Photo: ACI Sport
Italian Formula 4 begins its 2026 campaign this weekend in Misano and debuts a series of changes to the longest-running FIA F4 championship.
Among the changes is an adaptation to the points scoring positions. Points will now no longer be limited to the top 10 finishers and will instead be awarded to those finishing 15th or higher. Thirty points will be awarded to the race winner with 26 being awarded for second and 22 for third, all the way down to 15th position which will be awarded 1 point.
There has also been a revision to the technical and sporting regulations with teams and drivers now having a maximum of two power units allocated to them throughout the 28 race season.
With a field of 48 cars entered, the Misano round – and any others where the grid size exceeds circuit capacity – will once more feature four races: the first three serving as qualifying races for a finale limited to just the top 36 scorers.
Italian F4 will also race exclusively in Italy for the first time since 2017. The season will kick off in Misano before travelling to Vallelunga 12 days later for round two. From there, drivers will have almost a month-long break before returning in late June for round three at Monza, then heading to Mugello the following week. Round five will be hosted by Imola in early September before a return to Misano and the season finale in Mugello.
In 2025, Prema’s Kean Nakamura-Berta clinched both the Italian F4 and E4 championships having smashed the record for the most podiums in a single season, tallying 17 podiums and nine wins in the Italian series.
48 drivers on a record-breaking grid
Nearly 50 drivers are set to line-up on the grid for the opening round in Misano this weekend. Representing 13 different teams the grid boasts both a wealth of experience and rookies looking to make the next step in their racing career.
Twenty of the 48 drivers line up with minimal F4 experience, most notably Prema’s Costoya Christian who will compete for the reigning champions in both the Italian F4 championship and E4 championship.
The McLaren junior, signed to the programme last December after impressing in his final year of karts, made his single-seater debut in UAE4, taking a win in round three and finishing the season sixth overall in the standings.
Costoya joins Alp Aksoy as Prema’s lone rookies in its four-car line up for 2026. Aksoy has stepped up to single-seaters having claimed third place in the 2025 WSK Euro Series, and won the Formula Trophy in the UAE at the end of last year.
Sasha Bondarev will also line up for the Prema team. The Ukrainian also won a title over the winter in UAE4 and will compete under Prema colours for his second full season in Italian F4.
Van Amersfoort Racing will be the only team with no rookies in its line up, aside from AS Motorsport which only has one driver – Ginevra Panzeri – under its banner at the start of the season.
The Dutch outfit boasts a wealth of experience, most notably British driver and brother of Haas F1 driver Thomas Bearman who competed for Hitech in British F4 last year, claiming a maiden win at Oulton Park on his way to ninth in the standings.
The 16-year-old will be one of three British drivers on this years grid, the other two being R-ace GP duo Kenzo Craigie and Emily Cotty. Mercedes junior Craigie came third in UAE4 in his debut single-seater campaign while Cotty came 10th and returns to Italian F4 for a second season.
US Racing will have the most cars on the grid, fielding seven drivers this campaign. Prema comes in next with six drivers while four teams (PHM, Trident, Jenzer and R-ace) will have five on the grid.
Only AS Motorsport and Real Racing will have one car on the grid this year while Maffi Racing and Alpha racing have two cars each. VAR and AKM complete the grid with their three cars.