Viola Formula Racing joins FWinter Series finale ahead of E4 campaign

Photo: FWinter Series

Hitech GP’s Fionn McLaughlin was fastest in pre-event testing for the Formula Winter Series finale at Barcelona, which featured several new faces.

The majority of the field set their best laps in session one on Thursday, and McLaughlin led the way with a 1m41.838s.

He was 0.343 seconds faster than team-mate Thomas Bearman, and US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez trailed by 0.431s. Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey was 0.543s off in fourth, and seven other drivers were within a second of McLaughlin’s benchmark.

Gomez moved into second overall by topping session two. He posted a 1m41.964s on his penultimate lap to go 0.458s clear of McLaughlin.

Bearman was a further 0.086s behind, and making big improvements in fourth, fifth and sixth were US’s Kabir Anurag, AS Motorsport’s Andrea Dupe and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dante Vinci. Also setting personal bests were US’s Andrija Kostic and Maffi Racing’s Kornelia Olkucka.

McLaughlin returned to the top in session three, but did not improve. A 1m42.381s was enough to leave him in first place at the end of Thursday, 0.008s ahead of team-mate Leo Robinson and 0.546s clear of VAR’s Maximilian Popov. Robinson, AKM Motorsport’s Davide Larini, Cram Motorsport’s Elia Luis Weiss, Viola Formula Racing’s Ludovico Busso and Renauer Motorsport’s Simon Schranz set personal bests.

The pace was slower on Friday, and Jenzer’s Bart Harrison set a 1m43.218s to top session four by 0.167s over Frey. Robinson was third, the top 12 were covered by a second, but nobody improved.

Seven drivers skipped session five, topped by Popov. A 1m43.18s early on earned him top spot by 0.343s, with Robinson in second and VAR’s improving Alexander Ruta in third. AS’s Mathilda Paatz also set a personal best.

Ruta has dropped his multi-championship programme with Cram to join VAR this weekend and in Italian Formula 4 and E4 (nee Euro 4). The 16-year-old Pole was 2024 runner-up in ROK Cup Poland’s senior class when karting, and is currently 20th in FWinter Series.

Testing ended with everyone on track but only 13 drivers having laptimes next to their name and none going at a representative pace. Harrison was quickest.

Joining Hitech’s line-up this weekend is Emily Cotty, who made three F4 outings last year and began 2025 by coming 21st in F4 Middle East. Jan Koller and Luka Sammalisto are back in US’s garage and Kirill Kutskov reunites with Maffi Racing after contesting rounds earlier this season, and Larini becomes the third driver to compete in AKM’s #14 car. He was ninth in F4 Central European Zone and 12th in E4 last year.

An all-new combination at Barcelona is Viola Formula Racing and Ludovico Busso. The Italian team known for competing in Formula Renault 2.0 has signed 15-year-old Busso and Turkish 16-year-old Emir Tanju for its move into E4 and Italian F4 this year, and has 14-year-old French karting graduate Arthur Lorimier in its Italian F4 line-up too.

Tanju won the F2000 Italian Trophy’s FR2.0 Cup with Viola and Busso was 10th in the WSK Euro Series for OK karts last year.

Test results