Photo: Sainteloc/Dutch Photo Agency
French team Sainteloc Racing has announced four drivers for the upcoming Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season, but they are only confirmed for round one.
Its line-up of Yevan David, Aurelia Nobels, Matteo Quintarelli and Maxi Restrepo will be racing at Yas Marina Circuit on January 13/14, but may not appear again after that.
Ferrari junior Nobels it the most high profile member of the four and spent 2023 racing in F4 with Prema. Later this year she will race in the all-female F1 Academy series.
The other three drivers will all be racing for Sainteloc in Spanish F4. Quintarelli is a UAE-based Italian who made his car racing debut in the 2022 F4 UAE Trophy and came away with a ninth place finish. He then won a shootout to race for Yas Heat Academy in the 2023 F4 UAE season, but his best result was only a 16th place. Following that he joined R-ace GP in Italian F4, and also failed to score.
Restrepo was karting in Colombia before he joined Drivex School for a double F4 programme last year. He came 17th in a part-time Formula Winter Series campaign, with a best finish of eighth, then was 37th in Spanish F4.
David is the least experienced of Sainteloc’s drivers, as next weekend is his single-seater racing debut. The 16-year-old Sri Lankan came fourth in the 2020 IAME Asia Cup for X30 Junior karts, sixth in the 2021 FIA Karting Academy Trophy, won the silver medal in the FIA Motorsport Games’ Karting Sprint Senior competition and then for 2023 transitioned to shifter karting where he came eighth in the WSK Champions Cup and 19th in the FIA World Cup for KZ2 karts.
Yas Heat has two drivers signed for F4 UAE. Local racer Keanu Al Azhari drove for them last season, which he came seventh in with two podiums, and in each of the last two Trophy events.
Last year he also raced in Spanish F4 with MP Motorsport in a Richard Mille-funded seat. He took a pole and a podium in round one, but no more after that and came ninth in the standings.
His team-mate at last November’s F4 UAE Trophy and for the upcoming season is Zack Scoular. Last year he raced on Rotax Senior karts, and finished 12th in his first two car races which were held at the same circuit as next week’s season opener.
French karter Jules Caranta has announced he will be on the round one grid with R-ace GP, and the team has since confirmed to Formula Scout that he will race but only in the opening round.
Caranta was IAME Euro Series champion on X30 Junior karts and 10th in the CIK-FIA European championship for OK Junior karts in 2022. The 15-year-old came 16th in the CIK-FIA World championship and 23rd in the Champions of the Future series on OK karts last year.