Photo: ACI Sport
A provisional entry list has been released for next weekend’s Formula 4 United Arab Emirates Trophy, a non-championship event that takes place on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix support bill.
The event will consist of two races lasting 28 minutes-plus-one lap, and 14 drivers have been announced as taking part.
Prema will field Rashid Al Dhaheri, Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Alex Powell and Freddie Slater. Local racer Al Dhaheri came 10th in Italian F4 and 12th in Euro 4 with the team this year, while Powell and Slater only made their single-seater debuts in the second half of 2023.
Slater made the move from karts to cars via the entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior and won the title, then joined Double R Racing for the last two British F4 rounds and claimed three fourth places and a fastest lap. He also did the last two Italian F4 rounds with Van Amersfoort Racing, then joined Prema for the Euro 4 finale and the non-championship F4 South East Asia rond in Macau.
Powell was also present in Italian F4’s last two events, debuting with Prema, and had a best result of 10th in the season finale.
Yas Heat Academy’s two-car entry is headed by local racer Keanu Al Azhari, who returns to the team for whom he drove in the 2022 edition of the F4 UAE Trophy as well as in the 2023 F4 UAE season in which he was seventh. Following that he raced in Spanish F4 with MP Motorsport in a Richard Mille-funded seat. Alongside him, Briton Zack Scoular will be making his first steps into car racing.
The Al Qubaisi sisters are back for yet another event on home soil. Both Hamda and Amna will race for MP, the team they competed with in F1 Academy this year. They came third and seventh, with four and two race wins to their names, respectively.
Jessica Edgar, who was eighth in the inaugural F1 Academy season, will race in the UAE as Rodin Carlin’s sole entry.
Xcel Motorsport has the highest number of entries confirmed with a total of six. Carlin’s F4 regulars Dion Gowda, Noah Lisle (a three-time race-winner in British F4), Josh Irfan and Federico Al Rifai are joined by Georgi Zhuravskiy and Laura Villars.
Zhuravskiy drove for Drivex School in Spanish F4 this year then stepped up to Eurocup-3 for the last two rounds, while Villars comes from the Ultimate Cup Series.