Photo: ACI Sport

While the Formula Regional European Championship’s 2026 calendar is not yet published, recent paddock gossip has revealed what changes are expected.

Delays in formalising the agreement between FREC promoter ACI Sport and the FIA to collaborate on organising the championship going forward has subsequently prolonged negotiations with circuits but teams have already received an eight-round draft calendar.

That would end a five-year run of 10-round seasons, and Formula Scout understands nations are now limited to two rounds per year. ACI operates from Italy, which has appeared at least three times on the calendar in all previous seasons.

The draft calendar retains Monza but drops Imola and Misano for Mugello, which had featured each year until 2025.

Hockenheim, Paul Ricard, the Red Bull Ring, Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort will be retained, and it is believed Barcelona will be off the calendar for the first time as FREC was unable to secure a suitable slot to race there.

The Hungaroring is likely to be absent as GB3 retains its position supporting Euroformula’s event there, while Germany could have two rounds as the Nurburgring is touted to join. It and Hockenheim’s round are expected to support the DTM.

In 2021, FREC planned to visit the Nurburgring but severe flooding in the Eifel region made the track unavailable and it was swapped out for Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit. It would therefore debut next year.

FREC has long sought a return to Formula 1’s support bill, having started its 2021 season with three rounds on its undercard and racing in Monaco again in 2022. Championship partner Renault then had to cede that support slot to FIA Formula 3.

While being in F1’s 2026 support paddock appears unattainable, FREC’s increased support from the FIA is likely to add pressure to achieve its ambition.

Despite a reduced calendar length, FREC will continue to have a 20-race season. Four rounds will feature a third race, which will be the first reversed-grid encounters in championship history.

The top 12 from the first qualifying session will be reversed to form the grid, with the aim of helping drivers adjust to the format used further up the ladder in FIA F3.

Formula Scout understands qualifying would likely be shifted to Friday afternoons, at least for the triple-headers.

A joint announcement by FREC and the FIA before this season’s penultimate round at Hockenheim named the 10 teams that will compete in 2026. That had one notable change from a draft list circulated to teams, as Michael Meadows’ Argenti Motorsport outfit had been set to join and replace G4 Racing.

Argenti competes primarily in karting and British Formula 4, and expanded into GB3 this year in partnership with Prema.

G4 has raced in FREC since 2021, won five races but endured a tough 2025 in which it scored one point. Team manager Adrian Munoz explained that they and rivals were surprised by their initial omission, and were informed of the changed decision days before the announcement. G4 then submitted its 2026 entry fees immediately.

The post FREC set to introduce reversed-grid races in 2026 and add new circuit appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Yani Stevenheydens won two French Formula 4 races at the Nurburgring this weekend to take the championship lead.

The reversed-grid race two began with a lap behind the safety car due to the track being wet, and Enzo Caldaras started in first place. Jules Roussel and Montego Maassen were second and third, and when the field was released on lap two Maassen drove straight into Roussel at turn one and spun him around.

Maassen fell to the back, and Roussell required external assistance to get going again which meant the safety car was quickly called back.

Chester Kieffer, Taito Kato, Arthur Dorison and Stevenheydens filled the top five places behind Caldaras, and Kieffer took the lead on the lap four restart. But Caldaras immediately came back at him, and they ran side-by-side several times.

Kieffer finished the lap in front, with Stevenheydens clearing Dorison but breaking his front wing with contact at the final chicane. However he, and Dylan Estre in 13th, found more pace in the worsening weather conditions and went on a charge.

Stevenheydens passed Kato on lap five and immediately pulled away from him, while Dorison cut the chicane, and on lap six the seventh placed Alex O’Grady almost spun at turn two and sent Jules Caranta off as he drove into the side of him. That put them under pressure from Estre, who shot past on lap seven. Stevenheydens began that lap with a great move for the lead around the outside of turn one, and in the remaining three laps pulled away by 5.675 seconds for a stunning win.

Kieffer spun exiting turn one on lap eight and avoided being hit, Frank Porte Ruiz did a full 360 on the last lap but remained in the points positions and Estre set the fastest lap as he made his way into fifth place. Caldaras and O’Grady ended up completing the podium, with Kato reclaiming the points lead from sixth-placed Caranta by finishing fourth.

The sun was shining for race three, and Stevenheydens had pole. Augustin Bernier lined up in second, ahead of Porte Ruiz, Dorison, Kieffer and Roussel. Kato was down in 10th place.

There was lots of wheel-to-wheel action through lap one, and Maassen had a big a collision at turn 10 with Leonardo Megna. The safety car was called, despite both driving on from the scene, and when racing resumed on lap four it was Porte Ruiz who was in second while Kato had climbed to seventh and Estre had gone from 18th to 11th.

Kato passed Roussel for sixth on that lap, then snuck past Kieffer on lap seven while Estre dropped to 13th in a close midfield battle.

Caranta was all over Bernier for third at the start of lap nine, then Bernier went off and lost two spots as he slowed once he rejoined the track. Kato was then able to attack Caranta, but could not get past and it meant the championship lead changed hands again.

Stevenheydens had managed his pace up front, and took his third win of 2024 by 2.093s to move ahead of both to the top of the points table.

Results round-up
Race 2 (9 laps)
1 Yani Stevenheydens
2 Enzo Caldaras +5.675s
3 Alex O’Grady +6.401s
4 Taito Kato +7.403s
5 Dylan Estre +8.386s
6 Jules Caranta +10.526s
7 Augustin Bernier +13.641s
8 Edouard Borgna +14.874s
9 Alexandre Munoz +15.836s
10 Frank Porte Ruiz +16.813s
Fastest lap: Estre, 2m23.435s

Race 3 (10 laps)
1 Stevenheydens
2 Porte Ruiz +2.093s
3 Caranta +4.042s
4 Kato +4.419s
5 Bernier +5.076s
6 Chester Kieffer +5.741s
7 Jules Roussel +7.172s
8 Caldaras +10.898s
9 Arthur Dorison +11.241s
10 O’Grady +11.632s
P: Stevenheydens
FL: Stevenheyden, 2m01.984s

Championship standings
1 Stevenheyden 169   2 Caranta 159   3 Kato 157   4 Kieffer 107   5 Caretti 89   6 Porte Ruiz 60   7 Bernier 52   8 Roussel 45   7 Bernier 36   9 O’Grady 34   10 Megna 32

The post Yani Stevenheydens stuns at the Nurburgring in French F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: French F4

Jules Caranta claimed victory in French Formula 4’s first ever race in Germany at the Nurburgring.

The win moved the Frenchman into the points lead, with former leader Taito Kato finishing ninth.

Caranta was quickest in the red-flagged free practice session on Friday, setting a 2m25.418s to lead Chester Kieffer by 0.17 seconds. Dylan Estre was a further 0.661s behind in third, with Yani Stevenheydens a massive 1.645s back in fourth.

The pace was lowered in qualifying, and Augustin Bernier came to the fore by setting a 2m01.956s. That put him on race one pole by 0.19s over Frank Porte Ruiz, with Stevenheydens and Caranta 0.216s and 0.222s off his pace respectively. Arthur Dorison was fifth, 0.451s behind, and Kato qualified sixth.

Early morning rain meant the track was wet when it came to racing on Saturday, and it led to dramatic moments on all 10 laps of the race.

Bernier made a very slow start and immediately lost places, and at turn one there wa a spinner while Leonardo Megna went off. Arthur Dorison got spun around a few corners later, and the lap ended with Stevenheydens in front, Kato in second, Porte Ruiz in third and Caranta in fourth.

With drivers approaching turn one at even higher speeds on lap two, the wet conditions led to even more of them going off and Kieffer took third place from Porte Ruiz before the latter went off. Caranta tried attacking Kato, then on lap three Stenehydens went off at turn one and dropped to fifth.

The lead went to Caranta, and Kieffer disputed second with Rayan Caretti before cutting the final chicane and deciding to drive into the pits rather than head down the pit straight and allow Caretti past to avoid a penalty.

Lap four featured Jules Roussel going off while running in fourth, and Edouard Borgna spinning at the last corner. Caranta pulled away from Caretti, with a gap of five seconds emerging, while Stevenheyens got back into third but then flew off at turn one and rejoined in seventh. Dorison tried passing him later in the lap but went off.

Much of the field were still attempting wheel-to-wheel battles, often resulting in offs and positions lost rather than gained. In the last few laps, areas of the track dried up and this helped Gabriel Doyle-Parfait close in on Porte Ruiz for third.

Dorison had another off on the final lap, eventually finishing 18th, Jason Leung had a spin and Bernier ended his race in 11th.

Race results (10 laps)

The post Jules Caranta wins French F4’s sodden first ever race in Germany appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Germany was home to motorsport’s most famous driver, most famous brands and two F1 grands prix in the 2000s. It also had a junior single-seater scene that has declined to the point of nothingness in 2023

After weeks of speculation, it was confirmed on Saturday that Germany’s national Formula 4 championship would not run in 2023 and the motorsport governing body in the country would instead support two drivers in French F4 for a season.

It is not the first time that the domestic racing scene has taken a heavy blow in recent years, and is the latest in a long chain of events that have showed how a motorsport-mad nation lost its place as one of the key countries to establish a racing career.

Sunday, July 28 2002

Team Ghinzani’s Jeffrey van Hooydonk wins the second race of the weekend at Hockenheim in round six of the German Formula 3 season. It was van Hooydonk’s only win of the year, and the last time F3 raced on the support bill of a Formula 1 race held in Germany.

Sunday, October 6 2002

After 36 seasons, the German F3 championship officially comes to a close at Hockenheim, with Swiss Racing Team’s Norbert Siedler taking victory in the final ever race before the series’ merger with the French F3 championship to form the DTM-supporting F3 Euro Series. That was to be run by a subsidary of DTM promoter ITR, while previous German F3 organiser Formel 3 Vereiningung e.V. created a new national F3 cup series.

The German F3 Cup ran from 2003 to 2014, and catered for previous-generation cars from 2008 onwards, while the F3 Euro Series morphed into FIA European F3 in 2012 and ran until the end of 2018.

Photo: GP2 Series Media Service

Sunday, July 31 2016

The last time that the secondary and tertiary tiers of single-seater racing officially raced on the F1 support bill in Germany. Both GP2 and GP3 raced at Hockenheim that weekend. Two years later there was a BOSS GP race at the German GP that included two last-generation GP2 cars.

March to September 2017

The FIA’s dream of ‘streamlining’ the route up junior single-seaters is put into action with a technical and commercial revamp of F3 that is to be implemented in 2019 with the creation of a new GP3-succeeding F3 championship on the F1 support bill and a new ‘regional F3’ that would be realised as Formula Regional.

ITR boss Gerhard Berger says he is willing to continue the European F3 series, which still holds at least nine races per year in Germany and remains open to multiple engine suppliers, outside of the FIA’s remit.

One battle is lost as the FIA marches forward with its vision for F3 with the organisation of Bruno Michel, who runs Formula 2 and GP3. Mercedes-Benz then decides it will leave the DTM after 2018, leaving ITR with far bigger concerns than F3.

Wednesday, March 14 2018

Spiess decides against supplying engines (which are branded as Volkswagen units) for the new FIA F3, as well as halting production of further European F3 units, but pledges to continue technical support for existing customers in Europe and Japan through to the end of the year. Losing an engine supplier makes it considerably harder for a European F3 continuation series to take place in 2019.

Wednesday, July 25 2018

Berger makes his continuation plan official with a brochure handed out to all past and present European F3 teams. A few days later Mick Schumacher takes his first win in the championship, starting a run of success that ires some competitors and raises questions about the engine equality formula.

Friday, August 31 2018

Euroformula announces that it will open up its regulations to allow HWA (Mercedes) and Spiess (VW) engines from 2019 onwards, bringing it in line with European F3. Shortly after the Spanish-organised championship unveils a provisional calendar for the next year, the first F3 championship to do so, and commits to the existing Dallara chassis through to at least 2020.

A proposal for Dallara to build a successor chassis for 2021 which continues the ‘spirit’ of F3 is looked at by Euroformula, European F3 and Japanese F3. The concept would later be realised as the Dallara 320, an F3 car in all but name.

Friday, October 12 2018

Berger reveals a 2019 calendar for his successor championship, which includes five German rounds. But there’s bad news on the ‘Regional F3’ front in Germany as Renault Sport loses out to Italian F4 regulator Automobile Club d’Italia in the bid for the rights to the European championship.

Monday, October 15 2018

Renault still commits to running its Eurocup series in 2019, with multiple rounds in Germany, but drops its own Formula Renault 2.0 category to run the series with FRegional cars instead. Continued support to other FR2.0 championships is promised, and the German-run Northern Eurocup Cup has grand plans for 2019, but has closed its doors by December.

Wednesday, December 15 2018

F3V GmbH settles on the Formula European Masters name for 2019 and receives a boost from the FIA when it chooses to award the champion 25 superlicence points, just five short of what the new FIA F3 awards and equal to FRegional European Championship and Super Formula.

Thursday, January 17 2019

Berger secures an enviable prize package for FEM, with the top three in the standings being handed spots in the DTM’s annual ‘Young Driver Test’, with the best of the trio getting a free race outing. The pipeline between what was the F3 Euro Series and the DTM not only helped maintain competitive grids in the touring car series but also provided opportunities with manufacturers for many young drivers that then helped them reach F1 or other professional series.

In contrast to GP3 and GP2, and even Japan’s manufacturer-filled single-seater ladder and the scholarship-funded Road to Indy, the connection between European F3 and the DTM stands out as the most effective in car racing for taking drivers from junior series and preparing them for and providing opportunities to become professional drivers.

Friday, March 22 2019

The FEM entry list sits at six cars, and with three days to go before its first scheduled test at Misano, Formula Scout breaks the story on the decision to bring an end to the championship.

The cancellation is made known to the press prior to the drivers, causing some acrimony for those headed to Misano. Several teams head over to Euroformula with their cars.

Sunday, May 4 2019

A historic moment as the first ever W Series race is held at Hockenheim and won by Jamie Chadwick. The new all-female FRegional series adopts the DTM support series status FEM would have had, and

Sunday, May 26 2019

Remarkably, the last time contemporary F3 cars have raced in Germany in any capacity. Euroformula had already decided on going to Hockenheim for 2019 long before Formula European Masters’ creation and then cancellation, and attracted HWA and Spiess-powered teams that had intended to race in Germany.

Although there was a fun weekend of racing, with the two races won by Marino Sato and future F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda, the event attracted next to no spectators and Euroformula would not visit Germany again. But not for lack of trying.

Saturday, July 6 2019

W Series’ second German round is another historic moment, the last race to date for single-seaters at the Norisring street circuit. Marta Garcia wins from pole.

Sunday, July 28 2019

The most recent addition of the German Grand Prix marked the last time junior single-seaters supported F1 in the country, with ADAC F4 holding two races at Hockenheim that were won by Dennis Hauger and Arthur Leclerc.

When F1 returned to Germany in 2021 for the Eifel Grand Prix, there was a double blow for young drivers. The first was an absence from the support bill, and the second was inclement weather leading to the cancellation of the first F1 practice session which several Formula 2 drivers were supposed to take part in.

Photo: Alfa Romeo Racing

Thursday, March 5 2020

ADAC F4 changes the date and location of its season-closing round to avoid a clash with Italian F4’s season finale. Many of ADAC F4’s drivers and teams compete in Italy too, and it was originally scheduled that the German series would finish at Sachsenring on October 2-4, the same weekend Italian F4 was due to conclude at Mugello.

The change of dates removes Sachsenring from the ADAC F4 calendar entirely, with no other available dates at the circuit for the series to race at, and a departure from the ADAC GT Masters support bill in leau of a NASCAR Whelen Euro Series support slot on Hockenheim’s National layout.

Although the 2019 season is a thriller, which Sauber even enters its own junior team into, by the start of 2020 there are already signs that ADAC F4 will end up having a dependancy on Italian F4 to maintain international relevance. Particularly too now that Germany is now a nation without its own F1 grand prix.

Monday, March 9 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic starts to take hold in Italy, but not in northern Europe, series start looking to circuits in the top half of the continent to hold races should events further south prove unable to go ahead. the FR Eurocup cancels its Monza season opener and joins the DTM at Hockenheim.

Thursday, May 21 2020

The pandemic spreads, and all of German motorsport is put on halt. That means W Series loses its season opener at the Norisring, while the provisional slot Hockenheim holds on Euroformula’s calendar is dropped after the circuit starts prioritising talks with F1 to host a grand prix in its heavily delayed and redrawn season schedule.

Photo: Fotospeedy

Those talks ultimately fail, leaving Hockenheim without several series it otherwise could have hosted once motorsport gets back underway. But truly the death knell for the track in hosting international racing is the high cost it sets for visiting series.

Sunday, May 24 2020

A new ADAC F4 calendar is released, but it brings date clashes with Italian F4. However with racing still looking unlikely to return to Italy as fast as it will in Germany, it does not look to be too great an issue for the series.

Friday, November 6 2020

The DTM finalises its switch from Class One touring car regulations to becoming a GT3 sportscar series for 2021 and its two decades-long tradition of being supported by a Formula 3 (or Formula Regional) series is ended by W Series deciding to support F1 in 2021.

On the support bill now is the GT4-spec DTM Trophy, a championship intended to be a platform for young drivers in the same way European F3 was. But the DTM’s switch to sportscars ends the era of manufacturer works teams and it becomes a series populated by privateer operations without the investment or long-term ambitions to support young drivers in lower categories.

Formula Scout speaks to Berger and several DTM drivers who drove in F3 beforehand on how they think this will impact the relevance of the DTM for young drivers and what it will do to the country’s racing scene.

Saturday, February 20 2021

ADAC F4 attracts a new team, BWR Motorsports, run by ex-Team Rosberg DTM man Erich Baumgartner. The father-and-son combination of Sauter Engineering+Design also joins the series as a one-car entry.

Wednesday, March 3 2021

ADAC F4 brings forward its Oschersleben season opener by a month to avoid running on the same weekend as Italian F4’s season opener. Van Amersfoort Racing prioritised the German series in 2020 and took the title as a result. This year the team aims to do the full ADAC schedule, and is yet to decide on how much of the more competitiove Italian championship it will do.

Saturday, October 2 2021

The pandemic leads to Oscherlseben’s round being cancelled, and the season begins with well-contested races in Austria and the Netherlands. But once ADAC F4 goes to Germany, interest sinks. There are 13 cars at Hockenheim, then only eight drivers take part in race one at the Sachsenring. When the eastern German track was last visited, the grid had been twice that size.

The ADAC and teams talked to Formula Scout afterwards about why the event attracted such a small entry list. FIA regulations prohibit what are considered national championships from running more than two “foreign” rounds, which means a maximum of two F1 tracks on the calendar for ADAC F4 but up to four for Italian F4.

Saturday, October 23 2021

ADAC F4 announces it will adopt Tatuus’s second-generation chassis for 2022, and continue with Abarth-badged Autotecnica engines and Pirelli tyres. This keeps the series in line with Italian F4.

Monday, November 8 2021

The 2022 calendar is unveiled and the Red Bull Ring is swapped out for Spa-Francorchamps as a ‘foreign’ round. Oschersleben and Sachsenring are dropped from the schedule to try to make the series more appealing, with both tracks not used by any single-seater series above F4 and now not at the entry level either.

Sunday, November 28 2021

Long-time ADAC F4 team Mucke Motorsport announces it will move into the DTM Trophy, but also leave single-seaters at the same time. Peter Mucke started the team in 1998 to run in Formula BMW ADAC, and he spoke to Formula Scout about what led him to stop running cars in junior series.

Sunday, March 27 2022

Another new team commits to ADAC F4, and does so with four cars. PHM Racing and Jenzer Motorsport end up being the only two teams, along with effective privateer Michael Sauter, do the whole season.

Friday, December 2 2022

FREC’s 2023 calendar is finalised and includes a round in Germany for the first time with a trip to Hockenheim on October 21/22.

Saturday, December 3 2022

The ADAC puts out a statement saying it “will not be accepting entries for ADAC F4 for the 2023 season”, and announces it will support two drivers’ entry into French F4 for the next year.

The post The timeline of German single-seater racing’s decline appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Taylor Barnard won the final race of the ADAC Formula 4 season at the Nurburgring by a commanding margin over Ugo Ugochukwu.

On a track that was still damp in places but with cars starting on slicks, Barnard’s PHM Racing team-mate Valentin Kluss went from third to first on the run to the first corner only to go deep.

That allowed Ugochukwu, who started sixth, to take the lead and open up a sizeable early advantage of more than a second.

Barnard went from seventh to third on the first lap and then took second down the inside of Kluss in turn one before reeling in Ugochukwu, making his move at the chicane at the end of the fifth lap.

From there, Barnard opened up a six-second advantage as the championship runner-up took his fifth win of the season.

Ugochukwu was joined on the podium by Prema team-mate Rafael Camara, the Ferrari junior snatching the rookie title in the final race after contact with erstwhile classification leader Rasmus Joutsimies.

Camara had moved to the inside of Jenzer Motorsport driver Joutsimies at the final corner as they fought over fifth position in the early stages, with the slight contact between them causing Joutsimies to run wide and drop several places.

Under pressure from a trio of Prema cars, Kluss would surrender a podium position when he went deep once more at turn one, enabling Camara and James Wharton to slip by.

Having wrapped up the title in race two, Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a relatively subdued race, ultimately finishing sixth after battling with Nikita Bedrin and Kluss and being ordered by race control to let the former past.

Race result (14 laps)

The post Barnard finishes ADAC F4 season with commanding win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli picked up his first car racing title with victory in the penultimate race of the ADAC Formula 4 season at the Nurburgring.

The delayed race began in wet and foggy conditions, with all drivers on grooved tyres and teams making lots of last-minute changes to cars on the grid to make them suitable for the low grip levels.

Antonelli’s Prema team-mate Rafael Camara started on pole, but he bogged down off the line and Antonelli went from third to first entering turn one.

Camara then spun and fell to the back of the pack, while PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard – Antonelli’s title rival – sliced his way past Antonelli’s Prema team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu into second in the first sector of the opening lap.

James Wharton then found a grippy line in another of Prema’s cars to demote Barnard back to third, and Camara pitted at the end of the lap due to front-right suspension damage and fell a lap down.

Antonelli’s lead had grown to 2.4 seconds by the end of the next lap, and Barnard became his closest rival once more once Wharton ran off fell to eighth place.

Barnard, despite having clear track and therefore no spray problem, was unable to match Antonelli’s pace and he was over 7.6 seconds behind on lap 10 when the safety car appeared after Michael Sauter crashed out.

With the time it took to retrieve Sauter’s car, it meant green flag action did not resume until the very last corner of the race on lap 13 and Antonelli was able to weave across the line to celebrate the race and title win.

Ugochukwu finished third ahead of Rasmus Joutsimies, and Wharton passed Jonas Ried and Valentin Kluss to recover to fifth place.

Race result (13 laps)

The post Mercedes F1 junior Antonelli wins first car racing title in ADAC F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Andrea Kimi Antonelli took his eighth ADAC Formula 4 win of the season to move within three points of clinching the title.

The Prema driver had to work hard for his victory, passing erstwhile leader and team-mate Rafael Camara on lap 11 of 13 after an exciting duel.

Camara had made a strong start from pole position on the wet track, with Antonelli passing James Wharton on the first lap to move up to second.

The two leaders pulled away from the rest of the field rapidly, building a gap of 3.3 seconds by the end of lap three as Wharton fought off the PHM Racing duo of Taylor Barnard and Nikita Bedrin.

Already at this early stage the drivers were running offline as they looked for damp patches on the drying surface.

By lap six, Antonelli had closed onto the tail of the leader but before he could mount a challenge the safety car had been deployed to clear away the cars of Jonas Ried and Rasmus Joutsimies after an incident between the two at turn one.

When racing resumed with seven minutes on the clock, Antonelli immediately drew alongside his Brazilian rival, diving to the inside at the first corner before running wide, allowing Camara to retake the lead. But as the pair started lap 11, Antonelli got a better exit out of the final corner and they ran side-by-side past the pits.

Camara held onto the inside line through turn one but Antonelli was not to be denied and as Camara ran slightly wide on the exit from the Mercedes Arena, the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior powered past his Ferrari-backed rival and into the lead.

Behind the leaders Wharton resumed battle with Barnard, who pushed wide into turn eight, which is being investigated by the stewards post-race.

This allowed privateer Michael Sauter up to fourth briefly although he dropped back to sixth at the finish, behind Ugo Ugochukwu in the fourth Prema entry.

With a lead of 47 points and only 50 available to score in the last two races, Antonelli can wrap up the title in Saturday’s second race of the weekend, while Camara’s second place moves him to the top of the rookie standings following Joutsimies’ retirement.

Race result (13 laps)

The post Antonelli wins again to close on ADAC F4 title at Nurburgring appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Prema’s Rafael Camara will start the first two races of the final ADAC Formula 4 round at the Nurburgring from pole after topping both Friday qualifying sessions.

Following a foggy first practice session in the morning, rain came and went through the rest of the day and both qualifying sessions were classified as wet.

Prema had not originally intended to participate in the season finale, actually only planning originally to contest the first few rounds of 2022 and missing the penultimate event at the Lausitzring, but this weekend it has the chance to run Andrea Kimi Antonelli to the title as well as winning the teams’ championship.

Antonelli was Camara’s closest rival through much of Q1, and as they went into the final two minutes of the session he set a 2m17.537s to steal provisional pole position from his team-mate.

James Wharton, another Prema driver, and PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard also went faster than Camara, but with 15s to go he rose back up to second place, 0.172s off Antonelli’s pace.

His final lap was even faster, and he took pole with a 2m17.054s effort while Antonelli failed to improve late on and qualified second.

Barnard did go third fastest, but then Wharton found more pace to move ahead him on row two of the race one grid.

Antonelli and Camara did battle for pole again in Q2, with Antonelli on top in the middle of the session.

Camara bided his time, while team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu briefly got into second place and PHM’s Valentin Kluss had laps deleted for track limits violations, and only rose to the fore with a minute-and-a-half to go.

A 2m16.616s lap meant he pipped Antonelli by five hundredths of a second, and once again Antonelli could not find pace late on. Camara could, and ended Q2 with a 2m16.019s lap that guaranteed him pole.

After the chequered flag was waved, Ugochukwu set a 2m16.619s to shuffle Antonelli down to third, with Barnard completing row two of the grid for race two.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Rafael Camara Prema 2m17.054s
2 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema +0.483s
3 James Wharton Prema +0.635s
4 Taylor Barnard PHM Racing +0.656s
5 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema +1.188s
6 Nikita Bedrin PHM Racing +2.084s
7 Valentin Kluss PHM Racing +3.291s
8 Jonas Ried PHM Racing +3.930s
9 Michael Sauter Sauter Engineering+Design +4.740s
10 Rasmus Joutsimies Jenzer Motorsport +5.491s

Race 2 grid
1 Camara 2m16.019s
2 Ugochukwu +0.600s
3 Antonelli +0.654s
4 Barnard +0.847s
5 Wharton +1.152s
6 Bedrin +1.263s
7 Kluss +2.255s
8 Sauter +2.349s
9 Joutsimies +3.082s
10 Ried +3.514s

The post Camara clinches double pole for ADAC F4’s Nurburgring finale appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ADAC

Prema’s Ferrari junior James Wharton claimed his first ADAC Formula 4 victory in the reversed grid Nurburgring race.

Jenzer Motorsport’s Rasmus Joutsimies started on pole, and defended off the line to keep his lead.

He had a fleet of Prema drivers behind him, and it was Wharton who would come through – from fourth on the grid – to demote him to second.

Conrad Laursen then followed after Joutsimies cut the final chicane while trying to hold on to position, and then PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard and Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli did too.

Antonelli spent much of the racing trying to find a way past Barnard, and eventually he made a diving move down the inside at turn one for third place. Although it was not investigated, Antonelli then conceded the place back to Barnard and didn’t have enough time to reclaim it again.

Joutsimies finished a few seconds further behind in fifth, his best ADAC F4 result, and fellow front row man Ugo Ugochukwu was sixth.

Jenzer’s Samir Ben got into trouble again, this time copping a drive-through penalty that was converted into a 30s penalty post-race and dropped him from 11th to 12th in the results.

Race result

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Photo: ADAC

PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard won the second ADAC Formula 4 race at the Nurburgring after a tense battle with Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Barnard started from pole and edged away early on but his lead never quite reached a second, and after four laps Antonelli started taking small bites out of it until it stood at four tenths on lap 10. From that distance he was able to have a look at passing into turn one each lap, but could never quite get it done.

On lap 15 Antonelli made a dive down the inside and Barnard ran wide to give him room, such was Antonelli’s entry speed, and the pair ended up side-by-side exiting the corner.

Barnard stayed ahead, and on the next lap Antonelli almost pulled off a dummy move as he made Barnard defend the inside then swept to the outside. Somehow Barnard still led, and two laps later Barnard almost squeezed Antonelli into the pit wall in defence.

Antonelli chose the outside line when they reached turn one and couldn’t quite get alongside, and at the end of the lap a strong exit from the final corner enabled him to immediately go to Barnard’s inside only to almost be slammed into the pit wall. They avoided contact, but their battling meant PHM Racing’s Nikita Bedrin was now within a second of the lead.

Bedrin locked up at the opening corner on lap one to get into third, then led Prema trio Charlie Wurz, James Wharton and Conrad Laursen for much of the race.

Initially they were gapped by the top two, but once they started battling in the middle of the race it allowed Bedrin to close in and when Bedrin did get within a second he was almost immediately into second place as Antonelli slowed at turn two on lap 19 of 21.

It did not look intentional as Antonelli then tried snatching back second with some late braking attempts later around the lap including at the final chicane which Bedrin cut.

The gaps had opened up between the top three going into the final two laps as a result, but Antonelli quickly roped Bedrin back in and he actually got ahead at turn two on the final lap but was on the outside of Bedrin so fell back to third.

His final attempt to reclaim second came on the run to the chicane, but Bedrin then braked later on the inside and got back ahead only for his dive to prompt Antonelli to cut across the chicane and then for Bedrin to do the same.

Barnard crossed the line almost a second clear to win, ahead of Antonelli, Bedrin and Wurz.

Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu finished seventh in his second race, with Jenzer Motorsport’s Rasmus Joutsimies in eighth.

Race result

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