Kai Daryanani joins British F4 field as Sharp tops Silverstone test

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

British Formula 4 returned to action at Silverstone this week with a two-day test, where a new addition to the grid was announced.

Virtuosi Racing revealed Kai Daryanani as the second driver in its line-up for the 2023 season. The Indian was 34th in the Super One championship in Britain for Rotax Senior karts last year, and recently made his single-seater debut in F4 United Arab Emirates. He drove for Pinnacle VAR there, and took a best finish of 17th from the five-round season.

Daryanani propped up the end-of-test timesheet at Silverstone, where drivers were taking to the track’s Grand Prix layout ahead of that configuration of the circuit being used for races in British F4 for the first time this June.

Fortec Motorsports’ James Higgins was fastest in the first session on Tuesday, setting a 2m17.002s lap. A slightly more representative pace was set in session two, as Chris Dittmann Racing’s new signing Daniel Guinchard edged Rodin Carlin’s Louis Sharp to the top of the times by 0.002 seconds with a 2m10.448s lap. Higgins was 0.662s back in third.

Guinchard was fastest again in session three, posting a 2m00.346s lap that put him 0.111s ahead of Higgins. Third-placed Shap was 0.283s behind and Argenti Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was fourth fastest.

The pace only improved slightly in the day’s final session, as Sharp surpassed Guinchard’s previous benchmark by a thousandth of a second. Guinchard was second fastest in the session, 0.007s off Sharp, and Carlin’s Noah Lisle was 0.193s behind in third.

Of the 19 drivers taking part, 13 of them set their personal best laps in session four, while Guinchard, Higgins, Heuzenroeder, Jaden Pariat, James Piszyck and Mika Abrahams failed to improve.

Quickly melting snowfall left the track wet for Thursday’s sessions, and there was less action on track. CDR’s Jack Sherwood was fastest in the first session with a 2m25.014s lap and fastest in the second with a 2m29.512s.

Argenti driver Pariat rose to the fore in the third session, setting a 2m28.911s to better Higgins by 0.631s, and was fastest again in the final session but only set four laps in total and his best one was a 2m46.382s.

Testing results