Photo: Prema

Niccolo Maccagnani will race for Prema next year in Italian Formula 4 and the sister E4 championship.

The 15-year-old was signed by Scuderia Ferrari this August, while in the middle of an intense private testing programme in single-seaters (which began in 2022), to become a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy for 2026.

In September he turned testing into racing, joining the F4 South East Asia grid for the last two rounds at Sepang and making the podium in all six of his races. He won three times, had three poles and came fourth in the standings.

Next up was his Italian F4 debut, which came in the season finale, and he had a best finish of 15th. Over the last month he has raced in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy, where two podiums was enough to make him series runner-up.

“I’m very happy to join a winning team for a season that will be very important for me,” the Italian said of joining Prema.

“Being part of the Ferrari Driver Academy gives me great confidence and motivation, and together we will try to do the best we can, and we’ll see where that will lead.”

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.

Next year he will race in at least three championships, with his programme away from Italy to be announced at a later date.

Prema founder Angelo Rosin commented: “Niccolo has been extremely impressive in his first few races despite being very young and a rookie in F4, so we are proud to have him with us, and we look forward to helping his talent develop. Italian F4 and E4 are challenging championships; we’re confident he will be battling at the front.”

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Pre-season testing occurred yesterday, and teams presented their line-ups. Evans GP has signed Ben Nguyen, Hunter Salvatore and Rafael Vaessen, but did not have Nguyen on track, and Hitech GP turned up with Red Bull junior Scott Lindblom and Theo Palmer ahead of running the pair in British F4 next year.

Xcel Motorsport announced David Cosma Cristofor, British F4 race-winner Rowan Campbell-Pilling, Jaber Al Sabah (who will also race for them in F4 Middle East next year), Formula Regional Japanese Championship regular Zhanbin Jia and Leon Hedfors. Jia and Hedfors were entered under the ‘X GP’ banner for pre-season testing.

Morning pacesetter Niccolo Maccagnani drove for Pinnacle Motorsport, and he will be racing for the team alongside Imran Putera, MSA4 driver Jordan Moodley and the USF2000-experienced Kaylee Countryman.

Yas Heat Academy also has a four-car line-up, with current Saudi Arabian F4 title contender Adam Al Azhari joined by single-seater rookie Zakaria Doleh, Charbel Abi Gebrayel and Edoardo Iacobucci.

Akcel GP left it until after testing to announce it would compete with Yuta Suzuki and Belgian-Emirati karting graduate Arthur de Doncker.

Finally there is Australian outfit AGI Sport, which is going solo with its AU4 champion Noah Killion, and Prema which is running Alp Aksoy Hasan and Beco Bernoldi ahead of each doing a triple F4 programme with the team in 2026.

Testing was split into two sessions, and most drivers set their fastest laps in the morning. Only three improved in the afternoon, while Akcel and Hitech missed the morning action.

Maccagnani was the pace-setter in the morning, a 2m00.972s around Dubai’s full Grand Prix layout putting him 0.286 seconds ahead of Xcel’s Cosma. Aksoy and Al Azhari were the only other drivers within a second of the pace, 0.586s and 0.964s off respectively.

In the predominantly slower afternoon session, a 2m01.881s was enough for Cosma to sit top of the timesheet. He pipped Maccagnani by 0.042s, with Aksoy and Lindblom split by 0.006s in third and fourth but both over 0.45s slower than Cosma. Lindblom’s laptime put him into seventh overall. In this session a second split the top seven.

Following Dubai are rounds at Yas Marina Circuit on December 5-7 and 11-13.

Test results

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Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto was fastest in both practice sessions for the Italian Formula 4 finale at Misano.

The track was very busy, with 44 drivers taking part. New GB4 champion Ary Bansal was debuting with US Racing, despite the Indian signing up to race in Saudi Arabian F4 this weekend, while Reno Francot (PHM Racing), Alexander Savinkov (R-ace GP) and Francesco Coppola (Technorace) returned to the paddock after missing rounds.

Also debuting this weekend are Oscar Repetto (Cram Motorsport), Nicolas Cortes and Florentin Hattemer (both Jenzer Motorsport) and Niccolo Maccagnani. The future Ferrari junior, who turned 15 in August, will be driving for BVM Racing which was last on the grid a year ago.

R-ace’s Andy Consani and Emanuele Olivieri were fastest at first in FP1, but the first sub-1m40s laptime did not appear until US’s Andrija Kostic set a 1m30.639s 11 minutes in.

Sammalisto was then briefly ahead before Olivieri returned to top spot, then US team-mates Kabir Anurag and Gabriel Gomez lowered the pace.

A 1m37.100s put Sammalisto back into first place, before Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov went on a run that included three new benchmark laptimes.

Sammalisto beat him by 0.196 seconds with seven-and-a-half minutes to go of the 44-minute session, then Gomez edged ahead by 0.006s. First place was reclaimed by Sammalisto by the same margin, with Anurag and Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon also within 0.1s of his pace.

Jenzer’s Artem Severiukhin was sixth, and Prema’s points leader Kean Nakamura Berta was 0.538s off Sammalisto in 15th. A second covered the top 22, and 88 laptimes were deleted due to track limits abuse.

Everyone set personal bests in FP2. Maffi Racing’s Kirill Kutskov was first to the top, then VAR’s Dante Vinci led the way. Sammalisto was first into the 1m37s, with VAR’s Alexander Ruta and Anurag bettering him slightly in the next two minutes.

Gomez set two laps in the 1m36s, and later Wheldon lowered the pace to 1m36.284s. His team-mate Salim Hanna Hernandez beat that by 0.01s, and seven seconds later Newman Chi went quicker than him by 0.009s to complete a Prema 1-2-3.

Wheldon went fastest by 0.227s on his next lap, and later in the session Chi set a 1m35.939s to move back ahead. He was toppled three minutes from the end, with Sammalisto going quickest by 0.242s.

Popov and Wheldon were within 0.35s of the pace, and Prema’s Andrea Dupe pipped Gomez to fifth. Kostic and Vinci were closely matched behind, but over half a second off.

There was a second between first and 22nd place again, with Maccagnani completing that group after missing FP1, and 62 laps were lost to track limits offences.

Free practice results

The post Sammalisto leads 44-car field in Italian F4 practice at Misano 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.

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.

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto was first to set a representative laptime in the Thursday morning session, posting a 1m46.465s.

He improved on each of his next two laps, bringing the pace down to 1m43.645s, then team-mate Andrija Kostic went faster than him by 0.286 seconds. The next change at the top came 18 minutes later, as Maccagnani posted a 1m43.318s.

The 14-year-old Italian will become a Ferrari Formula 1 junior next year, and his test entry was run by Nicco Team. They and Van Amersfoort Racing did private testing at Barcelona in the days before the group test.

Maccagnani was in first place for almost half an hour before Sammalisto nosed back ahead by 0.033s, but in the next few minutes Maccagnani responded with two laps in the 1m42.4s.

Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon and R-ace GP’s Alex Powell were the only others driver who lapped sub-1m43s, both doing so halfway through their run plan. Wheldon was 0.388s off Maccagnani and Powell trailed by 0.505s.

Sammalisto was fourth after improving to 1m43.005s, putting him just ahead of Pream’s Kean Nakamura Berta. Split by 0.001s behind them were R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri and Prema’s Sasha Bondarev. There were 38 cars on track in total.

It took half an hour for any action to take place in the afternoon session, and VAR’s Lyuboslav Ruykov was the first driver to get some running in. He set a 1m46.347s, which was swiftly beaten by a 1m43.797s from Nakamura.

Bondarev was next to go quickest, edging Nakamura by 0.007s, then 14 minutes later Nakmura made back-to-back improvements to lower the pace to 1m43.101s.

He was toppled in the session’s third hour by Maccagnani, who set two more personal bests over an hour later. His 1m42.621s benchmark went unbeaten, although VAR’s Maximilian Popov got within 0.059s of him.

Powell was 0.359s behind in third, and Nakamura was 0.48s off in fourth. Olivieri and Wheldon were next up.

Popov was one of nine drivers to better their morning times, with the next best being US’s Ludovico Busso.

Ruykov was first to the top again on Friday morning, with US’s Kabir Anurag succeeding him in first place. Sammalisto and Kostic also went quickest in the first seven minutes, before Cram Motorsport’s Elia Weiss took over at the top with two laps in the 1m44s.

Busso went 0.88s faster than Weiss and his 1m43.211s kept him ahead for seven minutes prior to Popov reclaiming first place. Nakamura was first into the 1m42s, and team-mates Newman Chi and Wheldon narrowly beat him. The latter’s 1m42.502s lap was the day’s first long-standing benchmark.

Oliveri beat it 49 minutes in, setting a new fastest lap of the test with a 1m42.096s, and 22 minutes later Maccagnani outpaced him by 0.027s to top another session.

Nakamura set a 1m42.385s to take third, and a 1m42.514s put Bondarev sixth, just ahead of Powell and Sammalisto. The top 13 lapped in the 1m42s.

It was 12 minutes before any laps were set in the afternoon, and Prema’s Beco Bernoldi was initially quickest. Ruykov later bettered him, then Sammalisto was first into the 1m44s. Ruykov and Kostic spent time ahead, then Bondarev and Wheldon in quick succession lowered the pace 40 minutes in.

Wheldon’s 1m43.674s went unbeaten for 53 minutes, with Nakamura next to lead the way. He set successive improvements, then made a 0.003s gain 71 minutes after that. He would not be able to improve after posting his 1m43.246s, while in the fourth hour Maccagnani set a new benchmark four times.

He ended the session in the pits, along with everyone else bar R-ace’s Emily Cotty, and 0.791s clear of Nakamura. Powell, Olivieri and PHM Racing’s David Cosma Cristofor were the only others within a second of Maccagnani.

Everyone bar VAR’s Dante Vinci and PHM’s Levi Arn set their fastest laps in session three.

Test results

The post Niccolo Maccagnani tops F4 group test at Barcelona appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Ferrari

Alba Hurup Larsen and Niccolo Maccagnani have been announced as joining the Ferrari Driver Academy at the start of next year.

Larsen is not new to Ferrari, as she won the senior final in the fourth edition of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission’s FDA-affiliated Girls on Track Rising Stars programme in 2023.

She was up against three other drivers in that final, who were competing to win a paid-for 2024 Formula 4 seat with Iron Lynx as well as entry into an FDA scouting shootout. However the announcement of her victory mentioned neither, and instead said the “FDA will monitor her progress next season on visits to Maranello”.

Her paid-for transition from karting to F4 came with MP Motorsport instead when she did the first two rounds of the 2024 Indian F4 season and had a best finish of sixth.

In 2023 she had karted in Europe, coming 64th in IAME Series Italy’s X30 Junior standings, 12th in the Danish Karting League’s X30 Jr series, winning a regional championhip in Zealand and receiving mentorship from Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen.

Larsen has raced for three teams in F4 this year. She began with Jenzer Motorsport, contesting three quarters of the Formula Winter Series season and coming 32nd in the standings, then returned to MP for the all-female F1 Academy championship. In the F1 support paddock the 16-year-old Dane has had a best finish of fourth so far, and sits sixth in the points table.

Alongside that she is racing part-time for Chris Dittmann Racing in British F4, and is currently 22nd in the standings.

Maccagnani, 14, has been driving in Italian F4 tests for R-ace GP since April and has already done a British F4 test with Rodin Motorsport and driven a Formula 3-level Euroformula car.

The Italian was one of six finalists who took part in the Italian 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.

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