Freddie Slater is the new Italian F.4 Champion
It’s a Sunday to remember for Team Prema Racing in Barcelona. Freddie Slater claimed his 13th win of the season in the Italian F.4 Championship, starting from pole position and securing the title: the British driver from Stratford-upon-Avon is the new Italian F.4 Champion.
Slater’s season has been extraordinary, beginning with a triple win at Misano, followed by another victory in the final race at Imola, which kicked off a positive streak of 7 consecutive wins, completely dominating the rounds at Vallelunga and Mugello. Another victory came in the fifth round at Paul Ricard, followed by yesterday’s win in Race 1 in Barcelona, and today’s victory in Race 2. He still has one more race to go, starting from pole position, and then the final round in Monza. The British driver has now equalled the record of wins in the Italian Championship, held by Andrea Kimi Antonelli with 13 wins in 2022, and he now has four more opportunities to break it.
Freddie Slater: “It has been an amazing year so far. We had a few setbacks, but we always bounced back. 12 months ago, when I was here in Barcelona [in the 2023 Euro 4 Championship], I certainly wasn’t fighting with the frontrunners, and here I am today, winning races and winning the Championship here in Barcelona. We’ve come a long way in 12 months, and I couldn’t have done it without my team, ADD Management and Craig Boyd, as well as my family, who have supported me. Prema gave me an incredible car all year, we faced different conditions, rain, dry, and many different temperatures. Vincent, my engineer, did an incredible job, and the whole Prema team has been fantastic. Hopefully, there are a few more wins to add to the list. I still want more wins; I want to add to that record if I can. There’s another race later today and three at Monza. Also, there’s another championship next week that I can win, so we also need to focus on the Euro 4 next weekend. A huge thank you to René and Angelo, Prema – yes, I couldn’t have done it without them.”
With the victory in Race 2, Prema Racing also mathematically secured the Team title, marking a memorable day for the Grisignano di Zocco-based team, led by Angelo and René Rosin.
Race 2 at the Montmeló circuit was full of emotions and twists, starting right from the grid. From the front row, Jack Beeton (US Racing) stalled, losing P2, while another car stalled further back, triggering an incident at the start involving Enea Frey (Jenzer Motorsport), Enzo Yeh (R-ace GP), Everett Stack (PHM AIX Racing), and Nathaniel Berreby (Maffi Racing). All the drivers are okay, and after a few laps behind the Safety Car, the race resumed without issue. Freddie Slater had no problems at the restart, leading the race from start to finish with no real threats to his leadership. In second place was Hiyu Yamakoshi from Van Amersfoort Racing, Slater’s main rival throughout the year. The Japanese driver took second place in Race 2, holding off a late charge from Akshay Bohra, the American-Indian driver from US Racing, who completed the podium in third. Bohra, who started from the fifth grid slot, managed to recover positions at the start, getting back on track after the misfortunes of Race 1, where he stalled from pole position.
Alpine Academy driver Kean Nakamura-Berta from Prema Racing finished in fourth place, securing the Rookie win, the last of the standings still to be determined. Gianmarco Pradel, the Australian driver from US Racing, followed in fifth, holding off repeated attacks from behind in an exceptionally thrilling battle for the top 10. The major players in this fight were the drivers just behind him: Sweden’s Gustav Jonsson from Van Amersfoort Racing, who finished sixth, followed by Mercedes Junior driver Alex Powell from Prema Racing in seventh. Powell took second place on the Rookie podium and currently leads the Rookie standings, although the title has yet to be mathematically secured.
Eighth place went to the determined Latvian driver from Prema Racing, Tomass Stolcermanis, the third-best Rookie in Race 2. Rounding out the top 10 were Rashid Al Dhaheri from Prema Racing and Maksimilian Popov from PHM AIX Racing. Both were key players in the points battle, along with Emanuele Olivieri from AKM Motorsport and Maxim Rehm from US Racing, who finished 11th and 12th respectively.
There’s still Race 3 to go before the sixth round of the Italian F.4 Championship at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit comes to a close. Freddie Slater will start from pole position, with his first chance to set a new record for victories.
Hiyu Yamakoshi: “That’s it, I have nothing to say, just that he is very strong! Especially in this race I had pace after the start, but unfortunately, we had a safety car, it was a very difficult race. We have a good pace and if we have a good start in Race 3, we can race for a podium, or even a win. I would be very happy!”
Akshay Bohra: “Yesterday was pretty disappointing. We poled it in the first qualifying, but then started from P1, in Race 1, we stalled of the line. It’s part of the learning journey, mistakes happen. I think I didn’t let it affect my performance today. Race 2 is definitely positive, we maximize our start, and then I tried to do whatever I could do to make a position, but it’s really difficult to follow at this circuit. Race 3 it will be one row ahead, starting P3, a lot to play for. I’m just going to keep my head down and do the best I can.”
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “Coming into this year, with a very strong winter season, I was looking to see if I could win the overall title. Well done to Freddy, who did a very good year. Yesterday wasn’t that great of day for us, I started in the front, made some errors and costed us a possible very good finish. Today I just tried to amend my mistakes, just get the car home. In the race we looked strong at the start, I thought I could tackle the driver in front for the podium, but mid-race to the end, I struggled a little bit with the pace. I will look into it with the engineer, and see how we can improve for the next race, later today. We are definitely in the hunt for the Rookie Championship, especially with my other competitors starting a bit further back, we’ll just see how Race 3 goes, we still have Monza in a month time, it’s probably going to be settled there.”