Photo: Meritus GP
The Saudi Arabian Formula 4 championship will return for a second season this year, with a five-round calendar.
Bahrain will host pre-season testing and the opening round this week, then a mid-week round two on October 15/16.
Next month there will be two rounds in one week, with races in Jeddah on November 10/11 and then November 14/15. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix venue will also host the finale on December 5/6.
In the inaugural season last year, all cars were centrally run by Meritus GP, which previously centrally ran F4 South East Asia. Local company AlTawkilat will be championship promoter this year, but has not stated if it will directly run the cars.
There have been 10 drivers announced so far, a group consisting mostly of 15-year-olds and including Red Bull juniors Scott Lindblom and Chiara Battig who are single-seater newcomers.
Lindblom was fourth in entry-level sportscar series Ginetta Junior this year, and in 2024 primarily raced in the OK kart class. The Swede won the title WSK Euro Series title and came eighth in Champions of the Future.
His year started by coming 11th in WSK’s Super Master Series for OK Junior karts, and in that category he was previously third in the World championship, fourth in WSK’s Euro Series and 15th in the CIK-FIA European championship.
Battig joined the Red Bull Junior Team less than seven weeks ago, having previously been part of the Alpine Formula 1 team’s female-focused Rac(H)er programme in 2023, and steps up from karting.
She came 15th in the European championship for OK karts this year, with her rookie season in senior karting starting on a victory-contending high but then mostly lacking results. The Swiss was 29th in CotF, but on OK-N karts is currently second in the CotF Academy Program.
Making the same step this weekend is Thibaut Ramaekers, the 2025 CIK-FIA world champion on OK karts. The Belgian claimed that title last month, after being CotF runner-up and fifth in the CIK-FIA European championship.
His 2025 began on X30 Senior karts, coming fifth in the IAME Winter Cup.
Faris Organji, 17, is one of three local drivers confirmed for Saudi Arabian F4 and will be debuting in single-seaters. The other two locals are F4 Middle East backmarkers Abdullah Kamel (16) and Farah Al Yousef (23), the latter of whom was the wildcard driver in the all-female F1 Academy series when it visited Jeddah this year.
Nina Gademan also has track knowledge and F4 experience from F1 Academy, where she currently sits sixth in the standings. The 22-year-old from the Netherlands started this year by coming 15th in Formula Winter Series.
Heading to Saudi Arabia from GB4, which now sits above F4 in the single-seater ladder, is Indian racer Ary Bansal and Ava Dobson. Last weekend Bansal became champion and 17-year-old American Dobson claimed her first podium.
Rounding out the grid is Adam Al Azhari. The Emirati was sixth in British F4 and 10th in F4 Middle East this year.