Photo: Indian F4
The centrally-run Indian Formula 4 championship has announced it has launched a global shootout programme, with the winner getting a paid-for seat on this season’s grid.
Indian F4 was first proposed in early 2021, and announced in August of that year with a planned February 2022 start date and with a 12-car grid of Tatuus T-421s run by Prema. With less than seven weeks to go before the inaugural season was due to begin, it was pushed back to a November start date.
But come November the season was called off, and the next update was in March 2023 when it was announced that the Tatuus deal had been ended and now Indian F4 was going to begin in October with the Mygale M21-F4 car used in French F4.
In mid-June it was then announced that MP Motorsport rather than Prema would run all the drivers, and the first of those was announced in August. A full calendar for the inaugural season was revealed a day later and with a November start date, but there were changes being made all the way through to the week of the opening round which was relocated four days before track action began.
Postponements to later rounds were made in the days after the season opener, which had a 10-car grid, then a cyclone led to round three being cancelled and round four being relocated. The lost races were added to rounds four and five, meaning Indian F4 met its target of a 15-race campaign. There were 11 cars for the finale, with six local talents and five foreign drivers.
A schedule for the 2024 season was unveiled 10 days ago, with pre-season testing on August 21/22 followed by five rounds on August 24/25, August 30-September 1, September 13-15, October 19/20 and November 16/17. No venues were listed, and it was confirmed that MP will continue to run the field and that there are 16 seats available.
One of those seats will go to the winner of the shootout, which is taking place at a yet-to-be confirmed French venue on July 9-11 and will involve physical and mental assessments in addition to simulator challenges and on-track action in old F4 cars.
There will be 10 drivers invited to take part, and in addition to the winner getting a full scholarship the runner-up will be offered a 30% discount on the €120,000 (£102,791) cost of a full-time Indian F4 seat, third place will be offered a 20% discount and the seven others will get a €15,000 (£12,851) contribution to their budget if they choose to enter the championship.
To be eligible for the shootout, drivers must be born before August 21 2009 and have less than two race weekends of experience in anything other than karting since 2022. They can be from any country, and must register their interest before June 15 via a form accessible from the championship’s Instagram page. The 10 successful applicants will pay €10,000 (£8,565) to participate in the shootout.