Photo: Meritus GP
There was plenty of F4 racing in 2024, with career-launching campaigns accompanied by winter warm-ups
Middle East
The go-to winter series for several years now has been Formula 4 United Arab Emirates, which races at Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome. Prema’s Mumbai Falcons-branded cars were the ones to beat, and Italian F4 dominator Freddie Slater needed just two wins and four other podiums from 15 races to pip team-mate Kean Nakamura-Berta to the title.
Nakamura won the season opener in Abu Dhabi, which Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari started from pole, and Formula 3-bound Nikita Bedrin won for PHM Racing in the reversed-grid race. Slater won race three, and passed team-mate Alex Powell to make it two in a row in the opening race of round two. Al Azhari won the next two races, but Slater was on the podium in both to hold the points lead.
Bedrin turned pole into victory twice at Dubai, with Powell getting his sole win in the reversed-grid contest, and a double podium put Al Azhari on Slater’s tail in the title fight. A return to Abu Dhabi spiced up the season narrative in round four.
Prema’s Doriane Pin won race one from pole after on-the-road victor Nakamura was penalised for jumping the start, and Al Azhari and Slater collided on lap one. Although he was demoted to fifth, Nakamura still boosted his title chances.
Hitech GP’s Gabriel Stilp came through from sixth on the grid to dominate a wet race two, and all three title contenders failed to score. The weather was unpredictable for race three, and led to a mix of strategies. Al Azhari took the points lead by finishing third, as Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri won and neither Slater or Nakamura finished.
Nakamura took a double pole in the final round at Dubai, and after winning a dusty race one ahead of Al Dhaheri there was now a five-way title fight as his two main rivals could only finish fifth and ninth. R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny won the reversed-grid race, Slater pipped Al Azhari to fourth to become his main rival and Nakamura stayed in contention by scoring two points.
Photo: F4 UAE
Al Dhaheri immediately passed Nakamura for the lead in the title-deciding race three and all but ended his hopes since Slater was sat behind him in third. Focus then switched to Al Azhari, who lost the title to Slater by finishing eighth.
Running concurrently to F4 UAE was the inaugural Saudi Arabian F4 season, where all cars were run by Meritus GP. Federico Al Rifai won twice in the first round at Kuwait Motor Town (in Kuwait), while in round two at the circuit, Saqer Almaosherji, Al Rifai, Andrej Petrovic and Suleiman Zanfari shared the wins. Retrospectively it was made a non-championship event, so Qatar’s Losail circuit instead hosted round two in March and Al Rifai took another double.
Eventually races actually took place in Saudi Arabia, and three rounds were held in Jeddah over the course of 11 days. Petrovic took the points lead by winning twice in the first of the triple-header events, with Al Rifai’s title ambitions hurt by missing a race. However he moved back ahead with his own double in the next round, and when the results of race one in the final round was taken back by a lap [without explanation] it handed Al Rifai another win at the expense of Petrovic.
Although Petrovic won the final race, it was too late as Al Rifai wrapped up the title the day before in a race won by Zanfari.
Over the last month there has been further F4 action in the UAE with the Formula Trophy. Al Dhaheri was the star of round one at Dubai, remained unbeaten in qualifying for round two in Abu Dhabi but for the second time lost a win to a penalty, and then skipped round three. A double podium earned Evans GP’s Kai Daryanani the crown, but Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon stole the headlines with his race one win.
Spain
Formula Winter Series featured a combination of drivers warming up for Italian F4 and Spanish F4, and MP Motorsport’s Griffin Peebles was champion of the four-round tour of Spain. Jerez was more wet and wild than warm-up, and the wins went to Andres Cardenas (Campos Racing), Peebles and Juan Cota (Drivex School).
Photo: Gedlich Racing/Daniel Burgin
Cardenas left with the points lead, but further chaos at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit put Peebles ahead. Cardenas won a red-flagged race one, Peebles was victorious in a delayed and safety car-filled race two and US Racing’s Matheus Ferreira led home Peebles in race three. James Egozi appeared on the grid with Campos at Motorland Aragon, and was announced as joining the Red Bull Junior Team. He proved worthy of his Formula 1 backing by taking pole and a win, while Al Azhari came over from the UAE to do the same with MP. Rodin Motorsport’s single-seater rookie Thomas Strauven won race two.
Storms at Barcelona limited track action until race two, which Peebles won from pole. He was victorious again in race three to seal the title. MP’s Maciej Gladysz was third in the points, and would be the most competitive of FWinter Series’ full-timers in Spanish F4.
His team-mate Lucas Fluxa won twice in the opening round at Jarama, but actually crashed out of the second race he won, then never had another competitive showing over the season. Al Azhari came to the fore at Algarve in Portugal, then team-mate Mattia Colnaghi was dominant in the first two races at Paul Ricard in France. Gladysz won the third, and took another two at Aragon before Al Azhari returned to the top step of the podium to hold a sizeable points lead.
Cota went unbeaten at Valencia, and while Al Azhari and Gladysz both made the podium they also retired in race one due to colliding and each had another non-score. Colnaghi’s two podiums made him a more likely title contender, and he stepped up to that status by being the form driver thereon.
He won twice at Jerez to become points leader in theory, but Al Azhari also claimed a victory and went into the final round 13 points ahead after winning an appeal against a penalty at Aragon. In race one at Barcelona, Colnaghi soaked up a lot of pressure from his rival for another win, then moved ahead on victory countback by winning race two, before a track limits penalty for Al Azhari cost him a podium and handed Colnaghi a big advantage going into the decider.
Cota cruised to victory, not quite enough to deny Gladysz third in the points. Al Azhari had another off-track moment and this time went penalty-free despite moving ahead of Colnaghi, who became champion in fifth as Al Azhari came home third.
Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Two weeks prior, Valencia specialist Cota had claimed the Motorsport Games F4 gold medal at the track. He was pipped to pole by 0.007s in a damp qualifying session, but then won the qualification and main race.
North America
Starting, or rather ending the F4 action on this continent is NACAM F4 since the first three rounds of its 2024-25 season have already taken place. The Mexico-based series had issues with its switch from first to second-generation F4 chassis, delaying its season start by over four months and making it a multi-year schedule, and Jose Carlos Hernandez leads the way so far.
He won from pole in both races of the F1-supporting first round, team-mate Helio Meza bettered him twice at Autodromo Miguel E. Abed, and Alessandros Racing’s partnership with Campos Racing contributed to former W Series racer Nerea Marti joining their garage in round three this month. Hernandez took two more wins in Mexico City, but Marti pushed hard and took the second F4 win of her career.
United States F4 has also had an uneasy switch to Gen2 machinery, cancelling its first round and averaging just seven cars this season. The Australian drivers, Atlantic Racing Team’s Daniel Quimby and Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport’s Nicolas Stati, and the latter’s New Zealander team-mate Alex Crosbie, were usually fighting each other for victories and Quimby (who went unbeaten at Mosport in Canada) took the crown by just 4.5 points over Stati.
The older cars continued to run in the Ligier JS F4 Series (previously known as Formula Development), which had bigger grids and far more entertaining action. Scuderia Buell’s Teddy Musella won a third of the races and the title, and Crosslink/Kiwi’s Kekai Hauanio denied him pole twice and took four victories and four second places to be runner-up in the standings.
Fifth in the standings was Brad Majman, another of Crosslink/Kiwi’s Australians, and he went unbeaten at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
The same car is used by Formula Pro USA for its F4 Western championship, which cancelled its one-round winter series and also did not go ahead with its planned ‘Women Racing Series’ classification for female entrants. Majman and World Speed Motorsports’ Valentino Garbarino shared the wins in the first two rounds at Thunderhill Raceway Park. Kiwi’s Drew Szuch was the only other driver in round one, and World Speed’s Alexander Cornfeld their sole rival in round two.
Laguna Seca held the next two rounds, the first of which only featured Cornfeld and Garbarino. They took a win each, then Garbarino went unbeaten on the return visit as the grid grew to five cars. Jensen Global Advisors’ Athan Sterling finished second twice, and did the same at Sonoma Raceway where he finished last to newly crowned champion Garbarino.
Four drivers turned up to the Buttonwillow Raceway finale, and Garbarino led home Sterling twice more. Cornfeld finished third in race one, enough to earn him second place in the standings over the absent Majman.
The Skip Barber Formula Race Series ran using Mygale’s Gen1 car, and the title went to Andretti Global junior Oliver Wheldon. After a stellar karting career in the USA, the single-seater rookie wone nine races out of 14 but only very narrowly became champion since third-year driver Dean Lambros was just as consistent. He won four races and took four poles, and was only off the podium once while Wheldon went trophy-free twice. USF Juniors-bound Ryan Giannetta was the other winner.
Asia
The Honda versus Toyota battle occurs in Japanese F4 each year, and in 2024 it was a Honda one-two as Yuto Nomura was near unbeatable in the season’s second half and fellow junior Ryota Horachi consistently saw the podium to be title runner-up.
Despite the rivalry, it is the Toyota-linked TOM’S that is the spec engine supplier and its units were the big talking point of round one as 10 drivers were ruled out of race two at Fuji Speedway due to engine issues. After Toyota junior Yuki Sano won race one, Helm Motorsports’ Tosei Moriyama got the chance to turn his pole into victory with far more ease due to the absence of many of the drivers who would become the usual frontrunners.
Photo: Japanese F4
Nomura won both races from pole at Suzuka, Horachi and Drago Corse’s Hironobu Shimizu came out on top of a 37-car field on the return to Fuji, with Horachi taking the points lead, then Sano doubled up at a soaking wet Sportsland SUGO but only got points for one of those victories as he won a one-lap race.
The championship belonged to Nomura following that, going unbeaten at Autopolis (where rain caused a race to be cancelled) and Twin Ring Motegi then taking a fifth win in a row in the postponed Suzuka round that ended the season. That secured him the title, and Kageyama Racing’s Kotaro Shimbara rose to third in the standings by winning race two.
Chinese F4 was as entertaining as ever, while also mostly going overlooked outside of China. However it was a teenager from Sweden who beat all the locals to become champion. An F1 support slot at Shanghai attracted 27 cars to the season opener, and Blackjack Racing’s Alex Sawer and Fukang Jiang took the wins.
Venom Motorsport’s Oscar Pedersen won twice at Tianfu International Circuit, then had seven consecutive podium finishes at Ningbo and Shanghai to remain atop the standings while wins went to title rival Kaishun Liu (Black Blade Racing), Jiang, the returning Sawer and cameoing Mercedes-AMG F1 junior Yuanpu Cui.
The title fight went down to the final race at Zhuhai, with Pedersen and Liu each taking a win and a second place in the preceding two races. Black Blade’s Yuhao Fu dominated, his weekend lifting him from 10th to fourth in the points, Liu finished second with a diving penultimate lap pass and Pedersen became champion by finishing not far behind in fourth.
MP ran all cars in Indian F4, and ex-F3 racer Hugh Barter crushed the opposition at Chennai in round one.
The new Chennai Formula Racing Circuit, a temporary venue that had been a long-term ambition for the series and was designed to be raced on at night, hosted round two and Barter dominated from pole again in race one. That was held in the early evening, but race two was a proper night-time contest and Aqil Alibhai was victorious after forcing long-time leader Divy Nandan into a mistake on the last lap.
Photo: Indian F4
Barter did no more races, and on the return to the other Chennai track the points lead went to Alibhai as four different drivers won. Triple-headers at Kari Motor Speedway concluded the season in the final version of the calendar, with Alibhai going unbeaten in the first one then being crowned champion in a wet second visit to the track as Ruhaan Alva concluded a nine-race podium streak with two wins and a comfortable championship runner-up spot since Jaden Pariat was absent.
Australia
Currently in limbo is whether the opening FTrophy round also doubled up as the Australian F4 season finale. Originally ran from 2015 to ’19 by Motorsport Australia, the national championship was revived by new promoter Top Speed this year with second-generation Tatuus cars. The Bend Motorsport Park hosted rounds one and two, Sydney Motorsport Park had round three as the cancelled Queensland Raceway event went unreplaced, then the season was due to conclude with races at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit and at Dubai. The latter was down to Top Speed also promoting FTrophy.
But two weeks before the planned finale, the reveal of the all-Australian 2025 calendar was accompanied by the announcement that the AGI Sport team would take over as promoter and older cars would be reintroduced. Since then, Formula Scout has been unable to get a response from either promoter on the Dubai round’s championship status.
Regardless, the title was already settled by then as AGI’s James Piszyck had won the first nine races on home soil then did the minimum required to wrap it up at Sepang as Tiago Rodrigues, Cooper Webster and Daryanani won.
The older cars (both the Mygales previously used in Australian F4 and Tatuus chassis from abroad) were kept in use through 2024 in the AF04 class of the Formula Libre-style Australian Formula Open series. Car racing rookie Isaac McNeill (Volante Rosso) and Jayden Hamilton (Tim Macrow Racing) each contested five rounds out of seven, and McNeill went unbeaten in class until the final race at Phillip Island where Lachlan Evennett won. Evennett had taken a triple win at The Bend when he was the only entrant, with Hamilton doing the same at Sydney. McNeill took the title with ease thanks to his 13 wins.
Photo: Australian F4
Europe
F4 Central European Zone grew in popularity for its third season, and there was a big on-track rivalry between Jenzer Motorsport and Maffi Racing. Both titles went to the former, as Oscar Wurz became champion with a campaign built on consistency. He only won twice, both victories coming at the Slovakiaring, but 12 other podiums were enough for him to beat Maffi’s Kirill Kutskov who won at Balaton Park, Autodrom Most, Brno and then went unbeaten in the Salzburgring finale.
There were five other race winners, but Jenzer’s title outsider Max Karhan was the only full-timer amongst those. He took three victories on home soil in the Czech Republic, and compatriot Miroslav Mikes won at Most. The JMT Racing driver came fourth in the standings despite withdrawing from the final round, meaning AS Motorsport’s Michalina Sabaj was the only other driver to start all the races. Her best result en route to fifth in the points table was a fourth place.
The F2000 Italian Trophy had an F4 class this year, and Sergio Conti won it eight times.
F1 Academy
Supporting F1 at seven grands prix was the all-female F1 Academy, which was dominated by Rodin’s Abbi Pulling. The Alpine junior, a podium-finisher in Formula Regional when racing in the all-female W Series two years ago, was never off the podium and took nine wins, four second places and a third.
Mercedes junior Pin was best-of-the-rest in her first full year of single-seater racing after previously being a sportscar star, starting the season on top in Jeddah and winning two further times to be way ahead of Prema team-mate Maya Weug.
The battle in qualifying was slightly closer, with Pin taking five poles to Pulling’s 10, and she took four fastest laps in races while Pulling took six despite spending most of her time in clean air at the front.
Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Marti took four podiums to edge MP’s Hamda Al Qubaisi to fourth in the points table, her team-mate Chloe Chambers won race two at Barcelona after Pulling had an airborne moment and Williams F1 junior Lia Block – an established rallying and rallycross driver in the USA who is the daughter of late off-road motorsport star Ken – came eighth in her first full single-seater campaign.
To find out more about the 2024 seasons of Brazilian F4, French F4 and Nordic 4, keep an eye on the Formula Scout website during the off-season!