Reigning Formula Nordic champion William Karlsson will move from Formula Renault 1.6 to Formula 4 this year, entering central Europe’s new ACCR championship with Austrian team Renauer Motorsport.
The Swede debuted in single-seaters in 2020 in FNordic, and won once en route to fifth in the points for Nika Racing, the team owned by his Formula 3 title-winning father Nicklas Karlsson. He stayed there for 2021 and took seven wins and the title.
ACCR F4 is open to first and second-generation Tatuus cars with Abarth engines, and Renauer plans to field the new Tatuus T-421 for 16-year-old Karlsson and his Austrian team-mate Miedl. Renauer has tested with Miedl at Hungary’s Pannoniaring.
“I am super excited to be part of Renauer Motorsport and to compete with the new F4 generation car,” said Karlsson. “Racing in the ACCR F4 will be a huge challenge, but one, I am ready to accept. I feel well prepared and will of course give my very best.”
With a Croatian mother, Karlsson is excited about racing in the country at round four venue Grobnik as it is a “kind of a home race to me”.
To gain experience, he plans to compete in rounds of ADAC and Italian F4, which will use the same chassis, engine and tyre combination as ACCR F4. Interestingly, team-mate Miedl performs a Michael Jackson tribute act at charity events.
Renauer Motorsport was established in 1997 and has raced in prototype and GT sportscars, EuroNASCAR and as high as F3 in single-seaters. Its ACCR F4 move is being supported by Jenzer Motorsport, and brings the confirmed grid up to five cars.
Series organizers are currently racing against time to ensure delivery of the new Tatuus chassis before the opening round at the Hungaroring on April 8-10, and discussions are also ongoing regarding a potential seventh round to be added to the calendar in October and take place at Monza.
Meanwhile ADAC F4 has its second full-time entry now for 2022, with BWR Motorsports’ Rishab Jain finally confirming his primary programme will be in the Germany-based series.
The 20-year-old Singaporean was signed by BWR in January but with no announcement of which series he would race in, and he then joined Nico Rosberg’s Rosberg Racing Academy, which is partnered with the team, last month.
ADAC F4 has three other part-time entries confirmed but remains short of drivers, and Germany’s national federation, the DMSB, is prohibiting the participation of Russian and Belarusian drivers in its motorsport. This will likely impact the size of its entry list, as last year three Russian drivers participated in the championship.