Kareen Kaur. The Singaporean, who is also 15, only began testing in single-seaters earlier this year but she already has race experience have contested the first three rounds of the Indian F4 season.

Her best result so far is a seventh place, while in senior karting she has been one of the top drivers in ROK Cup Asia and third in the equivalent Singaporean series. Last year she was in junior karting, coming fourth in ROK Cup Singapore and also racing OK-N Junior karts in the Champions of the Future Academy Program.

“We’re keen to work with two young talents this weekend,” said John O’Hara, Pinnacle’s team director.

“Both Niccolo and Kareen have proven themselves in their respective categories, and our focus is on supporting their development up the motorsport ladder. The current F4 SEA grid is competitive and we’re joining mid-season, but we’re confident we can deliver strong performances.”

F4 SEA’s average grid size this season has been less than 10 cars, and Pinnacle returns to the grid after missing the first three rounds. Last season (which was in 2023) it claimed one podium, and before that the Irish-Filipino team claimed multiple Formula Regional Asian Championship wins and podiums at Sepang.

The post Ferrari-scouted Niccolo Maccagnani to make car racing debut in F4 SEA appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

Thailand’s twisty and undulating Bangsaen street circuit hosted round three of the Formula 4 South East Asia season this weekend as a support to its grand prix.

The action began with free practice one on Thursday, and Evans GP’s Alex Sawer set a 1m42.059s to lead Star Performance’s Ayrton Asdathorn by 1.611 seconds. Nobody else lapped at representative pace.

FP2 followed on Friday, and Sawer improved to 1m38.607s to lead Asdathorn by 0.916s. Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore was 1.955s back in third. BlackArts Racing’s Joshua Berry hit the barriers exiting turn two and injured his wrist, so withdrew from the round.

The half-hour qualifying session took place in the afternoon, and there was early traffic problems despite plenty of room on track.

Sawer set a 1m38.884s eight minutes in, putting him 0.48s ahead of Asdathorn. His next effort was a 1m38.435s, which Asdathorn came 0.205s shy of.

BlackArts’ Rishon Rajeev set a 1m40.4931s in fourth, then improved to 1m40.469s and third place on his next lap but would go no faster.

He was demoted back to fourth 12-and-a-half minutes in, as Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore posted a 1m39.914s and found another 0.107s on his next lap.

Drivers then pitted, with Inigo Anton (BlackArts) and Zhongwei Wang (Origine Motorsport) improving to 1m41.274s and 1m41.477s respectively in fifth and sixth.

Wang brought out red flags on his next lap by sliding into the barriers. The clock did not stop, and under seven minutes remained when qualifying resumed.

Sawer encountered traffic and could not improve, while Asdathorn set a new personal best of 1m38.557s then with 80s to go snatched pole with a 1m38.178s. He had time for one more lap, but spun exiting turn 15.

His second-best lap earned him race two pole by just 0.005s over Sawer, with Gilmore a further 1.352s back.

Four drivers got race one grid penalties for violating red flag rules and Rajeev received another for impeding Sawer, who inherited pole. Anton started ahead of Rajeev.

The front row starters were slow off the line, and Gilmore squeezed between them for the lead. Asdathorn took second into turn one, and kept with Gilmore through lap one.

Sawer looked to Asdathorn’s inside on lap two at turns two, seven and then 18, where he got back past. He then pressured Gilmore through lap three, and as they exited the esses he had barriers to the right and Gilmore’s car underneath as he rode over the top of him and smashed into the turn 15 barriers at high speed.

The safety car came out, and on the restart Asdathorn was close through the twisty sections. Gilmore ran wide exiting turn 18 and Asdathorn went through, with Rajeev watching on from behind.

He was soon dropped, and Asdathorn built a 1.9s lead before team-mate Worapong Aiemwichan crashed at turn 15 on lap 12 and the safety car returned.

Racing resumed on the final lap, and Asdathorn crossed the line in first. Anton attempted to go around the outside of Rajeev at turn one and could not get through, but when the on-the-road winner got a five-second penalty for weaving after turn 17 during a safety car period it promoted Anton onto the podium and handed victory to Gilmore.

Gilmore got a penalty too, but it was a one-place drop on race two’s grid.

Sawer made another bad start in race two and Gilmore again sought a gap to move forward. But the spaces closed and it was Rajeev who got ahead of Sawer.

Lap two began with Sawer going around the outside of Rajeev at the high-speed turn one. By lap four he was attacking Asdathorn, and got very close in the esses. He was all over him on lap five too, and dived down the inside at turn 18 for the lead.

Sawer immediately pulled away, and was 8.75s up the road when the safety car appeared on the penultimate lap due to BlackArts’ Ben Nguyen crashing his damaged car at turn two.

Gilmore had pressured Rajeev from lap six to lap 15, when he spun at turn 12 and was almost hit as he got going again. But the damage from hitting the barriers then meant he stopped on the pit straight with a lap remaining.

Results round-up
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Seth Gilmore Evans GP 29m18.948s
2 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +1.887s
3 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +2.335s
4 Ayrton Asdathorn Star Performance +4.351s
5 Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing +5.511s
6 Thomas Lee Evans GP +7.479s
7 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +8.843s
8 Worapong Aiemwichan Star Performance +4 laps
Ret Alex Sawer Evans GP
Pole: Sawer, 1m38.435s
Fastest lap: Asdathorn, 1m39.442s

Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Sawer 30m18.973s
2 Asdathorn +0.950s
3 Rajeev +2.707s
4 Anton +3.805s
5 Wang +5.173s
6 Lee +8.029s
7 Gilmore +1 lap
8 Aiemwichan +1 lap
9 Nguyen +3 laps
P: Asdathorn, 1m38.557s
FL: Sawer, 1m37.688s

Championship standings
1 Sawer 218   2 Gilmore 146   3 Rajeev 124   4 Anton 118   5 Asdathorn 96   6 Wang 77   7 Lee 74   8 Nguyen 58   9 Meng Cheng 33   10 Joshua Berry 25

The post Sawer wins again as F4 South East Asia puts on a show at Bangsaen GP appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

Alex Sawer won all three races in round two of Formula 4 South East Asia’s season at Buriram.

In pre-event testing on Thursday, a 1m39.342s put Sawer 0.149 seconds ahead of Star Performance’s Ayrton Asdathorn.

Friday began with practice, and Sawer improved to 1m38.88s to lead Seth Gilmore by 0.583s. Qualifying followed, and Sawer topped Q1 by 0.311 seconds. Asdathorn, debuting along with his Evans GP-supported team, was Sawer’s closest rival and there was a 0.786s gap to Seth Gilmore in third.

Inigo Anton and Zhongwei Wang were within 1.5s of Sawer, and Rishon Rajeev and Thomas Lee completed a top seven covered by two seconds.

Sawer improved slightly in Q2 to earn race three pole by 0.522s. The top five were the same, with Gilmore 0.832s off pole and Anton trailing by 1.213s. Just 0.086s split Wang, Lee and Rajeev.

Race one took place on Saturday morning, and Sawer dominated the 15-lap encounter. Several drivers started from the pits, and Gilmore overtook Asdathorn before the first corner for second. Although he then kept Gilmore in his sights, Asdathorn never challenged him.

Lee was initially fourth, and on lap three Anton passed him on the long straight before turn three. But later in the lap he ran wide and dropped to sixth. After a mid-race safety car period caused by Ben Nguyen crashing out, Anton pounced on Rajeev.

On lap eight, Rajeev got back past and they swapped places twice on lap nine. Anton made his move stick at turn five on lap 10, then hunted down Lee and passed him on the penultimate lap.

Rajeev was on reversed-grid pole for race two, which had pre-race drama as Worapong Aiemwichan got stuck on the grid and was wheeled away. A damp track meant the safety car led the field through lap one.

When green flags waved, Rajeev had a big gap. Anton passed Lee for second into turn one, but by the end of lap two they were third and sixth as Sawer climbed four spots to second and Gilmore overtook Asdathorn for fourth.

Sawer took the lead around the outside at turn four on lap three, and Gilmore spun on turn six’s kerbs when trying to pass Anton.

He gained back one spot on lap five, then went off at turn three on lap six when attempting to overtake Asdathorn.

A lap later Anton went around the outside of Rajeev at turn four, then Asdathorn and Gilmore followed him through at the final corner.

Asdathorn began lap nine by overtaking Anton. He reclaimed second at turn three, but into the last corner Asdathorn got back past. On lap 10, Asdathorn lost out to Anton and Gilmore at turn three. Their battles continued to the finish, with third place decided by 0.119s, as Sawer romped to a 10.6s victory.

Surface moisture meant the safety car led two laps of race three on Sunday, and Lee was penalised for his leap from sixth to third when green flags waved. Gilmore and Anton went back past him at turn three, and Wang soon did too.

Gilmore dominated, Asdathor kept Gilmore at bay for second, and Lee was ahead of Rajeev by 0.031s at the finish before his five-second penalty was applied.

The championship is currently clarifying which points system it is using this year, with no tables generated so far this season.

Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Alex Sawer Evans GP 27m52.152s
2 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +7.290s
3 Ayrton Asdathorn Star Performance +8.622s
4 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +16.687s
5 Thomas Lee Evans GP +18.217s
6 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +21.732s
7 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +21.999s
8 Joshua Berry BlackArts Racing +25.824s
9 Worapong Aiemwichan Star Performance +1 lap
Ret Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing
Pole: Sawer, 1m38.871s
Fastest lap: Sawer, 1m39.245s

Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Sawer 27m32.368s
2 Anton +10.609s
3 Gilmore +10.917s
4 Asdathorn +11.036s
5 Rajeev +14.003s
6 Wang +17.086s
7 Lee +33.498s
8 Berry +39.821s
9 Nguyen +53.007s
10 Aiemwichan +1 lap
FL: Sawer, 1m47.601s

Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Sawer 26m41.788s
2 Asdathorn +12.777s
3 Gilmore +13.918s
4 Anton +18.212s
5 Wang +23.549s
6 Rajeev +34.016s
7 Lee +38.985s
8 Nguyen +47.496s
9 Aiemwichan +1m02.283s
10 Berry +1m09.639s
P: Sawer, 1m38.643s
FL: Sawer, 1m39.774s

The post Alex Sawer’s F4 SEA domination continues into round two in Thailand appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F4 SEA

Evans GP’s Alex Sawer crushed a depleted opposition in the Formula 4 South East Asia season opener at Sepang.

There were two pre-season test sessions on Thursday, and Formula Regional racer Sawer topped both by over a second.

Pre-event testing followed on Friday morning, and BlackArts Racing’s Inigo Anton led Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore by 0.818 seconds in session one. Gilmore pipped Anton by 0.078s in session two, with Sawer absent.

A single practice session took place next, and Gilmore was quickest by 1.285s over Origine Motorsport’s FRegional-experienced Zhongwei Wang.

Sawer returned for qualifying on Saturday morning. In Q1 he set a 2m08.857s to claim race one pole by 0.479s over Gilmore, with Anton 0.853s behind. The nine-car field was spread by 3.931s on single-lap pace.

The pace was lowered to 2m08.232s by Sawer in Q2, which earned him race three pole by 0.839s. Gilmore was second again, 0.264s ahead of Anton.

Race one began on a damp track behind the safety car, with most drivers choosing wet-weather tyres for the formation lap. BlackArts’ Joshua Berry went for slicks and spun, but that did not deter his rivals who switched to slicks once on the grid.

The field were released to race on lap three, and Gilmore went for the outside at turn one but could not get a pass done. Berry spun again at turn three, and this time could not restart so the safety car was called back out as Sawer began lap four.

Racing resumed on lap five, and Sawer ran away. On lap six, Rishon Rajeev dropped from fourth to last with a spin at turn three, with Wang inheriting fourth after passing Cheng Meng the previous lap.

Sawer won the 11-lap race by 5.897s, and after several laps of pressure Gilmore was able to pull away from Anton by over three seconds. Rajeev recovered one spot, and Wang’s fourth place put him on reversed-grid pole for race two on Sunday.

Anton got alonside Wang down the pit straight at the start, and Gilmore went to the inside but had to back out of a move at turn one that meant Sawer slipped past.

Wang then slowed dramatically and fell to the back, and Sawer was now pursuing Anton. He took the lead around the outside of turn one on lap two, defended a counter-attack at turn four but then Anton got alongside through turns six and seven.

The fight for victory ended there, and Sawer built a 18.8s lead over Anton in just 12 laps. Gilmore lost six seconds on lap five, and was passed by Berry – who had cleared Ngyuen at the final corner the previous lap – on lap six.

Front wing damage meant Gilmore soon pitted, but he finished sixth as Anton and Berry were disqualified and it put Rajeev and Ben Nguyen into second and third.

Gilmore had a three-place grid penalty for race three, easing Sawer’s route to another dominant win. Anton stalled on the formation lap and fell to the back, but reclaimed his grid position and ran third early on.

Gilmore collided with Rajeev as he passed him for second at the start of lap four, but remarkably both continued. Torrential rain hit on lap six, and the safety car was summoned. Drivers pitted for wet tyres on lap seven, but red flags waved when they headed back out for lap eight and the results were taken from the end of lap six.

Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Alex Sawer Evans GP 27m25.751s
2 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +5.897s
3 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +9.212s
4 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +18.600s
5 Cheng Meng Evans GP +19.200s
6 Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing +27.211s
7 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +30.586s
8 Thomas Lee Evans GP +32.765s
Ret Joshua Berry BlackArts Racing
Pole: Sawer, 2m08.857s
Fastest lap: Sawer, 2m09.935s

Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Sawer 28m21.166s
2 Rajeev +36.487s
3 Nyugen Hoai +39.623s
4 Meng +40.533s
5 Lee +1m07.481s
6 Gilmore +1m11.705s
Ret Wang
DSQ Anton
DSQ Berry
FL: Sawer, 2m09.722s

Race 3 (6 laps)
1 Sawer 13m33.033s
2 Gilmore +10.125s
3 Rajeev +19.803s
4 Anton +22.047s
5 Wang +23.166s
6 Berry +27.744s
7 Lee +30.487s
8 Meng +43.197s
9 Nguyen +1m09.961s
P: Sawer, 2m08.232s
FL: Sawer, 2m09.849s

Championship standings
1 Sawer 94   2 Anton 55   3 Rajeev 48   4 Gilmore 46   5 Meng 30   6 Nguyen 29   7 Wang 27   8 Lee 22   9 Berry 20

The post Alex Sawer crushes opposition in F4 SEA round one at Sepang appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRME

PHM Racing has announced two drivers for the upcoming Formula Regional Middle East season, which will run to a different schedule than originally planned.

The first two rounds were due to take place on the final two weekends of January in Kuwait at the country’s Kuwait Motor Town circuit, but have been relocated to Yas Marina Circuit. It means the first four rounds all take place in the United Arab Emirates, since Dubai Autodrome and Yas Marina had already been confirmed as hosts of the next two events.

Initially there was no venue designated for round five, but it was later decided that the Jeddah circuit raced on by Formula 1 would be used for the finale on February 25-27. The supporting Formula 4 Middle East championship has made the same revisions to its calendar, and F4 South East Asia – which shares the same promoter – has had its 2025 schedule updated.

Round two has moved from Sepang on June 6-8 to Buriram on May 23-25, round three has been confirmed as taking place on Thailand’s Bangsaen street circuit, round four switches from Buriram and mid-August to Sepang on the first weekend of September, and the finale at Sepang has been postponed by two weeks to September 19-21.

In FRME, PHM has signed Jaden Pariat and Everett Stack. Pariat steps up to FRegional after racing in F4 since 2022.

He debuted in British F4, contesting two rounds and scoring once. A Formula Winter Series cameo kicked off his 2023, then he did half of the British F4 season and after a maiden podium in round one only scored twice more and came 23rd in the standings. Last year he contested his home championship in Indian, but again did not see out a full campaign and was third in the points table with two wins and five other podiums after missing the final round.

Stack has plentiful experience in the entry-level category but has tasted FRegional machinery too. In 2023 he did four United States F4 rounds, then stepped up to FRegional Americas for the final two events which resulted in four seventh place finishes as his best results.

He left his home country at the start of 2024 to join PHM in a multi-series programme. It started off with F4 UAE, in which he came 34th in the standings, then in Italian F4 he came 27th after scoring a solitary point. The American was also 30th in E4 (nee Euro 4), made a F4 Central European Zone cameo and later joined Palou Motorsport for an outing in the FRegional-based Eurocup-3 series.

The post PHM Racing makes two FRME signings as calendar is revised appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Top Speed

Formula 4 South East Asia’s 2025 return has been confirmed with the publication of a five-round schedule.

First held over eight years ago, F4 SEA kicked off with a six-round 2016-17 campaign that featured races across four nations and had all cars centrally run by ex-GP2 team Meritus.

The 2017-18 season slimmed down to three countries, with most rounds held in Malaysia or Thailand. Those two territories will form the basis of F4 SEA’s comeback season too.

In the second half of 2018 there was another F4 SEA season, with races as far north as India, then in 2019 the championship boomed with a 40-race, 10-round schedule that took in three countries. But the COVID-19 pandemic killed that momentum, leading to the cancellation of the 2020 season, a replacement 2020-21 schedule and then the 2021 season too.

It was committed to returning to racing in early 2022, but instead did a test programme to see whether it should switch to a second-generation F4 car for last year. The switch did happen and racing returned, with 12 teams competing and races in China, Macau and Malaysia. F4 SEA’s Macau races were non-championship fixtures.

Once again momentum was lost as no 2024 season followed the thrilling bouts of 2023, but rumours again began to circulate in autumn of this year that another revival effort was underway.

This week that became reality, and like last year the championship will continue to use the Tatuus T-421 car when it returns.

Sepang will host the first two rounds of the 2025 season on May 2-4 and June 6-8, then round three will take place at a yet to be determined Thai track in July.

Buriram, the former Thai venue of F4 SEA races, will hold round four on August 9-11 and then the season will conclude at Sepang on September 5-7.

Evans GP has already announced it plans to run four full-time entries in the championship, and contested Australian F4’s round at Sepang this September.

Australian F4 has come back from a similarly prolonged absence to F4 SEA’s, as after seasons run annually from 2015 to ’19 the championship disappeared off the map until this year. Low grids was what killed it off the first time around, and it was run by Motorsport Australia.

Top Speed, the China-based company which also promotes F4 SEA, F4 Middle East and the sister Formula Trophy series, chose to revive it for 2024 with the Tatuus T-421 chassis and a five-round schedule. It has only run four so far due to the cancellation of July’s event at Queensland Raceway, but the prospect of a fifth round taking place remains.

AGI Sport’s James Piszcyk has already wrapped up the Australian F4 title after going unbeaten through the first three rounds.

Next year Australian F4 will reintroduce the first-generation Mygale chassis it and F4 SEA used until the end of 2019.

The post F4 South Easia to return in 2025 with five-round schedule appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

From Italy to India, via the new Euro 4 spin-off and the all-female F1 Academy series, there was plenty of F4 racing across the globe in 2023

Italy

The starting point of FIA Formula 4 as a category celebrated its 10th season this year, and organiser ACI Sport launched Euro 4 to partner its long-running Italian F4 championship. Euro 4 visited Italy twice and Spain once for its three-round season, while Italian F4 had two international rounds for the fourth time in its history as it raced in Belgium and France. That somewhat made the existence of the new sister series pointless.

As per usual, Italian F4 had huge grids , with an average of 33 starters per race. The 24-car grid for the season-opening race was the smallest, and the round at Paul Ricard in France attracted a high of 37 drivers. But only six of the 50 drivers that took part this year won races, with a further six making the podium.

Five of the winners drove for Prema, with US Racing’s champion Kacper Sztuka being the exception. His team-mates Zachary David, Akshay Bohra and Gianmarco Pradel all brought home podiums, with Brando Badoer and Ivan Domingues doing the same for Van Amersfoort Racing and Alfio Spina taking home BVM Racing’s sole trophy. He came 12th in the standings with a second place, three fifth places, two ninths, a 10th and 14 non-scores.

Although Sztuka won the season opener, he did not win again until race 14 of the campaign as he began a run of six victories in a row. After championship runner-up Ugo Ugochukwu beat him to victory in race one at Vallelunga, he responded with two more wins to end the season as well as his sixth pole in a row.

Sztuka became champion with a race to spare, and is now a Red Bull junior.

Photo: ACI Sport

A week after losing the Italian title, Ugochukwu went to Barcelona for Euro 4. The title was decided in a four-way fight in the final race, and it likely would have been five had Sztuka been present. James Wharton led Prema team-mate Ugochukwu by two points heading into the decider, but finishing fourth in a double-points race which Ugochukwu won meant he missed out on the title by 24 points.

Prema’s Arvid Lindblad and Bohra had been the top two in the standings with two races remaining, but dropped to fourth and third respectively. Had a regular points system applied to the final round, the absent Sztuka would have been fifth rather than eighth in the standings and Prema’s Freddie Slater would have been 12th rather than 10th.

Japan

For a series that runs over six months of the year, it can be a surprise that there’s only 14 races in total in Japanese F4. Once again it was the junior drivers of Honda and Toyota who were usually filling the top positions, and Toyota won its long-running rivalry as its drivers took eight victories to Honda’s five. The top two in the points were also Toyota juniors.

Rikuto Kobayashi started the season in dominant style, taking a lights-to-flag win at Fuji Speedway by 11.8 seconds. In race two he made a mistake under pressure and finished third, but was battling for victory at the end and left round one with a 15-point lead.

Unsurprisingly the Honda juniors came to the fore in round two at Suzuka, with Yusuke Mitsui winning both races from pole. A second and a fourth for Kobayashi meant his championship lead grew by five points.

The field was back at Fuji for round three, Toyota territory, but Honda junior Yuto Nomura pipped Kobayashi to pole for both races. Kobayashi had to battle hard race-long to win race one, then in race two he took the lead down the pit straight on the final lap. Over the weekend, he almost doubled his points lead.

Photo: Japanese F4

Mitsui repeated his Suzuka double in round four, while Kobayashi had a silly collision in race one and finished fifth in race two. The title fight was back on.

Sportsland SUGO hosted round five, and the poles were shared by Nomura and Bionic Jack Racing’s Kazuhiso Urabe. Nomura converted pole into victory, and Kobayashi climbed from 10th on the grid to finish sixth, falling down to third in the standings. Mitsui took the points lead by finishing second, and extended it with an identical result in race two behind Urabe as Kobayashi had an off and finished 22nd.

Six drivers remained in title contention with four races to go, and with the stakes raised the Toyota juniors hit form. Kobayashi led home team-mate Jin Nakamura in race one at Autopolis, then it a was Toyota 1-2-3 in race two as Nakamura led Shunji Okumoto and Kobayashi who was now top of the table again. Mitsui had finished 10th, but from 29th on the grid.

Kobayashi qualified on pole for both races of the final round at Twin Ring Motegi, and between safety car periods it was a battle between Nakamura and Kobayashi for race one victory. Nakamura triumphed, meaning five points split the pair.

He immediately got into second behind his team-mate in the decider, but was not fast enough to then pass him and so Kobayashi became champion with his fifth win.

China

Chinese F4 still uses first-generation F4 cars from Mygale, and grid sizes this year averaged 16 cars despite there being only six full-time entries. Six drivers won races, and there was an intense title fight between Tiago Rodrigues and Kaishun Liu.

Ruiqi Liu was the star of round one at Zhuhai, which was originally scheduled to take place at Zhengzhou. He took two poles, two wins, a second and a third from the weekend’s four races. But he was absent from round two at Ningbo, which was postponed by a week so it clashed with his Italian F4 programme, and Rodrigues came to the fore with three wins.

Photo: Chinese F4

Pingtan street circuit hosted round three, which also took place a week later than planned, and Ruiqi Liu marked his return by taking pole then claiming a win, a second and a third in the races. But he was outshone (only slightly since the top three in Q1 were covered by 0.079s) by his namesake and Rodrigues. Kaishun Liu took two wins and two second places, and Rodrigues brought home a win and three other podiums to look after his points lead.

Other drivers came to challenge them in the last two rounds, Yingjie Xu was the only driver to inflict defeat on them.

The ‘European-style’ Tianfu International Circuit was not ready to be raced on when Chinese F4 was supposed to visit it, so round four took place at Zhuhai. Rodrigues led Liu in race one until the final lap when Liu attempted to pass him down the inside at turn one. They both went off, gifting the debuting Xu victory.

Rodrigues won races two and four, extending his points lead. Liu retired following an off in race two, won race three and was second in race four.

In rather familiar circumstances, the season finale also didn’t go ahead as planned as the Macau Grand Prix dropped Chinese F4 from its schedule. Ningbo picked up hosting duties, and Liu took both poles, won three times and finished second in race three. Rodrigues won that race, and more importantly the title.

Mexico

A run of eight wins in a row did not neccessarily make winning the NACAM F4 title an easy job for Pedro Juan Moreno.

The start of his winning streak brought him level with Cristian Cantu at the top of the standings, and two races later he was 29 points clear. It took a further four races to add another 28 points to his lead, and it looked like victorious run would come to an end in race one of the fifth round at Queretaro.

Photo: Photography Yoss Yoss

Cantu was leading Moreno by a huge eight seconds when he threw victory away by heading to the pits. He finished ninth, and Moreno ended up winning by 10.2s and adding another 23 points to his lead.

The pressure was now on for Cantu, and he responded by winning five of the season’s last six races. But Moreno took a win, two second places and a third before skipping the double-header season finale since the title was already wrapped up.

Marco Alquicira was the only other driver to win, doing so twice. A non-championship round was scheduled to take place in Mexico City two weeks ago, but was cancelled.

Spain

Sztuka started his winning form in the Formula Winter Series, where he won five of the six races he contested and the title. His only defeat was inflicted by Matteo De Palo, who only did round two at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit and he took two poles, a win and a fifth place to put himself sixth in the standings despite missing three quarters of the season.

The final round was skipped by Sztuka since he was already champion. Meanwhile, his team US Racing brought two new names to the grid Zachary David and Akshay Bohra. The former won both races with fastest lap, took a pole position and netted fifth in the points table, while the latter finished fifth and second to be ninth in the standings.

Since many of that series’ drivers headed to Italian F4, it was a different set of names that were the benchmark in Spanish F4. The all-French combination of Sainteloc Racing and Theophile Nael beat the local teams to take the title, with Nael picking up eight wins, six other podiums and five poles to become champion with two races to spare.

A late charge by Campos Racing’s Christian Ho failed to make for a close title fight despite winning the last four races. Two of those were overshadowed with Nael’s crowning taking the headlines in one and Enzo Deligny’s antics being the big talking point of the season finale.

Photo: F4 Spain

Another series sophomore, MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella was third in the standings and he took the chequered flag in all 21 races. He won two of them and stepped on the podium ten further times.

Deligny was Spanish F4’s top rookie, coming fourth in the standings with two wins, eight other podiums and remarkable consistency over the season’s 21 races. His disqualification was one of only six races he failed to be in the top five.

The next best rookie was team-mate De Palo, and while it took only three races for him to win he then only finished in the top five seven more times. Similarly Brazilian F4 champion Pedro Clerot kicked the season off with two wins and a second place, but never visited the podium again and slipped to sixth in the standings, and former Danish F4 star Noah Stromsted got three podiums in the first three rounds but only scored 50 points in the remaining four.

Middle East

Most European teams and their drivers went to F4 United Arab Emirates to warm up for their main campaigns. Prema ran its own cars and provided technical support to Mumbai Falcons, while Xcel Motorsport did the same with Yas Heat Academy.

Prema-run cars filled the top three places in the standings, winning 13 of the 15 races between them. R-ace GP’s Zachary David and Hitech GP’s Arvid Lindblad won the two other races.

Ugochukwu won the first two races of the season, then Ferrari juniors Tuukka Taponen and Wharton came to the fore. Wharton launched his title fight by making history, as he won the first ever single-seater race in Kuwait. Two of the next three races at the Kuwait Motor Town circuit were won by Ugochukwu, helping him to keep the championship lead to the end of round three. Taponen did the triple in round four at Dubai Autodrome, but it was Wharton who became points leader.

Rinicella was in title contention entering the final round at Yas Marina Circuit, but Wharton put one hand on the title there with two poles and then two wins. Taponen was the only one who could deny him the crown in the last race, and started third.

Photo: F4 UAE

Wharton immediately swept to the inside off the line to defend the lead, so Taponen tried going around his outside at the opening corner. Despite running well wide at the exit, Taponen managed to take second and was able to attack Wharton again into Turn 12 (of the grand prix configuration, as F4 uses the support paddock pitlane and grid). However both ran off track and then collided as they rejoined the track for the direction change at Turn 13.

Wharton’s suspension broke and he was out of the race on the spot, while Taponen was able to creep back to the pits but retired there and so Wharton became champion. Ugochukwu took his fifth win, more than the Mumbai pair achieved.

Two weekends ago there was F4 action in Bahrain, but it was for the non-championship Saudi Arabian F4 Trophy Event which ran as a precursor to the nation launching a series next year. All 13 cars participating were run by Meritus GP, and the races were won by Oscar Wurz (son of ex-Formula 1 racer Alexander), Suleiman Zanfari and Federico Al Rifai.

South America

Brazilian F4‘s second season had an average grid size of 12.5 cars and had a round supporting F1. Vinicius Tessaro won the title with a race to spare, taking six victories but only three poles over the course of the campaign. Matheus Comparatto was his chief rival, and he also claimed three poles as well as four wins.

Seven other drivers won races, including Alpine junior Matheus Ferreira, who could only come 18th in Italian F4 with a best finish of fifth but in a cameo in his home championship won twice.

India

Announced in August 2021 with a planned launch date in February 2022 and with all cars being run by Prema, Indian F4 got pushed back by nine months in January of last year.

Photo: Indian F4

A fortnight before its new start date in November the season got cancelled, and the next update came in March 2023 when it was announced that the second-generation Tatuus chassis would be swapped for Mygale’s and racing would start in October.

MP Motorsport was revealed in June to be the team behind the centrally-run field of cars rather than Prema, and in August the group behind a new street circuit in Chennai said Indian F4 would be part of its first event in December and have a night race.

Eventually a full calendar was released, and the season opener on Hyderabad’s Formula E circuit was supposed to host round one which would be in November. But it got relocated to Chennai’s permanent circuit just a few days before action began and the track also gained extra races when fomer F1 venue Buddh International Circuit lost its round.

The inaugural event did take place on November 4/5, and Cooper Webster won two of the three races to lead the points, but later in the month there was more calendar chaos.

Chennai was set to host rounds two and three back-to-back on November 30/December 1 and December 2/3, but it was announced that round two would take place on December 1/2 and round three would be postponed to December 5/6.

Rounds four and five were due to follow a similar format, running back-to-back on December 9 and 10 on the new Chennai street circuit. That weekend was revised to feature less racing and run as one round over three days, but still include the planned night race, while round five was moved to the permanent Chennai track and a December 16/17 date.

The second round of the season had a weather-shortened race, then Cyclone Michaung disrupted the series further. Round three was cancelled on the day track action was due to begin due to the cyclone, and its impact on the streets of Chennai meant round four was relocated to the permanent track.

To make up for that, Indian F4 packed its next Chennai trip with five races (albeit on the circuit’s short layout), and Webster won three of those. He clinched the title with another two wins in the final round, which was back on Chennai’s full layout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

France

Enzo Peugeot may have won the Pau Grand Prix, but Evan Giltaire arguably took the bigger honours in French F4 by winning the title in a dramatic finale. While just four points seperated the pair at the end of the season, there was a gap of 101 points to Kevin Foster who came third in the standings.

On wins it was Peugeot who led the way, with seven to Giltaire’s six and Foster’s single succes at Nogaro, while the pole positions were shared exclusively between those three. Giltaire got eight, Peugeot started in first place four times and Foster got both poles in Pau.

The top two in the championship both stood on the podium 13 times, with Peugeot doing so three times in reversed-grid races while all but one of Giltaire’s podiums came in the higher-scoring races. That helped make the difference in the title fight. Drivers who were not fast enough to challenge the title contenders but brought home big results because of the reversed-grid races were Garrett Berry, who came sixth in the standings after winning two of them and making the podium in two others, and Yani Stevenheydens who did the exact same but also finished third in the Pau GP.

FEED Racing France scholar Foster ended up with 10 podiums, as the Pau weekend actually ended up being his lowest-scoring of the year. After mastering a drying track in qualifying, he spun down to 26th place on the opening lap of race one and recovered to 17th after being lucky to avoid damage as the field rushed past him on the narrow city streets. He was not so lucky in race two as Adrien Closmenil wiped him out, and in the grand prix he spun twice and broke his rear wing.

Having traded victories through the year, Peugeot and Giltaire went into the final round at Paul Ricard 28 points apart.

Giltaire took both poles in qualifying, while Peugeot was only fifth fastest. Pole was converted into victory in race one by Giltaire, and Peugeot had his points lead more than halved by finishing fourth.

Photo: KSP Reportages

He started four places higher than his rival for the reversed-grid race two, but contact on lap one immediately ended his race and Giltaire’s rise to fourth place meant he went into the title decider four points behind Peugeot and guaranteed to become champion if he turned pole into victory.

He did just that, while Peugeot had a desperate time trying to make his way up the order to challenge him. He sent Foster into retirement in a clash, and when he eventually passed Hiyu Yamakoshi for second he was already 3.8s behind Giltaire.

Australia

Australian F4 ran from 2015 to ’19, and will be relaunched next year. But F4 racing has still been taking place in the interim on the sixth largest county in the world. Australian Formula Open, as the name suggests, is a Formula Libre-style series that features Formula 3, Toyota Racing Series and first-generation F4 cars.

Kristian Janev won the AF04 title by topping the F4 class five times in 12 races, while Brodie Norris took eight wins from 11 starts and finished just three points behind him in the title fight as both missed the final round. Chris Huang came third in the standings by contesting 15 of the 17 races and making the podium eight times but never winning.

USA

In addition to the United States F4 championship, which was won by Patrick Woods-Toth and had eight race-winners in 2023, there are several other ‘national’ and regional F4 series in the country.

Formula Development, which is rebranding as the Ligier JS F4 Series next year as it continues to use a first-generation car, is one of those and another is Formula Pro USA which under its portfolio has the F4 Western championship.

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Dmitry Pistolyako, who has spent over a decade running an online English language school, lived his childhood dream this year by not only becoming a racing driver but a title-winning one too as he started the F4 Western season with five wins in a row then racked up four second places to become champion by 84 points over Alexander Cornfeld.

Joining the grid for the final round of the season was F1 Academy race-winner Emely de Heus, and she finished fifth in race one then was disqualified from race two.

The F4 Western Winter Series had three cars for its four races, which were all won by Australian Daniel Quimby.

Ava Dobson was the only driver to contest FDevelopment round one at Road America, and Pablo Jose Benites and Aidan Potter shared the wins as the only drivers in round two at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Three drivers raced at Virginia International Raceway, with Teddy Musella and Caleb Campbell the winners. It was a totally different trio of drivers for the Circuit of the Americas season finale, and Cash Felber won twice.

Scandinavia

Pedersen pipped Pedersen to win this year’s Danish F4 title. That was Mikkel and Magnus, and between them they won 11 of the season’s 18 races. Their main challenger was Theodor Jensen, who won four times but only did seven races so came seventh in the standings.

Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen was therefore the true best-of-the-rest driver, taking two wins en route to third in the standings, but Algeria’s Leo Robinson was another driver with a better scoring rate than the champion as he finished every single race in second or third after joining the grid in round four. His 10 podiums put him fourth in the championship, just ahead of fellow part-timer Victor Nielsen. In fact, only four drivers did the full season since the champion Mikkel Pedersen failed to start a race. That’s one less full-timer than last year, but matching 2021 and beating 2019.

The Formula Renault 1.6-spec Formula Nordic also got assimilated into Danish F4 this year. They shared grids for the two Swedish rounds and the finale, and Linus Granfors managed to beat the F4 stars to win a race overall. Next year they combine as one series: Nordic 4.

Photo: Formel 4.dk

Finland used to have its own F4 series, but now it is just F4 racers who attend Formula Open Finland rounds and other racing events in the country. Nestori Virtala was the only attendee for several of those, against drivers in F3 cars, and also contested the Estonian Grand Prix in Eastern Europe.

FIA zones

F4 South East Asia returned after three years off, and began its four-event schedule with a first ever visit to China. There was a field of 10 cars for the opening round at the Zhuzhou circuit, and Jack Beeton won two of the three races.

A non-championship event at the Macau Grand Prix followed, and the grid ballooned to 22 cars with many stars of Europe’s Formula Regional, F4 and karting scenes attending. Ginetta Junior champion Freddie Slater set the practice pace while Prema team-mate Arvid Lindblad crashed, but the latter rebounded in qualifying as he beat the former to pole by 0.549s. Third fastest was Hadrien David, the 2021 FRegional European Championship runner-up.

Wet and windy conditions hit Macau ahead of the safety car-filled qualification race, which Lindblad won. Slater was second and two-time Macau GP winner Charles Leong was third. The track had mostly dried in time for the main race, where having pole proved crucial once again for Lindblad taking victory ahead of Leong and Rashid Al Dhaheri, while Slater suffered mechanical issues.

The series reconvened at Sepang two weeks later with an impressive 18-car entry list. Exciting newcomers included sportscar star Doriane Pin and karting graduates Kean Nakamura Berta and Tomass Stolcermanis. All three made the podium, but couldn’t beat David who took three wins.

Sepang hosted the finale with 17 cars the week after that and Nakamura dominated qualifying. But he couldn’t translate that into success in the races, even in the absence of David, and the wins were shared between Al Dhaheri, Nicolas Stati and Pin. Her victory made her championship runner-up behind Beeton.

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

ACCR F4 evolved into F4 Central European Zone for 2023, and attracted an average grid size of less than eight cars as it raced in Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Ethan Ischer beat his Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Reno Francot to the title by two points, but only after a penalty was applied in the final race.

Needing only to finish second to become champion, Francot had appeared to be on course for that despite a late challenge from Michael Sauter. On the penultimate lap, Sauter dived inside Francot into turn one. As Francot then fought to regain the place, the two touched, forcing Sauter into the gravel and preventing any further attacks on Francot.

However, Sauter ended up finishing ahead of Francot, who was relegated to third by a five-second penalty. Therefore, the title went to Ischer as he took his eighth win of the season.

F1 Academy

The all-female F1 Academy series launched this year and filled the spot in the market previously held by the FRegional-spec W Series. It raced in Europe and the USA, supported F1, NASCAR and the DTM, and as with many F4 series was won by Prema.

The team’s line-up was led by Marta Garcia, who came ninth in Spanish F4 back in 2017, and she won seven races. The last of those at Circuit of the Americas meant she lifted the title with two races to spare, and also earned her a 2024 FREC seat.

Sauber junior Lena Buhler was her closest rival in the points table, and took the first two wins of her single-seater career. Two fifth places had been her previous best results from two-and-a-half years of racing in cars.

The Al Qubaisi sisters proved they can win away from their home circuits in the UAE, with Hamda victorious at three different tracks to put herself third in the standings while older sister and MP Motorsport team-mate Amna took two reversed-grid race wins and was sixth in the points table.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Alpine junior Abbi Pulling was far from matching pre-season expectations as she finished fifth in the standings with a total of seven podiums but no wins.

The sole rookie was 16-year-old Chloe Chong, who despite being with Prema came 14th in the standings and never beat the sixth place finish she achieved on her debut.

2023’s F4 stars

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