Photo: UAE4
Four of the teams competing in UAE4 have named additions to their line-ups for the season ahead of its opening round next week.
The championship recently underwent a rebrand, meaning it will have used three different names in three seasons when racing gets underway at Yas Marina Circuit.
Known as F4 United Arab Emirates from 2016 to 2024, and having only featured rounds abroad during that time, the championship changed designation to F4 Middle East last year as its five-round season featured a round in Qatar.
Two months ago it was announced it would revert to being called F4 UAE, despite the Qatar round being retained, then without an announcement the championship changed all of its branding at the start of this year to UAE4.
Evans GP has announced Ben Nguyen and Rafael Vaessen will be part of its line-up for the season ahead. Vaessen cameoed in F4 South East Asia round and came 24th in the UAE-based Formula Trophy last year with the team, with Nguyen heading to UAE4 with similar experience.
He drove for BlackArts Racing in F4 SEA and came seventh in the standings with one podium, and did one FTrophy round with Evans. His UAE4 campaign will consist of round one then the fourth and final round at Qatari circuit Losail.
R-ace GP’s first UAE4 signing is 16-year-old Elia Weiss, who was a surprise call-up by Porsche for last year’s Formula E rookie test in Berlin.
The German is backed by his national federation and won its championship for X30 Senior karts alongside coming ninth in the IAME Euro Series in 2024. As a car racing rookie, he came 20th in E4, 28th in the Formula Winter Series as a part-timer and 35th in Italian F4.
Like Evans GP, Pinnacle Motorsport now has a three-car line-up having signed Kaylee Countryman, Ryusho Nakazato and Anzhe Sun.
Countryman will do the first three rounds before switching focus to her USF2000 and F1 Academy campaigns. She has the patronage of the Haas Formula 1 team for the latter.
Nakazato came 27th in Japanese F4 last year, while Sun’s career is overseen by the Nicolas Todt-led All Road Management firm and is graduating from karting. He will also race in British F4 in 2026.
Xcel Motorsport is the only local team in UAE4, and its only driver so far is Emirati racer Jaber Al Sabah. He came 17th in FTrophy as a part-timer and made a British F4 cameo with the team last year.