Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
The second round of the new Euro 4 series for Formula 4 cars takes place at Monza this weekend, and there are several notable changes to the entry list since round one.
The field grows from 26 to 30 cars, with the benchmark Prema team expanding its fleet of entries from seven to eight cars. Joining the team is British rising star Freddie Slater, who turned 15 last month and therefore became eligible to race in F4.
He has dominated the entry-level Ginetta Junior sportscar series this year (with the title being secured last weekend) as well as racing in shifter karts for the first time. Slater came second on his KZ2 debut in the WSK Champions Cup then following that up with sixth in the WSK Super Master Series and winning the CIK-FIA European championship.
His CV includes European and World championship titles on OK-Junior karts, as well as coming second in the Italian championship and third in the WSK SMS for OK karts. The transition to cars began with an F4 test at Snetteron last year, then the Ginetta Junior Winter Series title after winning three out of four races.
There were further F4 tests at Silverstone and at Monza this year before he made his single-seater racing debut in British F4’s Donington Park Grand Prix round last month and claimed two fourth places. At the time he did not know if he would race in F4 again in 2023.
AKM Motorsport is adding a fourth car to its line-up for this weekend, with Kamal Mrad debuting. The Australian is currently in his rookie season of driving Rotax Senior karts.
Van Amersfoort Racing will expand to seven entries, with its six drivers from round one being retained and Peruvian debutant Rafael Modonese being added. He has been testing with the team at Barcelona this summer. Last year he came seventh in the Champions of the Future Winter Series.
Finally PHM Racing has added a second car for Giacomo Pedrini, who has done eight F4 tests this year and is finally making his race debut.
Italian team Cram Motorsport also joins the Euro 4 grid with Flavio Olivieri and Kai Daryanani. It has already run the former in Spanish F4 this year, and plans to run the latter in that series too. Daryanani usually races in British F4 for Virtuosi Racing, and has also made two outings in GB4 where he took a win last weekend.