GB3 and F4 teams test in foggy Spain as Higgins tries Euroformula car

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Teams from GB3 and Formula 4 were testing at Motorland Aragon over the last two days, but encountered winter weather rather than being able to make use of warmer conditions.

Dense fog descened on the Spanish track on Thursday morning, limiting most of the drivers to less than 20 laps of running and meant they spent much of the second half of the session out of the cars and taking pictures of the fog instead.

Elite Motorsport’s three GB3 cars set the pace, with McKenzy Cresswell topping the timesheet with a 1m56.974s lap that put him 2.451 seconds ahead of karting graduate Aaron Walker who has recently stepped up to car racing in GT3 sportscars.

Ayato Iwasaki, who did a round of Formula Regional Middle East this month and contested the 2022 GB3 finale with Elite, was third fastest. Monlau Motorsport’s Fernando Barrichello was the fastest F4 driver in the session.

Once the fog cleared in the afternoon, drivers were able to complete over 50 laps and Cresswell brought the pace down to 1m54.054, with Iwasaki 0.687s behind.

Cresswell was then fastest in both Friday sessions, improving in both and topping the combined test classification with a 1m53.121s lap.

Iwasaki’s fastest lap came in the morning – which was again hit by cold weather – and it put him second overall, with Walker completing the top three.

There were teams from Spanish F4 and F1 Academy testing drivers in F4 cars, including GRS’s new signing Carl Bennett. The Thai was 14th in United States F4 last year and also made appearances in GB4 and Spanish F4.

At the same time as drivers were testing at Aragon, having gone there in the hope of making use of warmer conditions than in Britain, there were single-seater tests also taking place at Pembrey and Silverstone.

Fox Motorsport tested with their GB4 line-up at Silverstone, while Double R Racing was in action at Pembrey with karter Matthew Higgins in the Dallara 320 car used in Euroformula.

Higgins, the son of 10-time US rally champion David Higgins, is set to start his car racing career this year.

“The car was insane, it does everything you could possibly ask for from a race car,” Higgins said to Formula Scout.

“We used this test to gain experience and understanding of a high downforce car in preparation for my race programme in America with Era Motorsports competing in the US F4 championship aswell as tests in the team’s Oreca LMP2 car.”

Aragon test results