Photo: Chinese F4
There will be 35 drivers in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates’ season opener at Yas Marina Circuit, with eight late additions to the entry list.
All eight are already on track for pre-season testing, which takes place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Having already named two drivers, Hitech GP has now announced a four-car line-up with Deagen Fairclough and Gabriel Stilp joining. Both raced in British F4 last year, with Fairclough taking three wins and third in the standings while 2022 British Karting champion Stilp took one victory en route to ninth in the points table. Fairclough will be part of Hitech’s 2024 British F4 line-up.
Xcel Motorsport has signed Chinese F4 title rivals Tiago Rodrigues and Kaishun Liu as full-time drivers for F4 UAE, then will field Yuanpu Cui and Alvise Rodella part-time.
Rodrigues drove for Champ Motorsport in Chinese F4 last year and with seven wins claimed the title with a race to spare. Smart Life Racing driver Liu also won seven races, including three in the final round, but several non-scores cost him the crown. In 2022 he was eighth in the standings with four podiums from four starts.
The pair also raced in F4 South East Asia part-time last year, with Rodrigues coming fifth and Liu 17th in the standings.
Rodella began 2023 in the Formula Winter Series then came 20th in Spanish F4. He also cameoed in British and Italian F4. After contesting this month’s two F4 UAE rounds, he will hand over his seat for the rest of the season to Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Cui who will be making his single-seater debut.
Australian outfit AGI Sport has signed Carrie Schreiner, Peter Bouzinelos and Nicolas Stati to be team-mates to its F4 SEA champion Jack Beeton. Stati and Bouzenilos, both karting graduates from Australia, were ninth and 19th in F4 SEA last year.
Schreiner is best known for her sportscar exploits, but the 25-year-old German made a return to F4 last year and now expands her single-seater focus.
In 2015 she came 44th in ADAC F4 as a rookie, and was 43rd in 2016 while also coming 17th in a part-time British F4 campaign. She then switched to GT racing, first competing in Lamborghini Super Trofeo events – coming second in the Middle East championship’s top Pro class in 2017 and winning its Pro-am class in 2018 as well as sharing a car with Sebastian Vettel’s brother Fabian in the European series – then joining Germany’s Gran Tourismo Touring Car Cup.
Schreiner won its Class 1 title in an Audi R8 LMS in 2018, and was 24th in ADAC GT Masters in 2019. She was part of a class-winning all-female entry in the 2021 Nurburgring 24 Hours, as well as racing in Italian GT where she was fifth in the Endurance standings.
Her open-wheel comeback in 2023 came about when the all-female F1 Academy series was created. She joined ART Grand Prix and came 11th in the standings with one win. This season she will switch to Campos Racing and represent the Sauber Academy.