Photos: Ferrari Driver Academy
Ferrari junior Maya Weug was fastest in this week’s two-day Italian Formula 4 test at Mugello, driving for the Iron Lynx team she raced for last year.
Weug is one of its Iron Dames drivers, but had been tipped to move to Prema, which provides technical support to and shares its ownership with Iron Lynx, for her second F4 season. It is yet to be announced who she will race for.
The test began on Monday with Danish F4 star Noah Stromsted setting the pace for R-ace GP. He was 0.290 seconds faster than Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nikita Bedrin. While all drivers were listed as driving the first-generation Tatuus F4 car, that was only the case for Iron Lynx’s Niko Lacorte, Cram Motorsport’s Valentin Kluss, AS Motorsport’s drivers and BWR Motorsports’ Chris Rosenkranz.
Stromsted was fastest again in session two, improving to 1m48.380s to head Valerio Rinicella by 0.273s. The Italian is set to race for MP Motorsport in Spanish F4, and drove with AKM Motorsport for the day. Sauber junior Zachary David also tested with AKM.
Stromsted’s test team-mates Frederik Lund and Kacper Sztuka were the only two drivers not to improve, with both setting just a handful of laps.
Jenzer Motorsport’s Samir Ben pipped Stromsted to top spot in the first afternoon session by 0.047s, with Weug 0.089s back in third. At this point Noda Racing’s Juju Noda joined in with a Formula Regional car, and was two seconds slower than Ben despite setting 24 laps.
Stromsted returned to top spot in the final session, his new 1m48.086s benchmark putting him 0.167s clear of Bedrin and 0.191s ahead of VAR’s Martinius Stenshorne. Noda was slower than F4 cars once again.
Bedrin broke into the 1m47s and headed Stenshorne by 0.166s at the start of Tuesday’s running, with Stromsted 1.3s back in third and Noda way off the pace. She finally moved ahead of them in the next session, going a second faster than Kluss.
Weug matched Noda’s laptime in the afternoon to top the F4 table, 1.097s ahead of Kluss in session three and 0.415s faster than Stenshorne in session four. Propping up the order were two Formula X Italian Series drivers.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maya Weug | Iron Lynx | 1m47.039s | 119 | |
| 2 | Nikita Bedrin | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m47.716s | +0.677s | 149 |
| 3 | Martinius Stenshorne | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m47.738s | +0.699s | 152 |
| 4 | Noah Stromsted | R-ace GP | 1m48.000s | +0.961s | 115 |
| 5 | Valentin Kluss | Cram Motorsport | 1m48.039s | +1.000s | 150 |
| 6 | Alfio Spina | BWR Motorsports | 1m48.083s | +1.044s | 123 |
| 7 | Samir Ben | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m48.326s | +1.287s | 141 |
| 8 | Kacper Sztuka | R-ace GP | 1m48.385s | +1.346s | 112 |
| 9 | Niko Lacorte | Iron Lynx | 1m48.469s | +1.430s | 131 |
| 10 | Valerio Rinicella | AKM Motorsport | 1m48.475s | +1.436s | 70 |
| 11 | Zachary David | AKM Motorsport | 1m48.591s | +1.552s | 139 |
| 12 | Ivan Domingues | Iron Lynx | 1m48.604s | +1.565s | 119 |
| 13 | Emmo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m48.672s | +1.633s | 148 |
| 14 | Frederik Lund | R-ace GP | 1m48.720s | +1.681s | 106 |
| 15 | Brando Badoer | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m48.955s | +1.916s | 151 |
| 16 | Ethan Ischer | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m49.004s | +1.965s | 127 |
| 17 | Marcos Flack | R-ace GP | 1m49.034s | +1.995s | 129 |
| 18 | driver unknown | AS Motorsport | 1m49.741s | +2.702s | 142 |
| 19 | Giovanni Maschio | AS Motorsport | 1m49.751s | +2.712s | 123 |
| 20 | Chris Rosenkranz | BWR Motorsports | 1m50.432s | +3.393s | 142 |
| 21 | Roberto Arne | privateer | 1m55.715s | +8.676s | 57 |
| 22 | Manuel Palamenghi | Dexters Motorsport | 1m57.721s | +10.682s | 44 |