Everything is ready at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola to welcome the 37 cars that will take to the track for the first event of the season of the Italian F.4 Championship certified by FIA, the single-seater series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion. Another year, the one at the start of the Championship that has managed to establish itself as a reference on the international scene, welcomed with great favor, as demonstrated by the vast international participation that exceeds 20 nationalities and touches 4 continents.
A roster of exceptional quality right from the start, with the reigning Champion team, PREMA Racing, showing no sign of giving up ground and having every intention of defending the title. In fact, there are 7 cars in the team led by Angelo Rosin at Imola, with the junior McLaren driver, Ugo Ugochukwu, an American who had already had the opportunity to amaze in his appearances in the Italian series last year. Several Ferrari juniors will then be with the Vicenza-based team: the Finn Tuukka Taponen and the Belgian driver Aurelia Nobels, both making their first appearances in the competitive Italian F4 series; then, again under the banner of the Ferrari Driver Academy, James Wharton. The Australian had already shown during the past season that he has a great hunger for victory and all the credentials to reach his goal. Rookie Rashid Al Dhaheri, one of the students of the ACI Sport Federal School who took part in the 2022 Supercorso, will make his debut with the team’s white and red Tatuus. Finally, Nicola Lacorte will be alongside him who, after his debut last year , had in turn taken part in the ACI Sport 2022 Federal Supercorso and emerged victorious.
The clear will to defend the title on the part of the Italian team will certainly not be made easy by the competition. In fact, the Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing brings to the track a quintet of absolute quality, made up of the Brazilian Matheus Ferreira, supported by his son in the art Brando Badoer and Akhmed Ismail, both already accustomed to hostilities in the Italian series, with a year of valuable experience behind you to rely on. For the team led by Frits Van Amersfoort there will also be the Portuguese Ivan Domingues and the Australian Jack Beeton.
5 cars also for the German US Racing Team led by Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar, which lines up the expert Polish driver Kacper Sztuka on the track, accompanied by 4 rookies: the Australian Gianmarco Pradel, then Zachary David, the Singaporean driver Akshay Bohra and Chinese Ruiqi Liu.
Poker instead for Marco Antonelli, Team Principal of AKM Motorsport, who lines up a quartet of very young debutants with the intention of accumulating kilometers and experience, but without excluding surprises with the debut of Davide Larini, son of art already very fast in single-seater tests, the Swiss Tina Hausmann, the French Enzo Deligny and the Australian Griffin Peebles
There are also four PHM Racing drivers, with Valentin Kluss, the Thai Nandavhud Bhirombhakdi, the driver Victoria Blokhina and James Egozi, who is also making his debut in the series after training with the ACI Sport Federal School on the occasion of the last Supercorso.
Instead, there will be three R-ace GP cars, with Raphael Narac, Matteo Quintarelli and rookie Matteo De Palo. A fourth car with the Singaporean driver Kabir Anurag will take to the track at the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola, but only during the long test sessions on Thursday.
Tris also for Andreas Jenzer, with Jenzer Motorsport bringing to the starting blocks the Korean Kim Hwarang, the Swiss Ethan Ischer and, as an absolute rookie, the Israeli driver Ariel Elkin will take to the track.
Trio also for BVM Racing, which starts with the Italian riders Alfio Spina and Andrea Frassineti and the Mexican Jesse Carrasquedo.
The Slovenian Team AS Motorsport will instead be a duo, with Finn Wiebelhaus and Manuel Quondamcarlo; while Guido Luchetti, the Italian pilot of Airflow Racing, will race as the sole representative of his team.
The weekend program:
The first round opens on Thursday, with 50-minute track testing sessions for the riders divided into three groups. The sessions will start from 9.00.
Friday free practice in two 40-minute sessions, starting at 9.00 and 12.55. It will then be the turn of the official tests with the drivers divided into 2 series, the first series will take to the track from 17.30 to 17.50; the second series will follow from 18.00 to 18.20.
The races will start from Saturday, in the new format introduced last year which provides for a total of four races with the riders divided into groups (A,B,C.). Race 1 (BC) will start at 11.55, followed by race 2 (AB) at 18.20. Sunday will be the turn of race 3 (CA) which starts at 10.00, then the last race of the weekend which starts at 18.00. All races will last 25′ + 1 lap and will be broadcast live with English commentary on the Youtube and Facebook pages of the Italian F.4 Championship; while they will be broadcast with Italian commentary on ACI Sport TV (sky channel 228), on www.acisport.it and on the @acisporttv Facebook page.
Access to the public is free and permitted in the Grandstands Start 1 (Ex A) and Start 3 (Ex I), open on 21, 22 and 23 April. The paddock will be closed to the public.
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