Sherwood joins Rodin in British F4 as Fairclough tops test at Silverstone

Photo: Rodin Motorsport

British Formula 4 pre-season testing got underway on Silverstone’s Grand Prix track layout this week, and Deagen Fairclough set the pace.

Rodin Motorsport announced at the start of the two-day test that it had added Jack Sherwood to its line-up for 2024. The 17-year-old came 24th in Ginetta Junior three years ago, then stepped up to single-seaters in GB4 where he came fifth in the 2022 standings with two wins and a pole.

He also did four British F4 rounds that year with Chris Dittmann Racing, with a best finish of eighth leaving him 18th in the standings. Sherwood remained with the team for 2023, coming 15th in British F4 with three podiums and scoring one point in a GB3 cameo.

“We are looking forward to working with Jack in 2024 and seeing what he can do with us,” said Rodin’s British F4 team manager Gary Bonnor.

“His previous experience in the series will only help him hit the ground running with us as we look to develop him further this year.”

Starting the test on top was Fairclough, who set a 2m01.086s in session one to Hitech GP lead team-mate Mika Abrahams by 0.326 seconds. Rodin’s James Higgins was a further 0.017s slower in third, with Reza Seewooruthun (Hitech), Joel Bergstrom (JHR Developments) and Gabriel Stilp (Hitech) the only other drivers within a second of the pace.

Session two was slightly slower, and Rodin’s Alex Ninovic set the pace with a 2m01.129s. He was fastest by just 0.018s over Argenti Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling, with Higgins 0.089s behind in third and Fairclough 0.135s back in fourth. JHR’s Leon Robinson was 0.537s slower than Ninovic in fifth, and this time the top nine were covered by a second. Argenti’s Matus Ryba missed the session.

Fairclough lowered the pace to 2m00.678s in session three, with Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular his closest rival with a 2m00.924s lap. Campbell-Pilling was next best, 0.428s behind, and Robinson was fourth. Argenti’s Emily Cotty did two outlaps but did not put a time on the board.

All 21 drivers were active again in session four, and all improved bar Fortec Motorsport’s Nina Pothof and Cotty. Fairclough set a 2m00.292s to stay on top, and Higgins and Ninovic both set 2m00.573s to be joint second. Scoular was 0.342s behind in fourth, with 0.993s covering the top 14.

Wednesday began with Scoular lowering the pace to 2m00.023s. There were only six drivers who improved their pace, and despite going second fastest Fairclough was not one of them.

Higgins moved into second overall by topping the next session with a 2m00.210s. Fairclough was again a non-improver in second place, while 12 improved.

In session seven Fairclough topped the times by 0.256s over Stilp, who was the only improver, then in the final session Fairclough finally made a gain and a big one too as he set a 1m59.971s. Stilp fell 0.009s short of setting a sub-2m00s lap but was among the eight who improved, and Scoular was third fastest. Robinson was absent.

Test results