Photo: ACI Sport
Italian Formula 4 will run four races in a single weekend for the first time in three years at Vallelunga next weekend as the championship splits its large field into groups.
The field has been growing in size early in the first season with the new second-generation Tatuus car, with 36 cars taking part in the previous round at Spa-Francorchamps despite a couple of late withdrawals.
The entry list for Vallelunga has not yet been published but the circuit has capacity for only 37 cars. In anticipation that this figure will be exceeded, organiser ACI Sport has modified the format of the weekend as laid out in the sporting regulations and added an extra race to the schedule.
The modified format is same as was previously used when the series last went over capacity during the first two rounds of the 2016 season.
The field will be split into two groups for qualifying and then, based upon the results, into three groups for the races. The first three races effectively become qualifying heats, with each group to contest two of those races.
The qualifying races will still count for full points towards the championship, and the top 36 drivers across those three races will proceed to take part in the fourth and ‘final’ race.
The four-race format is likely to be deployed in two consecutive rounds, with Vallelunga followed in September by a visit to the Red Bull Ring which also has a capacity of 37 cars. The format could return to normal for October’s season-ending rounds at Monza and Mugello where there is capacity for 49 and 46 cars respectively.
A four-race round last occurred in 2019, when a race was cancelled at Misano and it got rescheduled as an additional race at Imola later in the year.