Photo: Conny Ruiz

Last weekend’s Danish F4 round at Jyllandsringen featured two new winners, both only 14 years old. Who else has won a race in an official FIA F4 championship ‘underage’, and where have they got to since? 

The Danish and NACAM Formula 4 championships are two rare examples of national single-seater championships that enable drivers to race under the age of 15 set by the FIA and most national sporting authorities.

In the United States there are series that cater for drivers even younger than 13, although only in wingless cars with grooved tyres, and these championships are at a racing school level where the standard is not usually indicative of whether a driver has the talent that would merit a future career in motorsport.

F4 series do, on the most part, and so Formula Scout has gone searching for the youngest ever winners in FIA-certified single-seater racing. This doesn’t include series that use F4 cars but are without FIA support, such as F4 Western and Formula Academy Finland, and also rules out non-championship races run since the category’s formation.

Charles Leong MACAU 14 years, 11 months & 30 days
2016 Chinese F4, Shanghai race two

The Macau Grand Prix winner has spent most of his career in Chinese F4, with his biggest triumph of course coming when the championship hosted the grand prix in 2020. The Macanese talent made his single-seater racing debut in Formula Masters China (based on F4 predecessor Formula Abarth) in June of 2016, then a fortnight later turned up in the Chinese F4 championship at Goldenport Park and took pole.

He could only convert that into a fourth place, but given his age and inexperience was nothing to be ashamed of, and after notching up two podiums at Sepang in FMasters China he then made his second F4 appearance at Formula 1 grand prix venue Shanghai. This time he had the race pace, and followed third place in race one with victory and fastest lap in race two.

Photo: Chinese F4

The next year Leong decimated the opposition in Chinese F4, and claimed the Asian Formula Renault title too, then stepped up to Asian Formula 3 with Hitech GP and came fourth in the standings as well as winning on both of his AFR appearances.

He added an FIA European F3 round at Silverstone to his busy year to enable him to race in his home grand prix. After that the budget dried up, but Leong has done the necessary races to qualify him to compete in the Macau GP each year since.

Scout Report: Charles Leong

Conrad Laursen DENMARK 14 years, 11 months & 3 days
2020 Danish F4, Jyllandsringen race three

The second-generation talent could potentially have won at a younger age had the start of the 2020 Danish F4 season not been delayed by the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, although the eventual opening round at Jyllandsringen was in the first bit of single-seater racing to get back underway in Europe.

The Team FSP driver set the pace in qualifying, but his fastest lap was set under yellow flag conditions and his second-best laptime wasn’t good enough for pole. He followed the higher-profile debutant Juju Noda home in race one, picked up a podium in the reversed-grid race two and then won from pole in race three. A second win at Padborg Park bolstered a title attack and soon after becoming champion he began testing with Prema, who he then raced for in Italian F4.

Read the report

Isack Hadjar FRANCE 14 years, 10 months & 25 days
2019 French F4, Spa-Francorchamps race three

Photo: FFSA Academy

French F4 existed long before the FIA’s own concept of the category, and has continued to allow drivers as young as 14 to compete in their own ‘Junior’ classification separate to FIA honours. So while a Junior driver could win every race going, they would not eligible to be the official champion of the series outright if they are 14 years old.

Junior karting graduate Hadjar actually got some racing experience in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series before joining French F4 Junior, where he only had two classification rivals. He came second in the Junior standings and seventh in French F4’s own overall championship courtesy of his breakthrough Spa-Francorchamps win and a Ledenon podium.

He stayed in the series for 2020 and was seriously impressive, but was overshadowed by two very experienced Honda-backed rivals. That flipped around when he and champion Ayumu Iwasa went to Asian F3 at the start of 2021 as Hadjar comfortably had the upper hand and has since won at higher levels.

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Danial Frost SINGAPORE 14 years, 9 months & 19 days
2016-17 F4 South East Asia, Sepang race three

The Indy Nxt regular has raced all across the globe, and his career started in the first ever round of F4 South East Asia. The six-race meeting included three wins for Frost and the points lead, but missing the next round and then three successive retirements at Sentul contributed to him being fifth in the standings come the end of the season in early 2017.

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Theo Pourchaire FRANCE 14 years, 9 months & 13 days
2018 French F4, Spa-Francorchamps race two

The record holder for the youngest driver to win in F1’s primary support series also broke the record for the youngest person to win a single-seater race in Europe prior to the recent crop of baby-faced Danish F4 stars.

Like Hadjar, Pourchaire competed in French F4 Junior and was the champion of that classification by some margin. It was the first year the series had run to the FIA’s F4 ruleset, and Pourchaire picked up a fourth, a second and a third on his debut.

At Spa he came from sixth in the reversed-grid race to win, twice finished second at Magny-Cours, and ended the season at Paul Ricard with a second and a third. Had he counted in the overall classification, he would have scored 201 points and been very close to third in the standings.

Read the report // The youngest ever winners in F1’s primary feeder series

William Wulf DENMARK 14 years, 9 months & 2 days
2020 Danish F4, Padborg Park race two

Photo: Super GT Denmark

Doing something normally only seen in single-seater racing at a club level, Wulf entered Danish F4 in 2020 as a total privateer and remarkably was on the podium in just his second race.

The technical support had improved by the end of the season, so much so that he was essentially under FSP’s banner, but his win under pressure from Noda at Padborg Park did come as a privateer. He then became an FSP driver for 2021, and was third in the standings after three rounds with 99 points – the exact same amount he scored in the three-round 2020 season.

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Andres Perez de Lara MEXICO 14 years, 8 months & 12 days
2019-20 NACAM F4, Aguascalientes race one

Andres was quick to learn from race-winning brother Pablo when he came to NACAM F4, and it didn’t take long for him to win.

He finished fourth in both of the Mexican Grand Prix support races in his first weekend with RPL Racing, then turned up to round two at the Aguascalientes roval as the fastest driver on track. A double win there made him a title contender, but a further two wins and four other podiums wasn’t enough to keep him near the top in the pandemic-split 2019-20 season.

A dip in F4 form may not be a surprise either when you consider he was on his way to winning the NASCAR Mexico’s third-tier Trucks title aged just 15. He’s stepped up to the second tier now, and is performing well there too.

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Nico Christodoulou CANADA 14 years, 8 months & 10 days
2019-20 NACAM F4, Mexico City race one

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Christodoulou was the winner of that first Mexican GP support race in October 2019, but like Perez de Lara he had an early peak and ended up finishing second in the title race to Noel Leon.

The Canadian actually started his F4 career midway through 2018 aged 13, racing in the USA and then contesting the entirety of the 2018-19 NACAM F4 season and coming fourth in the points but never quite winning a race. For 2020 he moved into US F4 and USF2000, and meaning he was in his fourth year of F4 racing by the time he was 16.

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Mikkel Pedersen DENMARK 14 years, 7 months & 0 days
2023 Danish F4, Padborg Park race two

The 2023 Danish F4 season ended the day after Pedersen turned 15, so after celebrating six victories earlier in the season aged 14 he got to celebrate his birthday on the Saturday at Jyllandsringen and then celebrate winning the title on Sunday.

His first win came on his second start, in a reversed-grid race, and within a few corners he had climbed several spots to third.

There was then a safety car period, and after that he spent several laps trying to get into second. Once he eventually did, he had 2.5s to make up on the leader but was able to rapidly reduce that gap and claimed first place on the penultimate lap after six corners of going side-by-side. On the short final lap he opened up his own 1.6s lead.

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Juju Noda JAPAN 14 years, 6 months & 18 days
2020 Danish F4, Jyllandsringen race one

Photo: Noda Racing

Noda already had extensive single-seater experience, including in Formula 3 chassis, in series over in her home country of Japan before her father Hideki Noda announced she would be racing in Danish F4 in 2020.

Shortly after turning 13 in 2019 she made her international debut in the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series’ winter championship, taking a best finish of fourth, then returned to Japan until a full-time relocation abroad last year.

After extensive testing, Noda – being run by her ex-F1 racer father’s own team – took pole on her F4 debut (after Laursen’s lap was removed) and went on to win to make international headlines.

No more wins followed, as the 14-year-old’s racecraft didn’t match her illustrious speed that sent her to pole in the two remaining rounds as well. Her plan for this year was to race in US F4, and she contested the YACademy Winter Series as a warm-up, but her campaign went no further than free practice for the season opener and she returned to Danish F4.

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Emmo Fittipaldi BRAZIL 14 years, 5 months & 15 days
2021 Danish F4, Jyllandsringen race two

The Sauber junior is also the son of a former F1 driver, in this case two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Like Noda, he also headed to the USA for a taste of single-seater action aged 13, although there was only testing involved as initially Fittipaldi targeted a debut in NACAM F4.

A combination of the loosening of travel restrictions during the pandemic, his Sauber backing and a friendly relationship with would-be team-mate Noah Stromsted led to Fittipaldi instead heading to Denmark to make use of its lower age requirement. He claimed his first pole on his second attempt at a qualifying session, and was on course to convert that into a maiden win before Noda hit him out. Redemption came in round three with a stunning start and a mature drive.

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Jesse Carrasquedo Jr MEXICO 14 years, 3 months & 23 days
2021 Danish F4, Padborg Park race one

The beneficiary of Noda and Fittipaldi’s crash at Padborg Park was Carrasquedo, who inherited victory after on-the-road winner Noda was disqualified for the clash. The Mexican followed that up with victory in race three of the weekend to leap ahead of his two international rivals in the points, although not making the trip to the rounds before or after meant he dropped way down the standings.

Before turning 14, Carrasquedo actually debuted in NACAM F4 and came 13th in the championship in 2020 in what was also a part-time campaign.

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Noah Stromsted DENMARK 14 years, 0 months & 23 days
2021 Danish F4, Jyllandsringen race one

Photo: Formula 4 DK

Like Fittipaldi and Noda, there was some anticipation within the motorsport world for Stromsted’s debut and he delivered.

He started the Jyllandsringen weekend by taking pole, although a timing issue erroneously showed someone else as fastest at first, and then he converted it into a controlling win. What followed was a superb charge to second in the reversed-grid race, and then another win in race three.

Stromsted took fastest lap in all three races, and is already up to sixth in the standings despite missing the first two rounds. He’s coached by former F1 driver Nicolas Kiesa, and has links to Spanish F4 teams that will lead to a series switch once he turns 15. With racecraft arguably superior to that of Danish F4’s international contingent, and with his father on hand racing alongside him at FSP, it’s not crazy to picture Stromsted finishing as title runner-up in 2021.

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Mika Abrahams SOUTH AFRICA 14 years, 0 months & 14 days
2022 Danish F4, Sturup Raceway race three

Abrahams graduated from karts to South Africa’s series for Legends cars aged 13, and a few months later made his F4 debut in Sweden. Despite missing round one, he laid down a Danish F4 title claim immediately with a second place, a third and a win at Sturup Raceway. In race three he started on pole and made the most of it, setting the fastest lap en route to a maiden victory.

Two weeks later at Jyllandsringen he claimed another second place and a victory accompanied by a fastest lap, and at Ring Djursland stood on the podium three times. At that point he was very much in title contention, but over the last two rounds he only got one podium and retired twice, leaving him fourth in the standings and 74 points off the top.

Read the report

Centre: Crawford

Jak Crawford USA 13 years, 9 months & 1 day
2018-19 NACAM F4, Autodromo Miguel E. Abed race two

Crawford’s age made headlines when his Euroformula debut had to be delayed by a day as he had yet to turn 16 and therefore get the required licence to race at that level of single-seaters. It meant he missed all the action at the Portuguese Grand Prix-supporting season opener until Sunday’s race, which was on his birthday, and from the back he charged to seventh.

Two weeks later he was back in the car, and took pole position and two wins. The Red Bull junior then went unbeaten in qualifying, sitting third in the standings despite missing a third of the races.

Way back in 2013 he hopped south of the border from his US home to race in NACAM F4, and immediately impressed. He finished fifth on his debut at Mexico City, in front of the F1 fraternity, then stood on the F1 podium the next day.

Round two took place at Autodromo Miguel E. Abed, raced on by Formula E, and Crawford claimed his first win as well as continuing a run of six podiums in a row. He’d already picked up a second win before turning 14, and then after that won four more times to be title runner-up.

“Just because they let kids race as young as 13 in Mexico doesn’t mean Americans should copy what we did,” his father Tim Crawford said at the time, before adding that he thought external factors prevented a record-breaking title success.

“The Mexican fans are awesome and the best racing fans in the world with crowds bigger than you will see anywhere for F4, but the family who runs Mexican F4 picked the Mexican driver they wanted to win the championship and they made it happen. This series was like the wild, wild west except it was wild, wild Mexico.”

Crawford raced in USF2000 after that, before Red Bull snapped him up and sent him back to F4 for 2020. Strong campaigns in Germany and Italy prompted his 2021 step up to Euroformula and Formula 3.

Read the report

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The post The youngest ever winners in FIA Formula 4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

A grid of 14 cars turned up for the three-race round, with Eduardo Barrichello and Mariano Martinez absent after starring in the Mexican Grand Prix-supporting season opener.

Leon got beaten to both poles on the sub-minute lap by RPL Racing’s Andres and Pablo Perez de Lara, but did put himself on the front row for races one and three.

After holding off Leon at the start, Andres Perez de Lara had a comfortable run to victory in the first race, with his brother Pablo completing the podium beind Leon.

Jose Garfias Martinez finished fourth, but came through to battle team-mate Andres Perez de Lara in the second race.

On multiple occasions he tried to force a mistake from the leader, who soaked up the pressure and crossed the finish line just 0.169 seconds ahead.

Pablo Perez de Lara came to the fore in the final race, making the most of his pole slot to lead much of the race.

Leon, who finished third in race two and won in Mexico City, had the better pace though and once he finally got into the lead he pulled immediately away.

Canadian Nico Chrisodoulou finished a distant third behind them for Scuderia Martiga, but sixth place for Andres Perez de Lara meant he overtook the other Mexico City race-winner for second in the standings.

Results round-up
Race 1 (26 laps)
1 Andres Perez de Lara RPL Racing 30m42.668s
2 Noel Leon Ram Racing +0.746s
3 Pablo Perez de Lara RPL Racing +4.398s
4 Jose Garfias Martinez RPL Racing +5.768s
5 Chara Mansur Ram Racing +17.709s
6 Nico Christodoulou Scuderia Martiga +17.928s
7 Daniel Escoto RPL Racing +24.699s
8 Alex Servin Air Bit +51.251s
9 Jorge Garciarce?unknown team +1 lap
10 David Morales Euromotor Sport +2 laps
Pole: A Perez de Lara, 56.137s
Fastest lap: P Perez de Lara, 56.424s

Race 2 (28 laps)
1 A Perez de Lara 28m37.211s
2 Garfias Martinez +0.169s
3 Leon +1.323s
4 Christodoulou +2.253s
5 Nolan Siegel Scuderia Martiga +2.488s
6 Emiliano Richards RPL Racing +3.656s
7 P Perez de Lara +6.061s
8 Alex Garcia Ram Racing +6.396s
9 Escoto +6.772s
10 Garciarce +9.942s
FL: Garfias Martinez, 56.717s

Race 3 (28 laps)
1 Leon 29m20.060s
2 P Perez de Lara +2.228s
3 Christodoulou +9.096s
4 Richards +11.239s
5 Garfias Martinez +19.166s
6 A Perez de Lara +19.296s
7 Garcia +19.942s
8 Siegel +25.791s
9 Mansur +28.342s
10 Escoto +2 laps
P: P Perez de Lara, 56.252s
FL: Christodoulou, 56.629s

Championship standings
1 Leon 101? ?2 A Perez de Lara 82? ?3 Christodoulou 78? ?4 P Perez de Lara 43? ?5 Garfias Martinez 41? ?6 Richards 28? ?7 Garcia 24? ?8 Escoto 23? ?9 Eduardo Barrichello 15? ?10 Mariano Martinez 15

The post Noel Leon extends NACAM F4 lead at Aguascalientes appeared first on Formula Scout.

Manuel Sulaiman extended his NACAM Formula 4 lead with a dominant weekend at?Aut?dromo Internacional de Aguascalientes and podiums at?Autodromo Miguel E. Abed.

The Ram Racing driver took comfortable wins in the first and third races of the first round, and was second in race two.

Closest title rival Jak Crawford finished 3.743 seconds behind in race one but lost ground in the title race after retiring from the third race.

RPL Racing’s Emiliano Richards took his first win in race two, fending off Sulaiman by 2.236s after a closely fought battle.

Crawford bounced back with a dominant weekend at Miguel E. Abed, taking two dominant wins and a third place for Scuderia Martiga.

Sulaiman was not able to match Crawford across the weekend, finishing a distant second behind him in races one and three, and could only manage eighth in the second race.

Richards’ team-mate Perez de Lara was the winner of race two, finishing 3.243s ahead of Mariano del Castillo, and scored solid points with two fourth places in the other two races to remain third in the standings.

Nicholas Christodoulou, last of the title contenders, adding on to the podium he gained at?Aguascalientes. He’s now pulled away from Alex Garcia, who also made the podium twice at?Aguascalientes but struggled at Miguel E. Abad.

Australian Josh Smith cut Lucca Allen’s F4 South East Asia lead to 28 points on the second visit to Thailand’s Buriram circuit.

Allen won the first race after a close battle with poleman Shihab Al Habsi. The championship leader was ahead for most of the race, and although Al Habsi snatched the lead back at one point he ended up finishing behind Smith.

In the reversed-grid race two, Smith fought from ninth to take the win, moving up to second by the fourth lap before passing Muizz Musyaffa for the lead two laps later. Musyaffa, a star of the 2018 season, took his second podium of the year 0.344s behind.

Al Habsi went from sixth to first in the next reversed grid race, with Smith coming from ninth again to finish second. Elias Seppanen took his second podium of the weekend in third, ahead of Musyaffa and early leader Yash Aradhya. Alister Yoong and Allen were both penalised for exceeding track limits.

Allen, who did not finish the second race, ended the weekend with victory from pole. Smith beat Seppanen to second, moving into second in the standings as a result, with Al Habsi finishing sixth.

Results round-up [pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]

The post F4 round-up: Sulaiman extends NACAM lead, SEA star Smith wins at Buriram appeared first on Formula Scout.

Igor Fraga won twice at Aut?dromo Internacional de Aguascalientes, but it is still Moises de la Vara who holds a healthy lead in the NACAM Formula 4 standings, despite electrical problems threatening his weekend.

The Martiga EG driver lost power to his car all through Saturday and could only limp home in seventh place in the first race at Aguascalientes, four laps down. He had been running as high as third.

Fraga was the main beneficiary of de la Vara?s troubles. He won the first race comfortably after a series of yellow flags for slow-moving cars curtailed his battle with Michael Santos and Alexandra Mohnhaupt, who were second and third respectively.

Victory for Fraga meant he started from pole for the second race, which he duly converted into another win. A recovering de la Vara was second. The Martiga team had worked hard to fix the electrical fault and de la Vara?s car was back at full power.

He then claimed his fifth win of the season in the final race of the weekend, extending his championship lead to 47 points over Mohnhaupt.

Mohnhaupt, who made history last month by becoming the first female winner of an FIA F4 race, had an indifferent weekend. She settled for third in the first race, although she had been looking for another win. The Momo F4 driver almost got another podium in the second race, but dropped two places very late on when her car developed engine trouble, slipping to fifth. She was fourth in the third race, behind her team-mate Inigo Leon.

Fraga remains third in the championship behind the BRDC F3-bound Mohnhaupt, due to a non-finish in the third race. He recorded the fastest lap by a third of a second, but mechanical problems intervened six laps before the end, and he had to retire. He was classified eighth.

Santos had his best weekend of the season so far. He earned two seconds and one third place, splitting the main championship contenders. He has now passed the absent Santiago Lozano for fourth in the championship.

Mexican touring car driver Regina Sirvent made her single-seater debut over the weekend. She managed to keep herself out of trouble and had a best finish of fifth in her first race.

Results
Race 1 (27 laps)
1 Igor Fraga Prop Car Racing 29m41.302s
2 Michael Santos Ram Racing +1.492s
3 Alexandra Mohnhaupt MomoF4 +2.012s
4 Mariano Martinez Telcel RPL Racing +4.620s
5 Regina Sirvent Prop Car Racing +1 lap
6 Inigo Leon MomoF4 +3 laps
7 Moises de la Vara Scuderia Martiga EG +4 laps
8 Emiliano Jauregui Ram Racing +8 laps
Pole: Fraga, 55.723s
Fastest Lap: Fraga, 56.047s

Race 2 (27 laps)
1 Fraga 25m38.310s
2 de la Vara +10.790s
3 Santos +16.832s
4 Leon +20.119s
5 Mohnhaupt +27.119s
6 Jauregui +39.105s
7 Sirvent +1 lap
8 Martinez +2 laps
FL: Fraga, 55.915s

Race 3 (27 laps)
1 de la Vara 26m41.006s
2 Santos +2.718s
3 Leon +10.947s
4 Mohnhaupt +12.402s
5 Jauregui +14.835s
6 Martinez +43.866s
7 Sirvent +1 lap
8 Fraga +6 laps
P: Mohnhaupt, 57.343s
FL: Fraga, 56.172s

Championship Standings
1 de la Vara 231? ?2 Mohnhaupt 184? ?3 Fraga 172? ?4 Santos 136? ?5 Santiago Lozano 98? ?6 Leon 97? ?7 Jauregui 91? ?8 Martinez 44? ?9 Jose Manuel Vilalta 39? ?10 Daniel Forcadell 38

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