French F4
French F4, throughout its many iterations, has long been a well-respected series, producing champions like Loic Duval, Jean-Eric Vergne, Arthur Pic and Stoffel Vandoorne. And it seems that 2014 has a good chance of retroactively being one of their best grids yet.
Indeed, there was lots of excitement surrounding the series when the grid was initially unveiled. Lotus junior Dorian Boccolacci was finally stepping up to cars and was a huge coup for the championship, joined by another big-name French karting hopeful Moineault. The series attracted lots of nationally-successful karters in Bulatov, Haxhiu, Mawson and others, while Felix Hirsiger promised to be one of the championship’s best sophomores, having returned due to age restrictions after finishing fifth in 2013.
But none of them shined as bright as did Danish Formula Ford racer Lasse Sorensen, who managed two heroic hat-tricks on his way to a comfortable title.
However, even if French F4 didn’t produce much of a title battle for yet another year, the individual races were often a joy to behold and heated fights for victories were guaranteed. From Mawson’s incredible win in the third race of the opener to Sorensen and Hirsiger’s excellent battle at Paul Ricard, there was a lot to enjoy here.
The reverse-grid races helped the entertainment value as well, featuring the series’ top names battling their way to the front ? something that Sorensen proved spectacularly good at. However, they did add a bit of randomness to the eventual results, with four of the championship’s nine race-winners triumphing in reverse-grid races exclusively.
It didn’t end up mattering much in the end, and while Sorensen rose to stardom in one of French F4’s best grids, the championship seemed to tower above its entry-level counterparts, at least in 2014.
Still, would it be too much to ask for if next year’s version had more than four liveries on the grid in total?
Valentin Khorounzhiy