Photo: F4 CEZ
In its fourth season, the Central European Formula 4 championship is booming. The Czech-run series has attracted a massive grid, with 42 cars entering the opening round at the Red Bull Ring, forcing split qualifying and a three-heats-and-a-final race format at each of the three event held so far.
Jenzer Motorsport, drivers’ and teams’ champions in each of the three previous seasons, remains the team to beat, but Maffi Racing has continued its strong progress, and currently sits atop the drivers’ standings with Danish driver David Walther.
Walther, a race winner in 2025, has claimed three victories so far, including the final at both the Red Bull Ring and the Slovakiaring, while torrential rain and strong winds forced the cancellation of the final at round two at the Salzburgring.
However, Jenzer duo Elia Weiss and Teo Borenstein are within one race victory of Walther in the mid-season standings. After taking his maiden win at the Red Bull Ring, Weiss dominated proceedings across the Alps at the Salzburgring, winning both of his heats.
As ever, the fast Salzburgring track provided plenty of slipstreaming action, with Weiss and Walther trading places with the German winning out, while Borenstein demoted Walther for second. For race two, Weiss had to fight his way past team-mate Max Karhan to win, as Walther watched from the sidelines.
Borenstein has also won three times, including withstanding pressure from Walther to take the season opener in Austria. He would have followed it up with a second win in heat three but for a track limits penalty that dropped him behind Walther.
However, the Czech driver put it all together last time out in Slovakia, winning both his heats before losing out to Walther in the final, when he hesitated to pass a stricken Simon Rechenmacher behind the safety car, allowing the Dane to pull out a small but sufficient gap.
Series veteran Max Karhan and karting graduate Rechenmacher have each taken a single race win, the latter battling past Walther to score the first victory for Cram Motorsport in the second heat in Slovakia, after a penalty for contact cost him a podium in the first heat.
Karhan has demonstrated his outright pace, including five podium finishes alongside his Salzburgring victory, but unlike his rivals has not been able to put together a dominant weekend. However, neither he nor Rechenmacher are out of contention with three rounds remaining.
Although Mathilda Paatz has taken five class wins in the championship’s women’s trophy, the class points are headed by the more consistent Ella Hakkinen, daughter of double Formula 1 World Champion, Mika. The McLaren-backed Hakkinen, who competes under the Czech flag, has finished on the class podium on all eight outings to lead Paatz by two points.
Hakkinen is not the only ‘daughter-of’ in the field with Alexia Danielsson, whose father Alx won the 2006 Formula Renault 3.5 Series, currently fourth in the women’s trophy.
Championship standings
1 Walther 167 2 Weiss 154 3 Borenstein 145 4 Karhan 128 5 Rechenmacher 101 6 Markas Silkunas 90 7 Georgiy Zasov 72 8 Aleksandar Bogunovic 64 9 Paatz 54 10 Dean Pedersen 50