Photo: The RaceBox

The IAME Euro Series season reached its halfway point last weekend, and Harrison Mackie leads the X30 Senior standings.

Round one took place at Italian track Cremona, and it was very close in qualifying as pole in each group was decided by less than 0.1 seconds.

Mackie, Riccardo Ferrari and Danny Carenini won the first three heats, and in the fourth Clement Outran was victorious as Markus Glume climbed 17 spots to third.

Kevin Lantinga dominated the next heat, despite starting ninth, then on a drying track Andy Ratel won by 8.374s. The wettest conditions led to fewer overtaking, with Carenini and Outran winning the following heats.

As the track began drying again, Ratel romped to a 12s win then Mackie picked up another first place finish as Lantinga edged Carenini to second by 0.07s.

In the final damp heat, Ruben Moya and Cian Geraghty came from 23rd and 15th to finish six seconds apart at the front after Matthias Vandekerckhove got a bumper penalty that demoted him from second to seventh.

Moya was 14th after two laps, sixth by lap five and third a lap later. When the top two’s battling went awry, Moya was first to profit.

Outran won the next heat, Ferrari pipped Gus Lawrence by 0.044s for his second victory then Andrea Barbieri and Carenini claimed the final two.

The rain returned for superheat one, won by Carenini, and Lantinga was at the front through superheat two. Zac Green forced Moya off to take second, before a penalty swapped their places.

It was a very wet final, and Carenini led from pole as Vandekerckhove jumped from fifth to second. He overtook Carenini at turn two on lap six, and a lap later Boya and Lantinga followed through.

Lantinga hit a kerb on lap 12 and that brought Ratel onto his tail. Ratel pulled off an incredible move, before hunting down the top two.

Moya was all over Vandekerckhove late on, but on the penultimate lap ran deep at turn eight into a muddy puddle. Lantinga went around the outside of Ratel at the race’s final corner to take second by 0.038s, as a bumper penalty demoted Moya to sixth.

Aaron Garcia and Mackie each won two heats in round two at Zuera, with Sem van der Heijden and Otto Pyykonen taking the other two. Garcia comfortably led home Roxanne Lantinga in superheat one, and in superheat two Vandekerckhove looked behind at the finish just as Pyykonen drew alongside. He won by less than 0.001s.

Garcia, Pyykonen and Mackie pulled away at the start of the final, and traded places until Hugo Jalade joined in and squabbled with Garcia. He then cycled back to the front as Roxanne Lantinga made it a six-kart fight, and the lead kept changing hands until Garcia started defending on lap 11.

Eloi Gonzalez Moreno tried breaking Garcia’s defences with a lunging move that earned himself a penalty, so Mackie then led.

Jalade went off soon too, and on the last lap Garcia tried going around Pyykonen’s outside. Despite hitting the grass, Pyykonen retained his speed and finished third behind Garcia, with Carenini climbing 11 spots to fourth.

Results round-up
Cremona
Final (17 laps)
1 Matthias Vandekerckhove Victory Lane [KR] 18m42.024s
2 Kevin Lantinga Croc Promotion [Croc Promotion] +4.121s
3 Andy Ratel Pantano [Pantano] +4.159s
4 Zac Green Jamie Green Racing [KR] +6.055s
5 Cristian Biasatti TBKart [TBKart] +7.618s
6 Ruben Moya Pantano [Pantano] +7.790s
7 Clement Outran Dream Racing [Kosmic] +9.079s
8 Danny Carenini Zanchi Motorsport [Tony Kart] +12.071s
9 Andrea Barbieri Zanchi Motorsport [Tony Kart] +14.143s
10 Cian Geraghty Geraghty Motorsport [Tony Kart]
Fastest lap: Ratel, 1m05.515s

Zuera
Final (16 laps)
1 Harrison Mackie Fusion Motorsport [KR] 17m03.145s
2 Aaron Garcia MDC Racing [KR] +0.333s
3 Otto Pyyykonen Croc Promotion [Croc Promotion] +0.569s
4 Carenini +0.850s
5 Aleix Pinera RC2 Racing Team [Gillard] +0.857s
6 Bertram Sachse Falcon [Falcon] +1.726s
7 Roxanne Lantinga Lantinga Racing [OTK] +1.859s
8 Marius Barry-Berg Barry-Berg Racing [KR] +2.011s
9 Sam Woolley Team BMR [KR] +2.436s
10 K Lantinga +2.810s
FL: Green, 1m03.073s

Championship standings
1 Mackie 133   2 Carenini 108   3 Garcia 94   4 K Lantinga 93   5 Vandekerckhove 85   6 Pyykonen 74   7 Outran 66   8 Ratel 57   9 R Lantinga 54   10 Green 50

The post Harrison Mackie leads thrilling first half of IAME Euro Series season appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

The CIK-FIA European Karting Championship concluded at Cremona last weekend with several title twists.

The senior-level OK karts topped the bill, with Reme Lammers – son of former Formula 1 racer Jan – leading by six points over 2022 Italian champion Gabriel Gomez and 43 points over Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Alex Powell.

Lammers started off strongly, qualifying second behind Louis Iglesias and with Prema’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul in third.

Iglesias could only convert his pace into one heat podium, while Lammers won four heats, Tarnvanichkul won three and both Luigi Collucio and Fionn McLaughlin won two.

Lammers then led lights-to-flag in super-heat one, with Alpine junior Kean Nakamura Berta in second and Powell in third, while Tarnvanichkul won super-heat two and Gomez finished fifth. That meant Gomez started 12th on the final’s grid, while Lammers had pole.

Drivers not being in formation meant three laps ran before the rolling start actually took place, and there was immediate drama as Collucio went from fifth to second and a multi-kart crash led to one kater rolling.

There was a full course yellow called until lap five, and after Coluccio took the lead while Gomez fell to 17th. Nakamura Berta and Tarnvanichkul soon passed Lammers, but had already been gapped by Coluccio. Lammers had a points gap where he did not need to worry about losing places.

Red Bull junior Tarnvahichkul moved back into second on lap 11 and stayed there behind Coluccio. Gomez gained from three karters ahead being penalised to finish 13th, but with Lammers fourth the latter comfortably claimed the title.

It was similar in OK-Junior, as Sacha Bondarev arrived with a 42-point lead and left as champion by 11 points.

His chief rival Thibaut Ramaekers took pole ahead of Dries Van Langendonck, with Bondarev 10th fastest in his qualifying group. But he immediately rebounded by winning the first heat.

Ramaekers won three heats, Van Langendonck, Christian Costoya, Alfie Slater and Iacopo Martinese each won two, and title outsider Lewis Wherrell won the final one.

Bondarev came from fourth to beat Ramaekers to super-heat one victory, and Martinese won super-heat two. That put Ramaekers on final pole, with Bondarev starting fourth.

Martinese took the lead from Ramaekers on lap five of the final, but he regained it with three laps remaining to win with fastest lap. It was not enough deny Bondarev, whose third place made him champion. Wherrell was disqualified over a collision.

The spec junior-level FIA Karting Academy Trophy concluded its three-round season on the support bill. Max Walton led by 15 points on Thursday, but lost the six-way title fight by 21 points to Hugo Marti.

Wotjek Woda was the star of the weekend, beating Marti to pole, winning three heats (as Marti won two) and the final.

Marti took the final lead from Woda on lap three and pulled away, but was drawn back in and after losing the lead on lap seven he had several scuffles for position, eventually losing all of them to finish sixth.

But with Walton ninth in his qualifying group, 10th on average in the heats and 25th in the final (after a penalty for causing an incident undid his early 17th to seventh charge), Marti basically had the title wrapped up already before the final.

Results round-up
OK final (25 laps)
1 Luigi Coluccio Tony Kart 21m02.410s
2 Enzo Tarnvanichhul Prema +1.508s
3 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +2.154s
4 Rene Lammers Parolin +2.896s
5 Alex Powell Prema +4.378s
6 Fionn McLaughlin VDK Racing +8.411s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Energy Corse +9.914s
8 Dmitry Mateev Kart Republic +10.096s
9 David Walther Koski Motorsport +11.492s
10 Ean Eyckmans Leclerc by Lennox Racing +11.657s
Pole: Lammers
Fastest lap: Lammers, 47.874s

Championship standings
1 Lammers 278   2 Gabriel Gomez 213   3 Powell 191   4 Stolceramnis 166   5 Nakamura Berta 147   6 Joe Turney 89   7 McLaughlin 84   8 Collucio 83   9 Tarnavanichkul 77   10 Nathan Tye 72

OK-Junior final (21 laps)
1 Thibaut Ramaekers VDK Racing 17m29.535s
2 Iacopo Martinese Kart Republic +0.811s
3 Sasha Bondarev Kart Republic +2.578s
4 Dries Van Langendonck Forza Racing +2.755s
5 Stepan Antonov Kart Republic +6.860s
6 Alfie Slater Ricky Flynn Motorsport +7.731s
7 Andy Consani Shamick Europe +8.321s
8 Niklas Schaufler DPK Racing +9.027s
9 Scott Lindblom Tony Kart +9.512s
10 Noah Monteiro Kart Republic +9.625s
P: Ramaekers
FL: Ramaekers, 49.174s

Standings
1 Bondarev 256   2 Ramaekers 245   3 Martinese 182   4 Lewis Wherrell 155   5 Van Langendonck 147   6 Christian Costoya 138   7 Zac Drummond 127   8 Antonov 88   9 Tiziano Monza 80   10 Elliot Kaczynski 68

FIA Karting Academy Trophy final (21 laps)
1 Wotjek Woda 17m53.490s
2 Lisa Billard +0.223s
3 Markas Silkunas +2.525s
4 Arthur Broughan +2.816s
5 Romeo Haagh +2.911s
6 Hugo Marti +3.829s
7 Rocco Coronel +7.560s
8 Santino Panetta +8.866s
9 Lorenzo Campos +9.119s
10 Simon Mayer +9.556s
P: Woda
FL: Haagh, 50.197s

Standings
1 Marti 111   2 Max Walton 90   3 Silkunas 85   4 Panetta 79   5 Marius Barry-Berg 74   6 Woda 72   7 Billard 71   8 Vasileios Apostolidis 59   9 Ryutaro Sato 57   10 Broughan 53

The post European Karting champions crowned, F1 juniors miss out at Cremona appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Tatuus

The testing of Tatuus’s second-generation Formula 4 chassis has begun in Italy, with an Autotecnica-built Abarth engine.

On September 1 the first ever running with the halo-shod T-421 car, which will make its race debut on the support bill of Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December, took place at the Varano circuit in Italy using Hankook tyres.

Two days later the car was back on track, with roughly 700 kilometres covered across the two days and all trouble-free.

“This is a circuit we used to test our cars at first [for shakedowns], because it is complete with an handling track and with a long straight (about two kilometres) for aero set-up and braking testing,” Tatuus’s chief executive officer Giovanni Delfino told Formula Scout.

The next week the car then headed to Cremona, where many karters test in F4 before making their debuts, for a full-scale test with Formula 3 race-winner and Formula Regional European Championship team manager Ralf Aron at the wheel.

Cremona also has a long straight which benefits component testing, and was where laptimes were first being measured for the car. It’s next test is at Vallelunga, and then the next scheduled after that for the rolling chassis is at Imola.

Photo: Tatuus

Several teams in the Italian F4 paddock revealed to Formula Scout plans to race the T-421 prior to its introduction to the championship in 2022. At least two teams will be headed to the Abu Dhabi GP, while another is considering entering its cars in a club-level series before the anticipated May start date of the Italian F4 season.

This would require the regulations of series such as the Austrian F4 Cup to open to incorporate the incoming second-generation F4 cars.

So far the British, Italian, Spanish, United Arab Emirates and new Indian championship have committed to adopting the T-421 as soon as it is on the market.

One series that is sticking with an older car for a few years longer is F4 South East Asia, which uses a Mygale chassis.

“We will continue to use the first-generation car until 2024 as specified by FIA,” the series told Formula Scout, as it confirmed its 2021 season is now cancelled. “Racing starts in quarter one of 2022.”

The post Gallery: Tatuus begins testing of second-generation F4 car appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: ACI Sport

Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli made his highly anticipated car racing debut in the Italian F4 championship last weekend. The 15-year-old and his Prema team shared the experience with Formula Scout 

Signed up by Formula 1’s dominant force while still racing mini karts, there’s definitiely a sense that Andrea Kimi Antonelli – son of some-time racer and successful team boss Marco Antonelli – is “the chosen one” in the same way that Lewis Hamilton was after picking up Ron Dennis’s patronage and becoming a McLaren-Mercedes junior during his karting years.

Antonelli turned 15 almost three weeks ago, and while he was old enough to race a single-seater car before then – such as in Danish Formula 4 where Sauber junior Emmo Fittipaldi competes – Mercedes had its own plans for its Italian star.

His preparations began early this year, testing an F4 car publicly for the first time at the same Red Bull Ring circuit where he debuted last weekend. Back in March he was with his father’s AKM Motorsport team, and in his snowy half-day in the car was third fastest and 0.162 seconds off Van Amersfoort Racing’s pacesetter Ollie Bearman who has since dominated Italian F4.

Antonelli told Formula Scout ahead of his race debut how, rather remarkably, his first trip to the track didn’t go to plan.

“Unluckily I could do only half a day because the other day my team-mate broke the car and I had to give my car over,” Antonelli said of the test.

“So when I arrived here I wasn’t really ready, also because I wasn’t really expecting to do these last three rounds [of the Italian F4 season], but I really like this [single-seater] world and I’m working as hard as I can to improve every times.”

Part of the complications of that first test, which are still being felt today, is that Antonelli broke the tibia and metatartus in his left leg last November during the final of the CIK-FIA World Karting Championship.

“In that first test I was using only my right leg,” he revealed. “It’s really hard to get used to it, of course. I think in laptime you don’t lose that much once you get used to it, but yeah it’s really hard.

“Most of the time I confused myself because sometimes I was trying to brake with the left, but I realised that I had no strength. Was hard. I’m happy that I’m almost fully recovered.”

An almost full recovery wasn’t enough for the Red Bull Ring, which shows how impressive the results to come were, as the heavy braking zones of turns one and three in particular require a lot of brake pressure and therefore a strong left leg.

However Antonelli wouldn’t even be in the position to be competitive in an F4 car were it not for race training he did with the leg. After wrapping up the CIK-FIA European Karting Championship title for OK karts in July, he moved into the more physical shifter KZ kart for a European Championship round and finished sixth, then the weekend before his F4 bow turned up to the KZ World Championship and came ninth against far older, stronger and more experienced opposition.

“KZ helped because actually when I get back to go-karts I was struggling with the leg,” Antonelli said after his maiden F4 qualifying session, which he ended in 10th place and 0.451s off pole-sitting Prema team-mate Sebastian Montoya.

“With KZ you have to push harder than the OK one, and I think that helps a lot, also because in go-karts you have a lot of vibrations so you have to hold the brake [down], and that was the hardest thing for me in that moment. Every time I was getting better, also in the car with the brake compared to yesterday I get better. So yeah, I’m really happy about it.”

Antonelli’s F4 mileage before his debut included another test day with AKM at Vallelunga in June, then a Ferrari Driver Academy scouting camp that Italy’s motorsport federation nominated him for alongside another son-of: Brando Badoer.

Photo: FIA Karting/KSP Reportages

His first actual running with Prema and the crew he would work with last weekend was at Italy’s Cremona circuit, which has heavy braking zones and corners reminiscent of Yas Marina Circuit. Prema’s F4 team manager Grazia Troncon revealed that Antonelli will drive there in the races supporting F1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December, as it will be the first time that teams get to race Tatuus’s second-generation F4 car before it is adopted by series across the globe, including Italy’s, in 2022.

Troncon also shared her first impressions of Antonelli’s debut after he converted his 10th place on the grid into ninth – and the rookie classification win – in his first ever single-seater race on Saturday.

“This is a good training for him because 30 cars on track is not easy, and also this track also he already tested,” she said.

“But it was very, very cold because of the snow and it was in the period when he had the problem with the leg, so honestly I think he started well without doing any mistakes today and he has to focus to keep the best from the experience.

“The whole team thinks he’s a very talented driver. He showed good performance in karting, but also the results coming today show that he has a good potential so he just has to improve and work to put everything together. All the guys here [in Italian F4] want to do a good job, so it’s a hard training also for him.

“Some things are training in the small circuit, and and some things are racing. They’re not the same things. But I think it’s a good opportunity for him, he has fast team-mates too.”

Guiding Antonelli through the weekend, and doing so for the season’s remaining rounds, was Pedro Matos. The former racer has form working alongside young talents, having engineered Oscar Piastri and Dennis Hauger’s maiden car racing campaigns before winning the Formula Regional Europe title with Frederik Vesti and continuing that relationship into FIA Formula 3 where he worked with Piastri too. He’s now reunited with Hauger and they lead the way in F3. So it’s no surprise he was trusted with possibly the most high-pressure support role for a single-seater debutant since Max Verstappen.

Antonelli’s first yards in an official session, Photo: Formula Scout

“Pedro is really good,” said Antonelli after his debut. “I like him a lot. He’s really calm and he’s really good to explain everything. I really like working with him, and I think we can achieve really good results with him.

“Race one went quite good. For being my first race, it’s a quite good result. I want to do better, but I make a lot of experience, I learn a lot, especially when I’m very close to the guy in front because when you improve [to close in on cars ahead] you have dirty air, so it’s harder to control the car. And that was my weak point in the race. But for tomorrow it will be much better.”

Sunday’s two races were going to be a little harder though, as Antonelli was 16th fastest in the second qualifying session.

“In quali two we didn’t really get the lap together,” Matos told Formula Scout. “His pace was good enough for top 10. I think this track is the hardest for rookies because of the big stops, and coming from karting still the brake pressure needs to be a bit improved but I’m pretty sure it will be quite a good progression from him.”

Because he can’t brake hard enough, and the fact inexperience means he is yet to ‘unlearn’ skills that were applied in karting, Antonelli went too hard on many corner entries but that is widespread when it comes to graduating karters and particularly those who are still young enough to be a year or two away from a growth spurt in height and muscle mass.

Matos added that Antonelli “was losing everything in the first three corners and then he was matching everyone, even quicker, through the last bit of the track, so I’m expecting good things from the end of the season!”

Antonelli rose four spots in race two on Sunday morning to finish 12th, then had an almighty challenge to cap off his debut weekend. Just before the start of race three, heavy rain hit the Red Bull Ring and so action got underway behind the safety car. A majority of the grid peeled in to the pitlane at the end of lap one to switch to grooved tyres, and Antonelli – last in the queue of Prema’s sixtet of cars – spent nearly two minutes in there before he returned to track in 26th place.

There were two more safety car interruptions, but he was still able to rise up the order. He gained five places from drivers who chose not to pit, and three more from those who went off, but in the seven green flag laps he overtook eight cars and snatched ninth from Pedro Perino at turn five on the last lap.

No other driver made up as many places, although US Racing’s race winner Tim Tramnitz fell from first to 15th with his pitstop and then charged back up to first. Most teams were anywhere from 12 to 50 seconds faster with their pitstops than Antonelli’s, and a drop of 4.3°C in the track temperature during the race made the wet weather running even trickier.

“He had a very hard experience [for learning] but he took a good rookie podium in his first race in his career, and also in this kind of conditions, very slippery track, pitstop, everything, he did a good job,” Troncon said afterwards.

Matos was also glowing, and the data explaines why. Antonelli set the third fastest lap, only slower than sophomore F4 racers Tramnitz and Joshua Dufek who dominated stages of the race, and he was also only bettered by those two in the brake-heavy sector one.

“I think he wished that race lasted for a bit longer because he was flying,” said Matos.

“For a first weekend it was the most experience you could get. He has never driven on the wet before, so that last race was really impressive.

“We had to be careful with the pitstop, because it was just unsafe [in a busy pitlane], so we had to do it cleanly and do it slowly so we lost a bit of ground there. As Prema have a lot of cars running, we have only one wheel gun, two mechanics, so it’s quite tricky. But he did a really good job.”

How did Antonelli rate the weekend, and the challenges of race three, himself?

“Unluckily in the pitstop we lost a lot of time because when I came out I was last almost. But I felt very comfortable with the car and we were really fast and finishing P9 is a great result.

“I’ve improved a lot since Thursday. Not only in the battle with the other drivers, but also on my driving. I’m understanding more the car, brake pressure every time was getting better too. Now in the rain you don’t really need a lot of pressure, but I think in the dry, every race, every time I was improving and I think for Mugello we will be ready.”

Based on his performances in an F4 car so far – and a superb attitude (and fluency in English) out of it – it’s going to be great to see what Antonelli can do next with his part-time racing programme, which resumes at Mugello on October 8-10.

Further reading
The single-seater star engineering Prema’s FIA F3 title bid
The youngest ever winners in FIA F4
How Ollie Bearman has risen “to find a new limit” in F4
The top karting stars of 2020
10 of the best junior single-seater racing debuts

The post How Mercedes’ Antonelli fared on a highly-anticipated F4 debut appeared first on Formula Scout.

Formula Renault Eurocup teams conducted their maiden running with the championship’s new Regional Formula 3-based car at a collective shakedown in Italy on Friday.

Teams each collected their first car from constructor Tatuus at its facility near Monza earlier this week and then headed to the Cremona circuit for the shakedown, held in wet and cold conditions.

Three teams ran drivers they have already announced for the coming season: MP Motorsport with Lorenzo Colombo, R-ace GP with Oscar Piastri and BhaiTech with Federico Malvestiti. Tech 1 Racing ran Frank Bird, who raced with the team last season.

Arden fielded its British Formula 4 graduate Patrik Pasma, Global Racing Service had Xavier Lloveras on driving duties after he gave the team its debut in F4, while M2 Competition entrusted its shakedown to Ricky Collard, the 2016 BRDC British F3 runner-up.

Fernando Alonso’s FA Racing by Drivex entry was driven by Javier Gonzalez, a winner in Spanish F4 with the latter team.

Alonso later tweeted to say he witnessed “a historic moment” with the firing up of the car.

Today I have witnessed a very special moment, firing up for the first time the FA Racing Formula Renault 2019. With this car we reinforce the commitment for younger generations from the FA kart (3 times karting world champions) to the single seaters. Let's go! #FAracing @drivex_ pic.twitter.com/6kw4mMvEAB

— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) February 1, 2019

AVF and JD Motorsport were absent from the shakedown, although the latter already has a driver signed in Ugo de Wilde.

Renault Sport said teams will receive their second and third cars (with a three-car-per-team limit reinstated for this year) by the end of February, before collective testing starts at Magny-Cours in early March.

No times were released from the shakedown.

The post Eurocup teams get first running with new Formula Renault car appeared first on Formula Scout.