Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Gabriel Stilp topped British Formula 4’s pre-event test day at Snetterton on Wednesday, marking a return to the cockpit after being injured last year.

The 17-year-old [pictured in 2023] won the British championship for X30 Junior karts three years ago then stepped up to single-seaters in British F4 with Hitech GP.

He came ninth in the championship with one win and two other podiums, and also made a Spanish F4 cameo. Stilp continued with Hitech for 2024, but switched to F4 United Arab Emirates where he also finished ninth in the standings and won a race.

A few months later he returned to karting for the Kartmasters British Grand Prix, and finished fourth in the X30 Senior class. At the same PF International circuit he then entered a Champions of the Future round in September and in his second heat injured his left leg in an accident. Extensive physiotherapy was needed before an attempted return to driving in December.

In 2025 he has returned to karting in WSK’s Super Master Series, and his F4 appearance at Snetterton came with Virtuosi Racing rather than Hitech.

Stilp was fastest straight away on his return, leading session one of the day by 0.087 seconds after setting a 1m48.275s on his final lap. Thomas Bearman (Hitech) was second, Martin Molnar (Virtuosi) was 0.166s behind in third and Fionn McLaughlin (Hitech) was 0.476s back in fourth.

Among the 26 drivers on track were Haarni Sadiq (JHR Developments), Emma Felbermayr (Rodin Motorsport) and sportscar racer Stephanie Hobeika (Hitech), none of whom have been racing in British F4 this year.

Bearman lowered the pace to 1m47.771s in session two, pipping JHR’s Joel Bergstrom by 0.043s and Rodin’s James Piszcyk by 0.061s. A further three drivers lapped sub-1m48s, with Stilp shuffled down to fifth place.

Later in the afternoon, Stilp responded in session three with a new 1m47.443s benchmark. He was a massive 0.485s faster than Argenti Motorsport’s August Raber, who rose to seventh overall by being Stilp’s closest rival.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Tommy Harfield was just a further 0.012s off Raber, and Argenti’s Ethan Jeff-Hall completed a top four covered by 0.576s.

It was slower at the top in session four, and 11 minutes in Raber set a 1m48.029s that went unbeaten until he improved to 1m47.718s two minutes from the end.

The majority of drivers improved in their final two laps as testing came to a close, and Stilp was 0.022s off Raber with his last effort. McLaughlin and JHR’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling trailed by 0.14s and 0.153s, and Harfield was fifth.

Raber, McLaughlin and Campbell-Pilling were among seven drivers who set personal bests in session four, and their laps put them second, sixth and seventh overall.

Absent from the test but racing at Snetterton this weekend is Chloe Chong, who will be making her British F4 return with Rodin. She came 14th in F1 Academy’s 2023 season as a rookie, was 24th in British F4 last year and is currently a Rodin driver in F1 Academy.

Test results

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Photo: JHR Developments

JHR Developments has signed Chloe Chong and Leo Robinson for the 2024 British Formula 4 season.

British-Canadian-Chinese racer Chong was one of the finalists in the Senior group of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme in 2022, and also participated in F4 tests with R-ace GP and JHR.

She then joined Prema in F1 Academy, and came 14th in the 2023 standings with three sixth places as her best results.

Before that she had karted in Europe, making her debut in senior karting in 2021 but spending 2022 primarily on X30 Junior karts. She came 32nd in the British championship and 36th in the Little Green Man series.

“I’m delighted to be joining JHR Developments in British F4 this year. The super close competition of this field and track time available made it a natural decision to take in this next step of my career,” said Chong.

“My very first experience in a race car was with JHR so I couldn’t be happier to return and work with them this season. Thank you to [team boss] Steve Hunter and the team for the warm welcome, as well as my amazing family and supporters involved. I can’t wait to get started next month as I’m confident and ready to put in the work for an exciting year ahead.”

Robinson arrives in British F4 after starring in Danish F4 last year, and the Anglo-Algerian is still only 14 years old. Despite missing almost half of the season, Robinson came fourth in the 2023 Danish F4 standings with 10 podiums from 10 starts.

“I’m delighted to be able to move into British F4 at the earliest possible opportunity with JHR Developments,” he said.

“The team is highly motivated and has a great track record of developing young drivers in both F4 and GB3, including winning all three titles in 2021. I am proud to race under the Algerian flag and would like to thank the Federation Algerienne des Sports Mecaniques for their continued support.”

Before starring in single-seaters, Robinson won the Italian championship for OK Junior karts in 2022 and came sixth in the entry-level Ginetta Junior sportscar series in 2023.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

The second round of the new all-female F1 Academy series takes place on Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit this weekend in support of the NASCAR Euro Series and EuroNASCAR 2.

The two stock car championships use very different tyres to the Formula 4 cars of F1 Academy, and both the single-seater championship and EuroNASCAR have already been on track this week at Valencia for several hours of testing.

There are three more days of track action, and Formula Scout asked several of F1 Academy’s drivers how they anticipated the NASCAR rubber being laid to impact their time on track and what their experience of sharing the track has been like so far.

“We drove just after the NASCAR [today],” said ART Grand Prix’s Sauber junior Lena Buhler. “I didn’t feel a big difference of grip. Maybe it takes a few laps to become better, but I think it was quite okay for me.”

Prema’s Chloe Chong concurred, adding: “I agree with Lena. I don’t think it was too bad. But obviously coming on to the track with some of the marbles that the NASCARs make can be a bit disruptive in the first few laps.But after five laps, it’s not bad at all. And I think it’s not going to be a massive challenge. Maybe at the start, but overall it’s not that big of a difference.”

Rodin Carlin’s Alpine junior Abbi Pulling however was of a slightly different mindset.

“I tend to disagree with the other two,” she said. “I think that, like Chloe said, the marbles is one of the biggest things, but it’s quite similar to what we found last weekend [at the Red Bull Ring] with the GT rubber that they put down.

“There was a big, I don’t know about other people but for me there was this big difference in the balance of the car when we went into the races. So I’m kind of expecting the same in going into tomorrow.

“The cars are only on track for an hour-and-a-half or two hours or whatever it was, at lunch, so I think there will be a bigger difference, and I certainly did feel a bigger difference going into the final run that we did [today]. Some of it could have been down to track temperature and things like that as well as it was the hottest time of day.

“I think it will be interesting to judge where the car will be when it comes to the races and the rubber has been put down.”

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The 15-year-old British-Canadian-Chinese racer was one of the finalists in the Senior group of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s Ferrari Driver Academy-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme last year, and also participated in F4 tests with R-ace GP and JHR Developments.

Chong made her debut in senior karting in 2021, but spent last year primarily on X30 Junior karts. She came 32nd in the British championship and 36th in the Little Green Man series, and also competed in other club series in England.

“This will be my first year in cars and it’s a dream come true to have been given the opportunity to make my debut with such a renowned team as Prema,” said Chong.

“I look forward to working with them, both in and out of the car to form some solid foundations and results in F1 Academy.”

Prema team principal Rene Rosin added: “We always relish the chance to welcome new drivers from karting and having Chloe on board for her auto racing debut in our new F1 Academy team is particularly exciting.

“She has been impressive so far and she demonstrated it through the FIA GoT RS selections and the FDA Scouting Camp. We think we spotted some great potential in terms of driving and mentality, and knowing that she has so much road ahead makes us confident about our future together.”

Chong is Prema’s second signing for the new series, alongside Bianca Bustamante.

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