Photo: Sportinphoto
Romanian karting star David Cosma Cristofor will graduate to single-seaters this year, entering Formula 4 Middle East with PHM Racing.
The German PHM team, which handed its Formula 2 and Formula 3 squads over to AIX Racing during last year, will enter two cars in F4 Middle East in partnership with Akcel GP – which will also enter two cars in Formula Regional Middle East with technical support from PHM.
Akcel GP has been born out of the Indian Racing Warriors project which announced intentions to enter GB4 in 2024 in collaboration with Scorpio Motorsport and tested but never raced.
Cosma won the Trofeo Andrea Margutti, was ROK Superfinal runner-up and came fourth in the CIK-FIA world championship in 2023 when racing in junior karting.
Stepping up to senior OK karts last year, he came 10th in the WSK Super Master Series, 13th in Champions of the Future, 22nd in the CIK-FIA European championship and 27th in the world championship. He also represented Romania in the FIA Motorsport Games, finishing 16th in the senior final after making up 15 places.
He has since taken part in Italian F4 post-season testing with PHM Racing, and will celebrate his 16th birthday after the opening two rounds of the F4 Middle East season take place in Kuwait in January.
Evans GP has announced that Tiago Rodrigues and Seth Gilmore will form part of its line-up for F4 Middle East.
Macau-born Rodrigues, the 2023 Chinese F4 champion, raced in the series last year with Xcel Motorsport, taking a best finish of eighth. He has since raced with Evans GP in the Australian F4 round at Sepang, where he won the first race from pole position, and in the FRegional-based Macau Grand Prix, retiring in a second-lap pile-up after starting 17th.
Gilmore came fourth in Australian F4 with AGI Sport last year, then switched to Josh Evans’ squad for the three-round Formula Trophy held as a precursor to the F4 Middle East season, although he withdrew from the final event.