Photo: ACI Sport

Formula Regional, GB3 and Formula 4 teams have concluded their 2025 testing schedules in Europe over the last week.

There was an Italian F4 test at Vallelunga on November 29/30 featuring 23 drivers, and 0.064 seconds split the top four.

Arjen Kraling was quickest, topping the day two afternoon session with a 1m34.538s that put him 0.018s ahead of US Racing team-mate Ludovico Busso and with a 0.064s gap to Prema’s Sasha Bondarev.

In the morning, the driver of US’s #460 car had set a 1m34.551s that put them third fastest overall. They had edged Kraling by 0.051s, Bondarev by 0.057s and Busso by 0.095s in the session.

Including two drivers who did not improve on their day one bests, a second covered the top 16.

The driver of US’s #460 car had started the test on top, posting a 1m34.726s on their final lap of the morning on day one to lead Bondarev by 0.078s and the driver of US’s #17 car by 0.128s. In the afternoon, that driver lowered the pace to 1m34.751s to pip Bondarev by 0.002s, US’s #460 driver by 0.066s and Busso by 0.1s.

Barcelona hosted junior single-seater testing for three days, with multiple categories on track. The nine-car contingent of FIA Formula 3 cars included entries from Campos Racing, Prema, DAMS and Hitech GP, who ran Michael Shin and Jin Nakamura.

There were 10 GB3 cars in action, but Elite Motorsport’s drivers were on their own on day one. Other teams joined for the next two days, and Hitech’s drivers set the pace in all but two sessions where Rodin Motorsport’s Maxim Rehm and Hillspeed’s Dante Vinci led the way.

Global Racing Service was running Gianni Giovanelli in one of its Eurocup-3 cars, with Palou Motorsport also on track from that championship, while Elite was the only team gathering mileage with GB4 machinery.

There were also 13 F4 drivers testing, entered by Van Amersfoort Racing, Monlau Motorsport, SG Motorsport and AKM Motorsport. The VAR drivers were comfortably quickest, and AKM’s line-up included Vittorio Orsini and Williams Formula 1 junior Dean Hoogendoorn.

Orsini won the 22nd edition of the Italian motorsport federation’s annual Supercorso Federale award last month, beating four other finalists over a four-day programme of “psychophysical assessments, simulator activities, track driving and specific training”. This included F4 running with Prema, formated to mirror a race weekend.

Coaching Orsini through the final was 1993 Italian F3 champion Christian Pescatori.

Euroformula team Motopark rented the Paul Ricard circuit this Tuesday and Wednesday, and it ran six of its cars. Double R Racing, which last raced in Euroformula back in 2021, and BVM Racing joined in with three cars each, but they were all outpaced by MP Motorsport. While it ran two cars in the test, Formula Scout understands MP is not the new team that the championship has teased will join the grid in 2026.

In separate sessions were a contingent of FEED Racing’s Formula 4 cars and several FRegional European Championship teams.

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri started off as fastest, then Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta topped the next three sessions on the dry first day. In slower conditions on Wednesday, Oliveri and team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri topped the timesheets.

Test results

The post FRegional, GB3 and F4 teams do final tests of 2025 in Europe appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Ian Salvestrin

As the Italian F4 championship celebrates its 10th anniversary, commentator Ian Salvestrin joins the Formula Scout Podcast to discuss some of the highlights of the first decade and his take on its current crop of talent

While he is involved with multiple car and kart racing series around the globe, Ian Salvestrin’s distinctive voice, enthusiasm and catchy, if sometimes a little corny, driver nicknames have established him as the “voice of Italian F4” for English-speaking audiences.

His level of research, paddock insight and close relationships with drivers and their families put some other commentators to shame.

After attending “one or two races in 2015” Salvestrin’s Italian f4 involvement really took off during its third season in 2016, which he recalls “coincided with the change in the broadcast scene; I guess you could say it’s when live streaming became commonplace rather than experimental”.

“Before Motorsport TV came into existence, it was Motors TV which was run out of England and so we had an English broadcast. It was a highlights series in 2016, so we did hal- hour highlights of each round.”

“[2016] was a trial year. It was on-and-off for 2017 or ’18 off memory because as WSK we were still doing the FIA World and European Karting Championships, which was priority. And then I think from 2018 or ’19 [I’ve been doing it] ever since.”

We are now so accustomed to live streaming of every possible series, it is hard to remember what life was like beforehand. “The world has changed. Everything is broadcast in English and I would like to think to a reasonably high quality,” he says proudly.

What have been his most cherished memories from those 10 years?

Often it has been “the unknown drivers who have gone on to star” who have left the greatest impression on him.

“There has been a lot of favourites that have come in, who have done okayand other unknowns who have not necessarily won the series but have gone on to be absolute stars which no one picked. The classic is Ollie [Bearman] in 2021. He was a good driver in world karting. He did the last couple of races in 2020 with US Racing and he was in the top three or top five. Then Van Amersfoort in 2021 and he just wiped the floor, and we all know the story since.”

On a personal level, a highlight has been the “very good genuine life friends” he has made, thanks to his close involvement with the series over so many years. “Speaking selfishly, you get to know drivers and their families. Week-in, week-out with them. You’re travelling all around the country, so you stay in the same hotels, airports, racetrack.”

On-track, Salvestrin picks out the 2020 season as a personal highlight. “Gabriele Mini in 2020 was class. He was brilliant. That was possibly, and this is a subjective opinion, the strongest season in the series in my humble opinion. You had phenomenal drivers in it, Dino [Beganovic] was there, Johnny [Edgar], Dexter [Patterson], mind you, he was given a crap car, Sebastian [Montoya], Jak Crawford, who won a couple of rounds.

“Remember that was the delayed start year, 2020, so we didn’t start the first round until July at Misano. Gabriele dominated – three pole positions. He was really good. We knew him for the previous five years from WSK karting. He was a worthy winner. He beat Francesco Pizzi to the title.”

That year was remarkable already due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on motorsport, and particularly society’s response and the sport’s reaction to get racing back underway.

Salvestrin has strong views on what he sees as government overreaction, but the circumstances undeniably created a unique atmosphere and camaraderie in paddocks (and led to Formula Scout’s trackside reporter co-commentating with Salvestrin).

“I was actually looking at some highlights the other day and sadly those video highlights will be ever ruined by those ridiculous face masks we wear, so every photo, every video there, we look like clowns,” rues Salvestrin.

“It was bizarre circumstances just to travel, just to make it to the track. There was drivers, there was mechanics, there was journalists, who are not at this round because they’ve tested…”. His “lack of respect for that farcical period” means he can’t bring himself to add the word “positive”.

“It was a tough period to travel, just to be at each race, so it brought everyone stronger. There was a real sense of family, of friendship there and, and ferociously competitive on the track.”

Aside from that year, illuminated by Mini’s brilliance and darkened by the pandemic, he also picks “Ollie the year later” as a highlight.

“Then 2016 with Mick [Schumacher] and Marcus [Siebert] was a strong championship and that came down to the final round. That was David [and] Goliath, not so much Marcus and Mick because they’re both good drivers, but Jenzer Motorsport, the small team versus the monster, which Prema has now become, competing in IndyCar next year, World [Endurance Championship], F4 and Formula 2.”

Salvestrin was also involved in the launch of Formula Regional Europe, initially under the same ACI Sport and WSK banner as F4, in 2019. “That was really good, those events. That was certainly a highlight to have the two championships running together and many of the F4 drivers going into FRegional which still happens now anyhow, but due to circumstances another organisation, or Renault directly, is now doing FRegional,” he reflects.

While FREC ended up being merged with the Formula Renault Eurocup, Italian F4 has grown in strength so much – after seeing off early competition from ADAC F4 – to not only rank as the most prestigious of the FIA-sanctioned F4 series but prove so popular that a multinational spin-off called Euro 4 was launched last year.

Photo: ACI Sport

Salvestrin believes that the success of Italian F4 and the country’s other racing series is due to a combination of factors.

“Italy is the world centre of the karting. If you want to be a professional basketballer you go to America. If you want to be an ice hockey player you go to Canada or Finland. If you want to play cricket, you go to England or my country, Australia. For karting it’s Italy. There is no question.”

“Another reason is, that’s where the industry is,” he says. From the 1960s into the 1990s customer junior single-seaters were largely manufactured in Britain by the likes of March, Ralt and Reynard. Now the segment is dominated by two Italian factories, Dallara and Tatuus.

Salvestrin relates the experience shared with him recently by a competitor in Spanish F4. “They have a van driving from their base in Spain to Italy two or three times a week: Tatuus, the car is manufactured in Italy, the electronics are in Italy, [tyre supplier] Pirelli’s in Italy, the engines are in Italy, the race suit suppliers are in Italy, everything.”

With grids again nudging upwards towards 40, Italian F4 appears in rude health. But could it suddenly implode in the same way as Germany’s ADAC F4 series did at the end of 2022, collapsing under the weight of its own success?

“I can’t see that happening anytime soon because there’s a very good, strong, solid base,” he replies. “I can’t see it collapsing, so to speak. Not at all, because the industry is there, everyone is there. So many people live there, non-Italian people living there and speaking the language, and [the Italians] have learned English [which] has improved dramatically over the past two decades. It has just become a heartland.”

Turning to this year’s championship, Salvestrin is in no doubt that the title fight is already as good as over.

“Ollie was the first English driver to win the series. I dare say, we will have another English champion in 2024. I realise we have only had three of seven rounds. That’s nine of 21 races. Freddie [Slater] has been absolute class. He’s well prepared.

Photo: ACI Sport

“We knew this. He’s a world junior karting champion, he got pole position for his first KZ2 gearbox karting race in 2023. Anyone who’s ever driven a KZ2 kart knows they are absolute violent monsters. They are ferocious. He got pole position in the first race. He won races in KZ2.”

“He did do a couple of races in the Euro 4 series and Italian F4 and got a pole position last year. He’s extremely well prepared with ADD Management, with Prema of course. Nice as possible family. You would not meet a nicer family in the paddock. His parents, he’s the oldest of five, I just cannot speak highly [enough] about them. He’s a class act.”

Like Bearman, Slater has a younger brother who also races. Thomas Bearman recently had a breakthrough karting weekend in Italy, while Alfie Slater is currently 18th in Ginetta Junior, the entry-level sportscar series Freddie won last year.

Despite the older Slater’s dominance, with seven wins from nine races so far, his lead is ‘only’ 38 points over Salvestrin’s “pleasant surprise” of the season so far, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi.

“Imola – pole position for all three races by 0.3 seconds, but VAR have struggled since they won the title with Ollie in ’21; a big project to go instantly to Formula 3 and F2 racing. It seems as though their F4 and FREC [programmes] have suffered but they’re back.”

Yamakoshi is the only man to defeat Slater so far this year, winning twice at Imola. “[But] he did frustratingly, dare I say, throw away a win in race three. But he’ll learn from that. He won’t make that mistake again, but he’s quick,” he says.

Slater’s team-mates Tomass Stolcermanis and Alex Powell, a Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior, are two more drivers Salvestrin singles out for praise and has high expectations of.

“[Stolcermanis] won a couple of races with the Energy Corse team in karting. Freaking hell, he’s a talent. On his day he pulls off some unbelievable moves. I think when it clicks with Tomass, people will be watching and saying freaking hell, this kid’s good.

Photo: Prema

“Kean Nakamura Berta, a former junior world champion as well, Euro champion. I don’t know what to say. He’s had a couple of incidents. A couple not through his own fault. He’s had one podium, it just hasn’t happened for him so far. He’s also an Alpine F1 junior. He’s also in that bracket.”

Beyond the pre-season favourites, Salvestrin rates Maxim Rehm, “an outstanding young talent,” and his Australian compatriot Jack Beeton highly.

Beeton took pole at Vallelunga with US racing, the reigning champion team. “It’s his second year in the series. He won F4 South East Asia, [where] the level might not quite be the same, to put it politely, but he still won the series. And it’s good experience. The problem is it’s three rounds in and Freddie’s won seven out of the nine races.”

Aside from his driving ability, he emphasizes Slater’s professionalism in front of the media. “One thing which is very impressive about Freddie is his skill with the media. He’s excellent. He’s one of the best I’ve seen,” he says. Praise indeed from a commentator who has seen so many top talents embark on their single-seater careers.

While media training is now a core part of a young driver’s education, Salvestrin laments the difficulty of interviewing some of the less talkative drivers.

“In years gone by, I’ve had to interview so many racing drivers. And some drivers from various countries are not so good with the media and it’s one word, one syllable answers. I love it when an American wins a race. I don’t even need to ask a question, just give them the microphone and go and have a coffee. Come back in five minutes and they’ve just written a Hollywood-style speech. The Americans are absolutely brilliant!” he enthuses.

“Some of the people with the media, it’s natural. It’s just the same as some are natural drivers or some are natural footballers or natural runners or whatever. Some are just natural with the media and Andrea [Kimi Antonelli] is actually very good. I must say he’s got that very bubbly personality which he’s had since he’s eight years old [while] Freddie’s a well-spoken Englishman.”

Photo: ACI Sport

The key to Slater’s performance is in his preparation, Salvestrin believes.

“That’s critical because they’re racing three times in the weekend. Then it’s three weeks to the next race, so it’s very concentrated to excel in that that short period, the qualifying sessions very short, you’ve got one lap [with peak grip], so the preparation’s absolutely key. And this is where Freddie’s done very well, but as I said, he took pole position in his first ever KZ2 kart race which Andrea did too,” he notes. “Not a coincidence!”

Clearly, for Salvestrin, a young driver that can perform on a KZ2 kart (against the older, more experienced opposition who can spend many years becoming the standard setters in shifter karting) is a talent to watch for.

Salvestrin’s commentaries are peppered with self-created driver nicknames, some of which stick as they move up – “Dynamite Dino” or the “Boy from Brazil”, for example.

“It’s just a natural creation. And sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t,” he admits. “I do try and give interest to the people watching. We had so many safety cars at the weekend. Immensely frustrating. I can only describe the race order on lap eight so many times without giving other pieces of information. Certainly [I have] no intention of ever being disrespectful or turning it into a gimmick or a sideshow.”

With multiple racing series competing for fans’ attention, and F1 squeezing other categories out of the media spotlight, a bit of humour can help get attention, as long as it is in combination with the knowledge and passion that we expect from those calling the races for the television and streaming audiences.

While Slater is in a commanding championship position, his rivals can reduce the pace gap. Will anybody launch a challenge in the season’s second half as Kacper Sztuka did in 2023? If they do, Ian Salvestrin (and Formula Scout) will be there.

The post Salvestrin calls Slater “a class act” among Italian F4’s long list of stars appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Kacper Sztuka has been declared the winner of the controversial second Euro 4 race at Monza last month after a review by the Italian federation’s stewarding panel.

The results had been “frozen” after the race when a marshal erroneously waved a yellow flag and displayed the safety car board at Curva Grande, even though the race had been green-flagged at the start-finish line as the drivers started their ninth lap after a safety car period.

While some drivers immediately backed off, others continued, having received no notification from their teams and seeing green flags being shown further around the corner. Furthermore, the flag and board were only shown to the leading 13 cars before they were withdrawn.

In the words of the panel’s judgement, this created “a chaotic situation that unfortunately cannot be reconstructed from the video evidence.”

The safety car was immediately sent out again, “to try and re-establish the correct positions, unfortunately without success,” leaving some of the erstwhile leaders back in the pack having slowed down.

The stewarding panel was convened at last weekend’s Italian Formula 4 round at Vallelunga and decided to take the race  results from the end of the preceding lap and award half points, as less than 75% of the race distance had been completed.

The panel’s report makes clear they rejected the alternative of annulling the race entirely as being “disproportionate” where a result can be determined. It felt its decision is consistent with the procedure if “the chequered flag is erroneously waved in advance.”

The panel was, however, unable to “verify with due certainty any infringements by the drivers in this context, despite having recovered the SD cards and video images.”

The winner on the road, Freddie Slater is demoted to fourth in the final results behind Prema team-mate Arvid Lindblad and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer.

Sztuka’s victory, after he was initially classified ninth, moves him into fourth in the standings. However, he will not be competing in the series finale at Barcelona this weekend after wrapping up the Italian F4 title at Vallelunga,.

Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Yuanpu Cui will make his car racing debut driving for British team Argenti Motorsport, for which he has done two F4 tests at Brands Hatch in recent weeks.

Cui raced for Kart Republic with Argenti branding through 2021 and 2022. On OK-Junior karts he was Andrea Margutti Trophy runner-up and 11th in the Italian championship.

Last year he stepped up to senior karting, and finished fourth at the Andrea Margutti Trophy in X30 Senior. In OK, he came eighth in the WSK Euro Series and Final Cup, 11th in the Open Cup and 16th in the Champions of the Future series. He started 2023 with 17th at the IAME Winter Cup in X30 Senior, before a move to Prema that brought little success.

Lin Hodenius will join Van Amersfoort Racing’s line-up after racing for its partner team Monlau Motorsport in Spanish F4, while Giacomo Pedrini will switch to VAR from PHM Racing.

Additional reporting by Ida Wood

The post Sztuka awarded win in second Monza Euro 4 race after yellow flag chaos appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Ferrari

The Ferrari Driver Academy has revealed the four drivers who are taking part in its second scouting camp of 2023.

The camp is organised in conjuction with Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), the Italian automobile federation, and they have now been run for several years. It got underway at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters today, and includes sessions driving Formula 4 cars on Ferrari’s Fiorano test track.

Making his second appearances at an FDA camp is Tomass Stolcermanis, while Dutchman Rene Lammers and Italians Emanuele Olivieri and Mattia Colnaghi are first-time attendees.

Lammers – the 15-year-old son of former Formula 1 racer Jan – is this year’s CIK-FIA European champion on OK karts. His 16-year-old opponent Stolcermanis came fourth in the standings, while in the WSK Super Master Series they finished third and fifth respectively and in the Champions of the Future series Stolcermanis was sixth and Lammers was 11th.

Stolcermanis currently leads the WSK Euro Series, which Lammers is sixth in, and he also came third in this year’s WSK Champions Cup and seventh in the FIA World Cup for KZ2 shifter karts.

The 15-year-old Olivieri started his rookie year on OK karts by finishing fifth in the Lonato Winter Cup and eighth in the WSK Champions Cup. He followed that up with 13th in WSK SMS, 15th in CotF and 34th in the European championship.

Colnaghi, also 15, stepped up to OK karts at the end of last year and came 32nd in the WSK Final Cup. In 2023 he has had mixed form, with 15th in the European championship the standout having failed to score in WSK SMS and placing 42nd in CotF.

At the end of the camp on Friday, the quartet will be assessed on their merits for if they deserve a spot in the annual FDA Scouting World Finals.

The post Ferrari chooses drivers for its second scouting camp of 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Ferrari

The Ferrari Driver Academy has revealed the four drivers who are taking part in its first scouting camp of 2023.

The camp is organised in conjuction with Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI), the Italian automobile federation, and they have now been run for several years.

ACI Sport nominated Italians Francesco Marenghi and Giacomo Pedrini for the camp, while Polish youngsters Maciej Gladysz and Jan Przyrowski were also selected to participate by the FDA on the advice of kart manufacturer Tony Kart.

The camp began today in Maranello, with sessions focusing on “physical training, lessons on the theory of motorsport and how to manage stress”. There was then a track walk of Fiorano and a Formula 4 simulator session before an F4 test tomorrow. At the end of the camp on Friday, the quartet will be assessed on their merits for if they deserve a spot in the annual FDA Scouting World Finals.

Pedrini is the most experienced of the four in single-seater terms, having done eight F4 tests this year. Marenghi won the Italian title on X30 Junior karts in 2021, and started testing in F4 last year. Currently he is sixth in the IAME Series Italy standings and came 12th in the WSK Open Series for X30 Senior karts.

Former Sauber junior Gladysz won the junior-level FIA Karting Academy Trophy in 2021, and in 2022 won the Champions of the Future Winter Series and came fourth in the CIK-FIA World championship for OK-Junior karts. This year he has done F4 testing while continuing his rivalry with Przyrowski who beat him to the 2022 WSK Euro Series title.

Earlier this year Przyrowski and Gladysz came 15th and 24th respectively in the WSK Super Master Series for OK karts, and last weekened Przyrowski came 13th in the CIK-FIA European championship and Gladysz came 20th.

The post Ferrari names drivers for its first scouting camp of 2023 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

After months of rumours, the Automobile Club d’Italia (ACI) and WSK Promotion have finally confirmed a three-round calendar for the first season of Euro 4, their new Formula 4 championship.

The inaugural event will take place at Mugello on July 7-9, followed by Monza on September 15-17, with the finale at Barcelona on October 20-22.

The Italian rounds will be on the Formula Regional European Championship support bill, with the Barcelona event supporting Euroformula.

Run to the same technical specifications as the Italian F4 championship, the series will use Tatuus T-421 chassis, powered by Autotecnica’s 1.4-litre Abarth-branded engine, and Pirelli tyres.

Each round will comprise three races, each last 30 minutes plus one lap, replicating Italian F4’s standard format, although if the entry list exceeds grid capacity and a three heats-and-a-final format is used, race length is reduced to 25 minutes plus one lap.

Points will be awarded using the same allocation as in Formula 1, with 25 points for the winner, down to a single point for tenth place, but with an interesting twist – double points will be awarded for all three races in Barcelona.

The choice of FIA Grade I circuits, allied to the decision limiting Euro 4 to a maximum of 38 entries, with two to six cars allowed per team, should ensure that circuit capacity is not exceeded and the three-race format is used..

In recent years top teams such as Prema and Van Amersfoort Racing have run full Italian campaigns, supplemented by ad hoc rounds of Germany’s ADAC F4 championship – and occassionally full campaigns when they have been in title contention.

Luca De Donno, boss of Euro 4 promoter WSK Promotion, explained to Formula Scout: “The teams need a minimum of 10 rounds. This year the F4 German championship won’t start, and therefore this is the best moment to introduce this championship.”

In addition: “We need another championship with an international DNA, as national championships are limited to two rounds outside the home country. With Euro 4 it is possible to organise in the future more races outside of Italy.”

Reaction has generally been positive, with VAR’s CEO Rob Niessink telling Formula Scout that the team already has very strong interest from drivers to participate.

De Donno expects “the majority of teams” from Italian F4 to take part and, in addition, confirms that he is currently in talks with three teams from elsewhere, including two from Britain.

Andreas Jenzer, owner of the eponymous Jenzer Motorsport team, feels an opportunity had been missed to make the championship truly European.

“Why don’t we run at Silverstone?” he asked rhetorically. “Then we could get more British teams competing as well.”

As De Donno makes clear that this is his intention, potentially running three races outside Italy and only one domestic round. But “it is step-by-step, we need to find the correct balance for this season”.

“[For the future], the maximum number of rounds is four or five. Not more. Because not all teams and drivers have the budget for more races [in addition to seven rounds of Italian F4].”

The post ACI’s three-round European F4 series confirmed with double points finale appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Diederik van der Laan / Dutch Photo Agency

Formula Regional Europe champion Dino Beganovic looks set to regain the 18 points he lost from being disqualified from the second race at Paul Ricard in June.

Beganovic was removed from the race results when a technical check revealed “the tightening torque of hub flange measured on the front-left upright was found to be 240 Nm” when FREC’s minimum value is 500 Nm. The other three wheels all met the minimum value.

Prema appealed the disqualification in Italy’s court of appeal (as the country’s motorsport federation ACI organises FREC) on September 9 and won its case. That decision was communicated on September 30.

The Italian federation then took the unusual step of appealing against its own court’s verdict prior to FREC’s final round, meaning Beganovic was provisionally disqualified again.

ACI’s appeal was, however, thrown out on procedural grounds by the FIA’s International Court of Appeal (ICA) in a hearing on November 30, with the decision published two weeks later. The ICA ruled that ACI had failed to submit its appeal within seven calendar days, as required by FIA judicial and disciplinary rules.

Having failed to convince the court that the time limit should be based on working days, ACI’s lawyers argued that due to an administrative error its own court’s verdict had been filed under an incorrect case number and that the email setting out that decision had not been sent to the correct individuals within ACI and FREC.

As such, ACI argued it had only been aware of the decision “on 7 October 2022″ after seeing it on its own website, which it had been uploaded to on October 6. The ICA said ACI could not rely on the internal error as justification for missing the filing deadline.

The final decision of the ICA was therefore that the appeal was “inadmissible”, the outcome Prema had sought with the evidence it presented, and “orders the competent Sporting Authority to draw, as appropriate, the consequences of this ruling” which means the case now returns to Italy. ACI, as the losing party, was also ordered to pay both it and Prema’s legal costs.

As the ICA is the final appeal tribunal for international motorsport, no further appeal is possible by ACI in its own court and it should be a matter of procedure once the case returns to Italy to confirm Beganovic’s regained points and the final race result.

It would mean the Ferrari junior ends the season on 300 points, putting him 58 points clear of ART Grand Prix’s Gabriele Mini.

Consequently, Beganovic’s team-mate Paul Aron drops from second to third in the second Paul Ricard race, losing three points and thus finishing four points adrift of that race’s winner Mini.

There is no change to the championship standings from the ICA’s decision, but it does means had the ruling been known at the time, Beganovic would have been crowned champion in the penultimate round at Barcelona rather than with a race to spare in the final round at Mugello.

The post Beganovic to regain FREC podium after ACI appeal fails in FIA court appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: ACI Sport

How do you improve on six titles out of a possible six? That was the question facing Van Amersfoort Racing’s F4 squad as it started 2022 after taking the driver, rookie and teams’ titles in ADAC and Italian F4 last year

Formula Scout sat down with the Dutch team’s chief executive officer Rob Niessink to discuss the phenomenal success of 2021, VAR’s move into Spanish Formula 4 and the next wave of talented teenagers making their first steps in single-seaters.

“Last year was really amazing,” says Niessink. “We had a couple of years where the drivers we had were really good: Jak Crawford and Jonny Edgar and Dennis Hauger. For many years it was really strong and Ollie Bearman was the same, an extremely good driver.”

Bearman, now racing as a Ferrari junior in FIA Formula 3, became the first ever driver to win Germany’s ADAC F4 and the Italian F4 titles while racing for VAR in 2021 and he did so by taking 17 wins and nine further podiums across the two series.

“Sometimes you have years where everything is perfect and it was a year like that. Ollie was prepared to work hard, during COVID-19 he was for weeks living in the Netherlands or living in Italy. Any time he had he was with us in the workshop, or doing simulator work or in meetings. He used one of our offices as a classroom with online lessons. The atmosphere with the other drivers was good.”

Bearman sweep of both titles included a run of nine consecutive on-the-road wins in Italian F4, although his eighth win at Imola was lost to a disqualification over what ACI Sport saw as a non-compliant engine. It’s a decision which still rankles with VAR, though the points loss was unsubstantial, as for Niessink it was a matter of honour and the team’s reputation.

“If we had accepted that instantly it would have been ‘sorry, we’re caught’ and that’s it. But I said, ‘we didn’t do anything’. It cost a fortune – we had an attorney in Italy, because it was all done in Italian, we had another attorney in the Netherlands, we had to travel up and down [during the appeal of the DSQ].

“It took six months and several hearings, and the outcome is that as a team we are responsible [for running a non-compliant part] but there is no proof of something which makes us guilty and that’s good enough for me.”

As a result, the original exclusion from race three at Imola stood, although at one stage “it could theoretically have been that we’re excluded for the whole event”.

“It wouldn’t have made a difference but I didn’t want to have the reputation damage, I didn’t want that somebody could have said ‘yeah, I’m not sure’.” Which leads into Niessink’s next point.

“It was almost embarrassing to see how dominant we were with Bearman.

“I said to Frits [van Amersfoort, founder of the eponymous team] at Imola, ‘if I were another team I would do everything to completely strip the VAR car, to see what is happening here’ because we were so strong. At the moment they took that engine we were 100 points ahead or something like that in the championship. Let’s imagine that we had done something that was not correct, then we would already have switched back to standard for some time, of course.”

Following that domination of Europe’s strongest F4 championships, as well as titles in the previous years with Joey Mawson (2016), Hauger (2019) and Edgar (2020), the start to VAR’s 2022 campaigns has been a tough one as its inexperienced driver line-up has struggled to make an impression against the Prema steamroller.

Nikita Bedrin mirrored Bearman’s successes by winning the titles in the two series’ rookie classifications with VAR in 2021. But events beyond the team’s control before the current seasons started threw its 2022 plans into the air with the Russian.

“The original plan was, of course, that we would have had Nikita in his second year until the moment the Ukraine war started,” Niessink confirms. “We had a signed contract. Everything was lined up.”

Photo: ADAC

But the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the consequent international sanctions meant the budget was no longer available to run Bedrin and he found a way to continue his racing career by joining rival team PHM Racing.

“Although we’re a big team, I couldn’t afford to let him drive for free. Personally, I still have a good contact with him. Of course, I want to win the race myself and I want to beat PHM, but I’m really happy for the kid if he wins the race.

“Nikita is really a very nice guy. I get along with his manager, Peter Aleshin, very good. We all felt really sorry and we were trying to look for a solution for a couple of weeks but then there was another opportunity where it was more doable for the team where he’s driving now than it was for me.”

Without Bedrin to lead VAR’s assault, the line-up features some exciting talents, but ones who need some time to develop. Martinius Stenshorne, in his first season out of karting, has impressed in the first two Italian rounds, scoring three fifth places at Imola and lying seventh in the standings, while Emmo Fittipaldi and Arias Deukmedjan scored a point apiece at Misano.

“We tested a lot in the past with Fittipaldi and [Brando] Badoer and testing went well. Stenshorne the same, we did a lot of testing with Martinius in post-season, before the winter and during the winter. And he’s also a very fast driver. And Deukmedjan can be a surprise, he’s probably faster than he shows but he’s typically the raw diamond.

“Jules [Castro] was originally planned to run in Spain with us. The idea was that he would have been interested in doing the Italian and German programme, but we were full with Nikita so he went to Spain because he definitely wants to drive with us. When Nikita left we said we have a seat here but in his experience he’s quite far behind the other guys.”

All of the drivers mentioned is the complete VAR line-up for now, but there’s another name on the way, and potentially the most exciting driver within the VAR squad is still too young to race.

Oliver Rowland’s Red Bull-backed protege Arvid Lindblad will debut in car racing once he turns 15 in August, meaning he will only be able to do the final three Italian F4 rounds, starting appropriately enough at Austria’s Red Bull Ring in September.

The Anglo-Swedish karting sensation follows a line of racers such as Crawford, Edgar and Hauger to have been placed in a VAR F4 seat by Red Bull.

“We have a very good relationship with [Red Bull’s driver advisor] Dr Helmut Marko, and he asked us to give him some outings this year as preparation for 2023,” says Niessink.

In addition to his current karting programme, now he is recovered from his scary February crash in the Champions of the Future Winter Series, last month Lindblad started his journey to F4 by testing in a single-seater for the first time in Italy.

Lindblad ran in a first-generation F4 car, the Tatuus T-014 that was replaced in many European series at the end of 2021, in his two tests at Vallelunga and Misano as VAR awaits delivery of a sixth T-421 chassis.

Unsurprisingly the 14-year-old has impressed Niessink with his approach as well as his speed. “OK, the old car is at the peak of its development so might not be slower than the new car,” he says, referring to Lindblad topping the times in both of the in-season tests, but even so to adapt so quickly to cars is incredible. “And Arvid listens to the engineers, gives good feedback and takes on board what we tell him.”

It’s not just Lindblad who has had to wait for a first race appearance of the year, as VAR missed ADAC F4’s Spa-Francorchamps season opener in April and cited the “late delivery of cars, which has already strongly disrupted our pre-season testing so far, [and] has caused a serious lack of preparation time” as the cause of its absence.

Niessink is quick to make clear that the decision was in no way a criticism of chassis supplier Tatuus, a company which has been working flatout to built and deliver over 100 of the T-421s in the face of global supply chain complications.

Photo: ADAC

“I have apologised to Giovanni [Delfino – Tatuus CEO] for all the messages I gave you that were harsh or pushing but he’s also fated,” explains Niessink. “Tatuus did what they could but there are more teams that still don’t have the cars, lack of raw materials, transport capacity.”

Niessink doesn’t blame Tatuus for the situation. “The teams gave the promoters the information, the promoters gave Tatuus the information and Tatuus did their production planning and delivery based on the information they received. I don’t want any special treatment but I don’t want anything less than somebody else.”

Naturally keen to defend its ADAC F4 titles, VAR pushed the series organiser to postpone round one, but with no success. “The only proper solution that would have worked for everyone would have been postponing the first rounds but ADAC had difficulty because they could never come back to that Spa event.”

Having missed one round out of a scheduled six, Niessink is sceptical that his team can make up for the lost points to have a successful title defence. Discussions with the ADAC had raised the possibility of a dropped scores mechanism being introduced but this now seems to be off the table.

“We decided last year to continue with the championship based on the results we got. The initial programme was to do a couple of rounds and then we’ll see. I think it was the same with Prema.

“But the whole Spa thing and the lack of co-operation to support us in postponing the first event means the chances that we do the whole series are smaller than they were a month ago. I told them if we don’t compete in Spa it will be hard for us.

“We ran at Hockenheim and will do the Zandvoort round,” he says, but after that VAR does not currently plan to continue in Germany. Niessink adds that the ADAC could have done more to generate interest in the series for 2022. With the Italian series able to make regular announcements of new teams and drivers as the new car maintained grid sizes of over 30, there was less communication from Germany and its full-time grid is set to be around 12 cars.

Photo: VAR

Niessink feels strongly that ADAC F4 “made a mistake” in not promoting VAR’s plan, which it had “since early days”, to run five cars in the series this year. “I said to them: ‘Why don’t you announce that? Why wait for us to announce drivers?’” The counter-argument is VAR was already a five-car team in ADAC F4, so there was little for the series to announce.

He gives credit to the ADAC for its work over the years in organising “a strong series and Sebastian Dietz is a strong series manager but they missed the boat on this one just by waiting to see what the other teams would do”.

As VAR is seemingly cutting back on its ADAC F4 involvement now, it has alspo expanded into the increasingly competitive Spanish F4 championship in a joint venture with local team and technical school, Monlau Motorsport.

The strength of Spanish F4 right now was the main factor behind VAR’s move to add it to its schedule.

“It used to be a kind of B class, if you understand what I mean, and from there on they grew and they grew. That is, of course, also because of the strong co-operation between the teams. We just want to be competing there to give drivers another alternative and that means that Germany is having a hard time.”

“It’s a really strong co-operation,” Niessink says of the Dutch-Spanish tie-up. “I’m really happy with it.”

“Operationally speaking it’s their team but in a way that we have signed the drivers, the drivers are ours. Our engineers are also involved there. In another industry you might call it outsourcing but there’s an intense supervision – two of our engineers live there in Spain.

“We exchange a lot of information and experience and I feel very comfortable with the relationship. Jaime [Serrano], the boss of Monlau, of the school, the university, is very relaxed and very solid. The agreements are fine and the work is fine. The team manager, David Simon, who is my main contact, is very experienced and really understands what it takes.”

Photo: Spanish F4

Monlau’s lead driver is Robert De Haan, the 2021 FEED Racing France shootout winner, who impressed VAR when he joined for the ADAC and Italian F4 finales last year to get his first single-seater racing experience.

“He did an extremely good job in Monza with us last year and he did a really good job at the Nurburgring. I rate him very highly,” says Niessink.

“I think he will learn faster and more in Spain because there’s less pressure,” he explains but acknowledges that ultimately the decision to race in Spain “had basically to do with budget” which he estimates to be around 25% lower than Italian F4’s.

“We’re there to be successful. We as a team, together with the drivers, are still trying to work with the engines but we’ll be there. In Portimao we made really big steps during the weekend.” However, “again the cars arriving late didn’t help”.

Despite the one-off costs relating to purchasing the T-421s, VAR says that it hasn’t increased by a “single Euro in the price we have, not for the championship, not for testing” on the budgets it required drivers to bring in previous years, and “we are confronted with price increases such as raw materials but I don’t pass anything of that to our clients”.

Niessink is reluctant to keep harking back to the supply issues but is clearly frustrated that a super-professional team such as VAR, which is now racing in Formula 2 and FIA F3 for 2022 in addition to Euroformula, Formula Regional European Championship and F4, has not been able to perform so far to the maximum of its potential because of external factors.

“In honesty, only yesterday [Friday practice at Imola] for my idea the season started whereas normally it starts in January or even the months before, which is not to complain again about the cars but that has a big impact. We are behind and we are trying to catch up.

“We originally had in mind to start testing in January and February. We had F2 and F3, so a new team and a new organisation.

“So, we thought again not to do F4 United Arab Emirates but that was a decision based on the idea that we would have the first cars in December so we thought ‘OK, January, February, then we’re still okay’ but then the cars came so very late that we were behind in our programme.

“I’m sure we’ll catch up but the beginning of the season is always very important. You want to be there as soon as possible and then make it through the season.”

But, he concludes: “As soon as we feel strong, then it’s very hard to stop us.”

The post What next for Van Amersfoort Racing in F4 after a record-breaking year? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Imola

Gian Carlo Minardi became FIA Single-Seater Commission president in May, tasked by the global governing body with building on his predecessors’ work to enhance safety and streamline the path from karts to F1

Minardi was, of course, the founder of the eponymous Formula 1 team which competed from 1985 to 2005 before its acquisition by Red Bull and subsequent rebranding as first Scuderia Toro Rosso and latterly AlphaTauri.

Throughout his more than 50 years in motorsport, Minardi has always had a reputation for identifying and developing young talents, including such names as Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli. And before entering F1 in 1985, his Minardi team was a frontrunner in European Formula 2, taking one win with Michele Alboreto in 1981.

Formula Scout sat down with Minardi, who has been president of Imola since 2021, in his office overlooking the circuit’s finish line to discuss his remit, his objectives and the future direction of junior single-seaters around the world.

The track sparkles in the May sunshine for the ACI Racing Weekend. Two weeks prior to our chat, F1 had raced there in far worse weather in the third year of its return.

For Minardi, getting F1 back to the circuit marked the circuit’s relaunch, and, above all, being able to stage the race with the public in attendance in 2022 was “very important for us,” he says, before adding that “the only problem was the rain”.

Minardi steps into the single-seater commission role as motorsport rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic which played havoc with calendars, imposed additional costs and forced events to be held behind closed doors.

“2022 is an important year for motorsport as we are trying to regain the time lost in the sport,” he says.

However, with significant financial, political and environmental challenges that will define the agenda for the coming years, Minardi’s in-tray is far from empty from that lost time as he gets his feet under his metaphorical FIA desk.

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

“I will bring my experience, and everything I have done over the years with ACI Sport. As the representative of Italy in the commission, I was always trying to bring my knowledge and love for the sport.”

His predecessors, in particular Gerhard Berger and current F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, undertook a major, and sometimes controversial, streamlining of the single-seater map below F1, establishing Formula 4 as a standardised international ruleset, launching Formula Regional and killing off Formula 3 as an actual formula but keeping the name alive with GP3’s replacement as the FIA creating and curated its so-called Global Pathway.

For Minardi, the current model will likely remain in place for the foreseeable future. “It is the model which is bringing us forward. The pyramid will be the continuation of the structure that leads to F1. For me, the pyramid is the only path that exists.”

He stresses that while he was not part of the commission under Domenicali that established the current pyramid, he was heavily involved through the ACI. There is, however, one aspect that he really does not approve of.

“I have to say that I really don’t like the name FRegional. Of course, we can’t now change the name of F4 or call FRegional Formula 5.

“When I left ACI Sport, FRegional was still called F3. Then Liberty Media acquired F2 and F3 and took away the name of F3. I fought to change it in the commission but was not successful in introducing the names of F3 and F3 International. I was the first to say that the name is confusing. It was not a choice that I made.”

One of the related topics which generates heated debate is FIA superlicence points, which are earned by racing in lower series in order to be eligible to race in F1, and the relative weight given to different series with their points allocation.

Photo: ACI Sport

Minardi prefers to keep his own counsel until the commission has had the opportunity to discuss the matter but confirms that “it is one of the things that I have been asked to look at by FIA and FOM”, However, he politely dodges the ongoing debate about where IndyCar should rank in the points allocation. “I am only concerned for the time being with the pyramid,” he smiles.

Ahead of the first meeting of the commission under his presidency, he views the objectives as: “Safety, costs and performance, in that order.

“The first priority is to prepare all the technical regulations for the new cars due to appear in 2024 and 2025 – F2, F3, FRegional – and to begin the work on the improvement of the current cars. Above all, we have to do the steps agreed by FIA five years ago on the safety level.”

The timetable for the next generation of F2 and F3 cars is in line with the recent comments from Formula Motorsport’s chief executive officer Bruno Michel with the important caveat of “if the economic situation allows it”.

Minardi is well-aware of the financial pressures on teams: “For the commission, we have to reduce operating costs and the cost of new cars. It is not easy. But I have only started working this week.”

Interestingly, Minardi believes that one realistic way of reducing costs would be to standardize components between categories, delivering greater economies of scale and potentially reducing inventories of spares.

“In my opinion, it is necessary to look for ways to rationalise F2, F3, FRegional and F4 by standardizing the cars as much as possible, so that the parts can be manufactured in greater quantities in order to decrease the costs, both for new cars and for spare parts.”

F2 and F3’s cars are built by Dallara, with Tatuus’s FRegional chassis used in continental Asia and Europe, with different engine manufacturers supplying the various championships, while Ligier supplies the category’s American market.

F4 permits multiple chassis and engine manufacturers to build cars, with each national series contracting one chassis provider and one engine manufacturer rather than giving teams the choice to choose as F3 did in the past.

“If, for example, the monocoque used in F2 and F3 is the same, the cost goes down. It is clear that the lifespans of the individual categories are different from each other, so when F2 and F3 are due to be replaced, or FRegional and F4 are due to be replaced, we need to look for the right synergies so that they can be standardized eventually.”

As we speak, the transporters of the Italian F4 championship’s teams are aligned behind the Imola pit boxes. For what is an entry category to the sport, F4 has undoubtedly become an ultra-professional series with costs far beyond what was originally envisaged for the formula a decade ago. Is there still space for small family-run teams to compete?

“As the base of the FIA’s pyramid it is clear that F4 remains open to all who respect the sporting and technical regulations,” Minardi says.

“As well as the big teams, with four or five cars who have been present in F4 for eight, nine or 10 years, there are small teams which have arrived this year and who, in my opinion, are doing a good job of organising themselves and will remain in this championship. The small teams who come in can progress ‘step-by-step’ to become like Prema and Van Amersfoort.”

Of course, not every team aspires to become the next Prema or VAR, but Minardi highlights the father-and-son Cars Racing team of Albano and Andrea Frassineti, as well as the Swiss Sauter Engineering + Design equipe in ADAC F4 as “typical examples of a father and son with a little truck. It is very important that teams like Frassineti and Sauter can compete in F4.”

Within the FIA’s single-seater hierarchy, F4 was always intended to be a national-level series. As such, there are limits on the number of  rounds that can be held outside the home country, something which Germany’s ADAC F4 series in particular has struggled with as young drivers look for grand prix circuit experience while the country is absent from the F1 calendar.

Photo: ADAC

Minardi, however, sees no reason to change the restriction. “70-80% of the races in the national country and then the rest on other circuits, so the drivers have a better opportunity to learn,” is, he believes, the right mix.

The Italian federation took a leading role in the creation of both FRegional and F4. “FRegional was born thanks to ACI Sport but the merger [with the Formula Renault Eurocup] has made it stronger and is a very good step for the move to F3. We, as ACI Sport, are very satisfied with this combination and with Alpine we are doing a very good job.”

For 2022, FRegional European Championship has introduced a push-to-pass system in an effort to improve overtaking, although it is, in Minardi’s opinion, too early after just two rounds to assess its impact.

“Today in all categories at a higher level it is not easy to overtake. This was introduced to start preparing the drivers for DRS,” he explains.

“As you see now also in F1 in the new rules it is easier to follow the car in front and the racing is more competitive. From now onwards, it is one of the objectives of FIA to try to make overtaking easier.”

The FIA’s new president Mohammed Ben Sulayem stood for election on a platform that highlighted doubling participation in motorsport worldwide, strengthening diversity and inclusion, and sustainability. Unsurprisingly, these goals can be expected to feature strongly in the priorities of the Single-Seater Commission.

Minardi does not see the need or, indeed, the space to add a further rung of the ladder below F4 to encourage youngsters into racing. The secret to wider participation is, he believes, in encouraging young drivers on the path from karting to F4.

He highlights a new initiative from ACI Sport where “we start following the children in karting from 12 years of age; we provide courses, psychological and physical training”.

“When the young drivers do step up to F4, ACI instructors are present at all the F4 events. After each race they do a briefing for all the drivers to show them where they’re making mistakes. This has been very appreciated by FIA and this is the first year we’re doing it.”

On the sustainability front, junior single-seaters is making its own advances as much as F1 is. The world championship has introduced a 10% biofuel requirement with fuel this year, and Minardi sees F1’s next major technological overhaul in 2026 as the point where it “will be only ecological”.

He is convinced that junior series will go in the same direction, as “if F1 does one thing we in the pyramid have to follow”, and notes that F2 will be ready to run with 50% biofuels “within a year”. French F4 switched to biofuel this year, F2 and F3 will be the next to change, and by 2026 all junior categories overseen by the FIA could be running with 100% biofuels.

Minardi strongly believes that motorsport offers an arena where men and women can and should race against one another on equal terms, rather than in separate championships such as W Series, but concedes that, “there is a lot of work to be done”.

“I think that women should compete with men as the differences are not that big,” he says, adding rhetorically: “What is the limit that women can achieve? I think it is high.”

In his opinion, it is up to the national sporting authorities, the ASNs, to take the lead in helping female participation in motorsport. Many already have their own initiatives, as does the FIA.

“The most important schools are karting and F4,” Minardi explains, emphasising the role ACI has played in Italy in working with the Ferrari Driver Academy as a model for other ASNs.

Interestingly, he feels, “we can’t do much within the pyramid just for women; it should be for the ASNs to introduce similar schemes to what exists in Italy, for example with FDA”.

• Why Weug is just the start for Ferrari’s Girls on Track ambitions

As Minardi points out more than once, he has only been in this new role since the start of May. A pre-meeting of his commission in Rome is planned to discuss the progress made to date and the immediate priorities for the official World Motor Sport Council gatherings later this year.

As Formula Scout leaves his office, Minardi adds that we should “come and talk again in four or five months to see the progress we have made”. We look forward to it, signor Minardi.

More on junior single-seaters’ future
F2 and F3 target new cars in coming years, but with caveats
The first look at ERA: electric racing’s junior single-seater arrival
USF Juniors to swap F4 car for USF2000-based chassis in 2023

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