French team R-ace GP has made Raphael Narac and Matteo Quintarelli its first two signings for the 2023 Italian Formula 4 season.
Narac spent 2022 racing in Trophee Tourisme Endurance’s France-based Formula Renault 2.0 Cup, and came fourth in the standings with nine podiums. He also joined R-ace for Italian F4’s Monza round, finishing 22nd on his debut, and it has been expected ever since then that he would do a full Italian F4 campaign with the team in 2023.
At the start of this year the Frenchman raced with R-ace in F4 United Arab Emirates, with a 14th place being his best result.
One of his rivals in that series was Italian teenager and single-seater rookie Matteo Quintarelli, who raced for Yas Heat Academy and won his seat with that team in a shootout run in partnership with fellow F4 UAE outfit Xcel Motorsport.
Quintarelli spent the majority of his karting career in the Middle East, and was 37th in the 2021 IAME Euro Series for X30 Junior karts then second in the UAE Series in the 2021-22 season.
He tested with R-ace last October and started his car racing in the non-championship F4 UAE round that supported last November’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Quintarelli finished ninth on debut there, but in the season itself could finish no higher than 16th.
“I’m delighted to announce I will be racing for R-ace GP in the Italian F4 championship,” said Quintarelli. “I feel blessed to represent such an historical team like R-ace in one of the most competitive feeder series.”
R-ace also fielded Singaporean shifter karter Kabir Anurag alongside Narac and Quintarelli at this week’s pre-season Italian F4 test at Spa-Francorchamps.