Nearly 40 cars ready for the French round of the Italian F.4 Championship
37 single-seaters ready to take to the track to compete in the fifth round of the Championship at Paul Ricard
The Italian F.4 Championship, promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, returns this weekend with the fifth of seven rounds of the 2023 season. The iconic Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet will be the chosen venue for the three races of the weekend. On a track already known for intense Formula 1 battles, drivers from the Italian Formula 4 will compete, with 37 cars representing 24 nations from 4 different continents. There will be 10 Teams present at Le Castellet, ready to contend the round. Prema Racing leads the Team standings and will be on the grid with a clear intention to defend the position, with 7 cars ready to go at Paul Ricard. Leading the charge for the Grisignano di Zocco-based Team will be Red Bull Junior Team driver Arvid Lindblad, the current Championship leader. The fast London-born driver comes to the fifth round of the Italian F.4 Championship after a triple win at Monza. Also representing the Prema team in their white and red cars will be Ugo Ugochukwu, the American driver carrying the McLaren banner, and Australian Ferrari Driver Academy driver James Wharton. Also representing the Ferrari Academy will be Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen and Brazilian driver Aurelia Nobels. Completing the dream team will be Italian driver Nicola Lacorte and Rashid Al Dhaheri from the United Arab Emirates.
Making the challenge in French territory even more interesting will be the German Team US Racing, fielding a strong lineup of five drivers including Polish driver Kacper Sztuka, currently fourth in the overall driver standings behind three Prema drivers, and American-Singaporean driver Akshay Bohra. Both drivers were in the thick of the battle for the top positions in all the races of the last Championship round at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Also ready to hit the track for the Team led by Gerhard Ungar and Ralf Schumacher will be Maltese-Filipino driver David Zachary, Australian driver Gianmarco Pradel, and Chinese driver Ruiqi Liu.
The Dutch Team Van Amersfoort Racing, on the other hand, will have a lineup of six cars at Paul Ricard, featuring Italian ace Brando Badoer and Portuguese driver Ivan Domingues. They will also be joined by Australian driver Jack Beeton, Uzbek driver Ismail Akhmed, and Brazilian driver Matheus Ferreira, a young representative of the Alpine Academy. Making his debut in the Italian Championship, after already participating in the first round of the Euro 4 Championship, French driver Pablo Sarrazin will join the Van Amersfoort Team.
Representing Italy at the French round will be Team BVM Racing. Led by Giuseppe Mazzotti, the Team continues to rely on Sicilian driver Alfio Spina, who performed a brilliant driving in the first part of the Championship, yielding fruitful results that currently place him in the top 10 of the standings. Alongside him, making his debut in the Italian series, will be young talent Alvise Rodella. Rodella, Rookie in 2023, transitions to single-seaters this year after an exceptional karting career and is also competing in the Spanish series.
Four cars will be fielded by Team PHM Motorsport. Paul Müller's Team brings American driver James Egozi, German driver Valentin Kluss, and Thai driver Nandavhud Bhirombhakdi to the starting grid at Paul Ricard. As always, Victoria Blokhina will compete in the women's standings with the colors of PHM. R-ace GP will have 3 cars, with Raphael Narac, Matteo Quintarelli, and the debut of Singaporean driver Kabir Anurag, who had already participated in collective testing during the 2023 season. AKM Motorsport and Jenzer Motorsport will each field a quartet. For the San Marino-based Team led by Marco and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, French driver Enzo Deligny, Swiss driver Tina Hausmann, Mexican driver Diego De Latorre, and Danish driver Frederik Lund will take to the track. The Swiss Team led by Andreas Jenzer will feature Korean driver Hwarang Kim, Swiss driver Ethan Ischer, Israeli rookie Ariel Elkin, and Australian driver Griffin Peebles. Italian driver Guido Luchetti will be the sole representative for Team Airflow Racing, while Maffi Racing returns to the Italian Championship in France, with Gabriel Holguin on the track.
The fifth round of the Italian F.4 Championship promises to offer an exciting spectacle, and, such high level entry list, to be as greatly competitive as the previous rounds.
Weekend Schedule:
At Paul Ricard, cars will hit the track on Friday, July 21, at 8:00 for forty minutes of free practice, followed by a second session at 13:54. Qualifying will take place on Saturday, July 22, with the first session from 10:19 to 10:34, followed by the second session from 10:44 to 10:59. Race 1 will already take place on Saturday evening, starting at 16:50 for 30 minutes + 1 lap. On Sunday, July 23, Race 2 will start at 10:10 (30 minutes + 1 lap), followed by Race 3 at 17:30 (30 minutes + 1 lap).
The races of the weekend can be watched live with English commentary on the Italian F.4 Championship's YouTube and Facebook pages and on Motorsport TV (https://eu.motorsport.tv/); Italian commentary will be available on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228), www.acisport.it, and the @acisporttv Facebook page.