Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
The GB4 grid will remain at 12 cars for the second round at Oulton Park this weekend, as Graham Brunton Racing expands its line-up but Rossoverde Racing is absent.
GBR has signed George Line, who was competitive on Britain’s junior karting scene in his youth before starting car racing in the Mazda MX-5 Supercup in 2014 and then moving to the F3 Cup in 2016 where he won the title by a point as a rookie.
Line will be team-mate to Scottish racers Chloe Grant and Logan Hannah in GBR’s first-generation Formula 4 cars. Rossoverde’s Christian Lester sits ahead in the points after round one, but is not at Oulton.
“I’m pleased to be joining the GB4 grid this weekend,” said Line. “The drivers around me have already got plenty of testing and racing so we’re a little on the back foot, but I hope to get closer to the pace as the weekend goes on. The F3 Cup was very competitive, so I’m optimistic I can challenge towards the front in GB4 with GBR.”
Line claimed eight podiums in 16 races as an F3 Cup rookie, with two poles and a win in the penultimate round at Silverstone. The CF Racing driver won twice on the road but a jumped start denied a maiden win in race one.
In his second season he only had one podium, and in his third was without one until round five at Silverstone where he took pole and victory in race one, retired from race two then missed the rest of the weekend and last two rounds.
For 2019 he changed from a Honda-powered Dallara F308 to a F310 and picked up five podiums including another Silverstone win, although was a distant fourth in the standings after missing the final event.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant 2020 had just four rounds at Donington Park and Snetterton. Line raced at Donington twice and five podiums, one of which was a win, from six races put him fifth in the championship. Returning to a F308 last year in a depleted field resulted in a Brands Hatch win, 11 podiums and third in the points.
In central Europe, fellow start-up series ACCR F4 – aiming to use Tatuus’s Gen1 and Gen2 F4 cars – has allied with Formula X’s new Pro Series which runs with the same Tatuus T-014 as GB4 and began two weeks ago at Mugello with 10 entrants. The rival Formula Italia series’ inaugural round there last weekend was cancelled due to lack of interest.
ACCR F4 will merge with FX Pro at Vallelunga on July 8-10, with the races there added as the round at Polish circuit Poznan on June 24-26 is removed. FX Pro will join ACCR F4 at Grobnik in Croatia on July 22-24 and Monza on October 28-30.
Monza replaced last weekend’s cancelled Hungaroring season opener. ACCR F4 signing Tommaso Lovati still raced at the circuit in the ESET Cup’s single-seater race.