Italian and German F4 series get 40+ cars, qualifying races

Photo: ADAC

The Italian and German Formula 4 championships will have grids of around 40 cars when they get underway over the next two weekends, necessitating the introduction of qualifying races to their formats.

In December, the ADAC F4 organisers had received over 50 entries for the coming season and thus revealed plans for a qualifying race at each event as a last chance for the slowest drivers in the regular qualifying session to make the main three races.

An entry list released ahead of next weekend’s opening round at Oschersleben?features 46 cars, although eight of these do not yet have drivers assigned to them, including one each at top teams Mucke Motorsport, Van Amersfoort Racing and Motopark.

The Italian championship, beginning at Misano this weekend, will have 41 cars and has therefore also introduced a change of format, with its being more radical. It will follow more of a karting-style system, with drivers split into three groups and each contesting two out of three qualifying races (A+B, B+C, A+C), from which the best drivers will go on to a final race.

Using the same Tatuus-Abarth car as the ADAC series, a number of teams will compete in both including Prema Powerteam with its driver trio of Mick Schumacher, Juri Vips and Juan Correa. Schumacher set the fastest time in a two-day official ADAC F4 pre-season test at Oschersleben this week.

At Misano, Jenzer Motorsport will field a huge seven car line-up for?Jan-Erik Meikup,?Job Van Uitert,?Diego Ciantini,?Marcos Siebert,?Giacomo Bianchi,?Kevin Kratz and?Fabio Scherer – all bar Siebert and Bianchi are also entered into ADAC F4.

Mucke Motorsport is present in both series but its Italian quartet of Yifei Ye, Devlin DeFrancesco, Maurizio Baiz and Aldo Festante are independent of its ADAC entry, where Mike Ortmann, Oliver Soderstrom, Lirim Zendelli and Ricardo Feller are entered.?Lechner Racing’s Thomas Preining and Yannick Brandt?are competing in both series, joined in ADAC by Michael Waldherr.

Joao Vieira?is back for a third Italian F4 season with Antonelli Motorsport alongside fellow returnees Federico Malvestiti and?Kikko Galbiati,?Marino Sato?is joined at Vincenzo Sospiri Racing by?Simone Cunati?and?Jaden Conwright?while?Diego Bertonelli?remains?with RB Racing, together with Yan Shlom and?Sebastian Fernandez. Former Prema driver?Giuliano Raucci will race for Diegi Motorsport, while Cram runs?Manuel Maldonado,?Leonard Hoogenboom and SMP protege?Alexander Vartanyan.

The old Malta Formula Racing team has morphed into?DR Formula under Danilo Rossi’s leadership, retaining Raul Guzman and welcoming Russian karting graduate Artem Petrov. BVM Racing joins the field with two more promising karters:?Lorenzo Colombo and?Kush Maini, with Bhaitech another newcomer with 2014 Italian F4 racer Giacomo Altoe and Aaron Di Comberti, who’s also competing in French F4.

There are a number of drivers in one-car teams including Amaury Bonduel, who competed in Eurocup Formula Renault and the Monza GP3 round last year, at GSK Grand Prix and?Valentin Hasse-Clot, a podium finisher at Monza at the start of an otherwise troubled Formula Renault campaign last year, with new team KiteViola Motorsport.

In Germany, US Racing, which took Marvin Dienst to the 2015 title, will field Jannes Fittje,?Louis Gachot,?Carrie?Schreiner?and?Kim Luis Schramm, while at Motopark,?Sophia Floersch and?Jonathan?Aberdein?have been joined by two-year French F4 campaigner?Simo Laaksonen. Van Amersfoort has entered?Joey Mawson,?Kami Laliberte?and?Moritz Muller-Crepon.

At?Neuhauser Racing, top karter?Nicklas Nielsen seems poised for a single-seater debut in addition to an Audi TT Cup programme, with?Felipe?Drugovich as his team-mate. Timo Scheider’s team has?Mauro Auricchio,?Julian Hanses and?Kenneth Gulbrandsen, Team Engstler sticks with?Luca Engstler and?Michelle Halder?while RS Competition has an all-new line-up of Dutch karter Hoogenboom and German Andreas Estner.

Toni Wolf will return with KUG Motorsport,?Cedric Piro?will continue with Piro Sports, Robin Brezina remains a privateer and?Marylin Niederhauser?has teamed up with Rennsport Rossler.