Photo: Sauber Karting / Manuela Nicoletti
The Formula 4 United Arab Emirates grid has grown to 31 cars for the third round of the season this weekend at Dubai Autodrome.
MP Motorsport has replaced Rik Koen with Nicolas Todt protege and Sauber karting graduate Christian Ho, who will be making his car racing debut.
The Singaporean spent 2021 testing in F4 machinery, predominantly with AKM Motorsport, in addition to a trying second year in senior karting. As a rookie the year before he had come third in the IAME Asia Cup.
Prior to that he was a star of the OK-Junior scene, coming second in the FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the German Junior championship as well as third in the WSK Champions Cup and fourth in the CIK-FIA World Championship.
Having now turned 15, Giancarlo Fisichella’s racing student Valerio Rinicella will now join MP’s F4 UAE line-up too.
Pinnacle Motorsport is expanding to two cars for the remainder of the season, with Ginetta Junior race-winner Robert De Haan joining. De Haan raced in Ginettas after winning the series’ scholarship, and victory in the 2021 FEED Racing France shootout means he has a paid-for seat in a European F4 series this year too.
He made his single-seater debut last year with Van Amersfoort Racing, contesting the final rounds of the ADAC and Italian F4 championships and netting two top-five finishes from his six races.
Both got a taste of the new Tatuus T-421 car used in F4 UAE in a private test at Dubai on Wednesday. There were three sessions, with Prema’s Rafael Camara heading his stablemate Aiden Neate by 0.353 seconds at the top of the times across sessions two and three.
Only three other drivers were within a second of the pace, and PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard then slotted into third overall when he went fastest in session three. He headed Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne and Luke Browning, both also within a second of Camara’s benchmark. Ho was ninth fastest overall.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Prema | 2m00.785s | 34 |
| 2 | Aiden Neate | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | +0.353s | 35 |
| 3 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | +0.438s | 36 |
| 4 | Alex Dunne | Hitech GP | +0.522s | 31 |
| 5 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema | +0.570s | 34 |
| 6 | Nikita Bedrin | PHM Racing | +0.615s | 35 |
| 7 | Martinius Stenshorne | 3Y by R-ace GP | +0.665s | 27 |
| 8 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | +0.677s | 32 |
| 9 | Christian Ho | MP Motorsport | +1.120s | 33 |
| 10 | Victoria Blokhina | 3Y by R-ace GP | +1.129s | 37 |
| 11 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | MP Motorsport | +1.148s | 22 |
| 12 | Brando Badoer | AKM Motorsport | +1.163s | 39 |
| 13 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | Xcel Motorsport | +1.272s | 38 |
| 14 | Charlie Wurz | Prema | +1.333s | 34 |
| 15 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | +1.378s | 34 |
| 16 | Jonas Ried | PHM Racing | +1.428s | 33 |
| 17 | Ivan Domingues | Xcel Motorsport | +1.465s | 37 |
| 18 | Vladislav Ryabov | GRS | +1.471s | 26 |
| 19 | Suleiman Zanfari | MP Motorsport | +1.488s | 33 |
| 20 | Michael Shin | JHR Developments | +1.547s | 32 |
| 21 | Anshul Gandhi | Cram-Hitech GP | +1.602s | 38 |
| 22 | Sohil Shah | Mumbai Falcons by Xcel | +1.623s | 33 |
| 23 | Miron Pingasov | MP Motorsport | +1.659s | 29 |
| 24 | Nikhil Bohra | 3Y by R-ace GP | +1.677s | 35 |
| 25 | Joseph Loake | JHR Developments | +1.816s | 35 |
| 26 | Ricardo Escotto | Cram-Hitech GP | +1.983s | 36 |
| 27 | Robert De Haan | Pinnacle Motorsport | +2.087s | 34 |
| 28 | Jamie Day | Xcel Motorsport | +2.790s | 31 |
| 29 | Yash Aradhya | Mumbai Falcons by Xcel | +3.303s | 43 |
| 30 | Jef Machiels | Pinnacle Motorsport | +3.310s | 36 |
| 31 | Ismoilkhuja Akhmedkhodjaev | Xcel Motorsport | +3.973s | 37 |