Photo: Gavin Baker Photography
The United States Formula 4 championship has cancelled its opening round of the season at NOLA Motorsports Park on April 11-14.
At the time of writing there are only three drivers announced as being on the 2024 grid, and now teams have just under eight rather than three to fill seats before racing gets underway at Road America on May 16-19.
The cause of the round one cancellation and the small grid size so far is US F4’s switch from Ligier’s first-generation F4 car, dubbed the Crawford F4-16 and in use since 2016, to the brand’s halo-shod second-generation chassis for 2024.
A representative of the championship’s promoter told Formula Scout that “as in 2016, Ligier has been delayed in delivering cars” so the season will have a later start date.
They added: “We are very excited about the new car as it’s state-of-the-art in every way, including the V4 engine, brakes and class-leading aerodynamics. Every driver who has driven the car has had an extremely positive reaction to it, including how the car drives similar to a Formula Regional car.”
With no news of a rescheduling, the loss of NOLA from the calendar means US F4 goes from a six to a five-round season, but that does include races abroad in Canada.
The first-generation cars will continue to be used in the sister Ligier JS F4 Series, previously known as Formula Development, which has so far been aimed at 14 year olds but will be open to older drivers soon. It too has a five-round schedule, and will be making the trip to NOLA next month for its season opener.