It will be a battle of 30 drivers in the Italian F.4 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. Once again, drivers from all over the world, representing 21 different nationalities on the track, will compete in the third event of the season for the series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion. This weekend, from May 26th to 28th, the first appointment of the European tour of the Italian Formula 4 will take place at the iconic Belgian circuit. As we head into round 3 after Imola and Misano, British driver Arvid Lindblad leads the Championship standings, leading the way for his teammates in the PREMA Racing team: Ugo Ugochukwu and Nicola Lacorte, in P2 and P3.
Completing the 7-driver assault from the Grisignano di Zocco-based Team, headed by Angelo Rosin, will be once again the Finnish driver Tuukka Taponen, Australian James Wharton, Emirati Rashid Al Dhaheri, and a new entry in the Italian F.4, Bianca Bustamante. The Filipino driver is part of the PREMA team in the F1 Academy, where she also claimed victory in Race 2 at Valencia.
US Racing will bring 5 cars to Belgium, with Zachary David, Maltese-Filipino driver who has already reached the podium twice, Polish driver Kacper Sztuka, who secured the first win of the year in Imola, and the trio of Rookie drivers Ruiqi Liu, Akshay Bohra, and Gianmarco Pradel. There will also be 5 Tatuus cars on the track representing Van Amersfoort Racing: Portuguese driver Ivan Domingues, Uzbek driver Ismail Akhmed, Brazilian driver Mattehus Ferreira, Australian driver Jack Beeton, and Italian driver Brando Badoer. Among the Italian drivers, Sicilian talent Alfio Spina will also be present, racing with BVM Racing.
PHM Racing will field at Spa-Francorchamps a competitive lineup of 4 cars, featuring recently crowned 2023 WSK Super Master Series Champion James Egozi. Victoria Blokhina, Valentin Kluss, and Thai driver Nandahvud Bhirombhakdi will also be part of the team. The French Team R-ace GP will present a two-driver lineup with Raphael Narac and Italian driver Matteo Quintarelli. AKM Motorsport will have a two-car squad with Swiss driver Tina Hausmann and Danish driver Frederik Lund. Jenzer Motorsport will have a trio with Korean driver Hwarang Kim, Swiss driver Ethan Ischer, and Israeli driver Ariel Elkin. Guido Luchetti, representing Airflow Racing, will compete as a lone driver, with the Team making its debut season in the Italian F.4 Championship.
The schedule of the weekend
Activities at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit will kick off on Friday, May 26th, with free practice in two sessions of 40 minutes starting at 11:55 and again at 17:15. Saturday, May 27th will see the official practice sessions, with 2 sessions of 15 minutes each, separated by a 10-minute break in the pit lane. Qualifying will start at 9:50. Race 1, lasting 30 minutes + 1 lap, will take place on Saturday at 14.30.
On Sunday, May 28th, Race 2 (30 minutes + 1 lap) will take place, starting at 10:35; followed by Race 3 (30 minutes + 1 lap) at 17:20, closing the weekend.
All three races of the weekend will be broadcast live with English commentary on the Italian F.4 Championship's YouTube and Facebook pages, as well as on Motorsport TV (https://eu.motorsport.tv/). They will also be aired with Italian commentary on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228), on www.acisport.it, and on the Facebook page @acisporttv.