After a tumultuous start, Indian F4 will finally begin its maiden season in November of this year, with five rounds in India, using Mygale M21-F4 Gen2 cars supported by MP Motorsport. After announcing their maiden driver in August, they have strong ambitions for the future. Feeder Series had a talk with Akhilesh Reddy, Chairman of Racing Promotions Private Limited (RPPL), Indian F4’s promoter.

By Perceval Wolff

Indian F4 made the headlines recently with two major announcements, the first of which being the launch of the Chennai Formula Racing Circuit, a circuit in the streets of Chennai where Indian F4 will hold a night race.

A night street race

“RPPL wants to make motorsport popular in India, and this goes by bringing street races into the heart of major Indian cities. A street race is an opportunity for the whole city to get involved, and this will inspire the next generation to consider their future in motorsport,” Akhilesh Reddy explained.

“Moreover, there are very limited opportunities for young drivers to do night street races, while there are more and more of them in F1. Currently, F2 is the only feeder series to have night street races. That’s why we are proud of including a round like this in our inaugural year calendar, and to have another street track alongside Chennai with Hyderabad.”

Race-winning drivers from all over

The second big announcement was the championship announcing their first drivers taking part in Indian F4, with 15-year-old F4 race-winner Dion Gowda, currently sitting in fourth overall in the British F4 standings, and 16-year-old Italian F4 podium-finisher Akshay Bohra.

“We are the first and the only winter series to announce drivers as of now. Dion and Akshay have done very well in their respective campaigns this year, and their signing shows we are a championship of top quality and that we want to attract the best talent out there. Their signing has definitely raised a lot of interest in the championship,” Reddy revealed.

“The championship is open to everyone, regardless of their nationality. The championship will invariably benefit the current and future generation of Indian drivers.”

Top-quality machinery and award

Likewise to French F4, Indian F4 will be one of the rare feeder series to offer equal material to all drivers, as reigning F2 champions MP Motorsport will run all twelve Mygale M21-F4.

Compared to some other winter series struggling to get off the ground, such as F4 SEA in China and Malaysia and Saudi F4, Indian F4 believes in its strengths.

“First of all, Indian F4 is a great opportunity to get some quality seat time with MP Motorsport during the winter months. In other championships, the performance of the drivers on track is invariably tied to the team’s performance. It is not unusual for drivers to spend up to two years finding the right team that can provide them the right tools to succeed. It is very rare for a championship to offer the same opportunity to every driver on the grid.

“Most winter championships run up to five rounds in two or three tracks such as in UAE, but as a driver, you don’t learn that much by driving at the same circuit three times in less than two months. Indian F4 is having four different tracks, which offers plenty of learning opportunities for the drivers.

“F4 should not be too complicated for drivers and for parents. F4 drivers should get an opportunity to race in competitive and equal cars to assess their strengths and weaknesses.”

On top of the personal benefits of racing in the championship, Reddy believes the car will help young drivers go neck-and-neck on a more equal stage.

“The Mygale Gen2-MP combination is the only one of its kind in the world and offers every one of our twelve drivers an equal chance to win the championship, we doubt the same can be said for our rivals. Moreover, we will offer 12 FIA Super License points and a €100K scholarship to the champion.

“The Indian F4 engineers and mechanics have a lot of experience in top-level European motorsport, something which teams in other championships you mentioned cannot guarantee to their drivers. As a package, we are the best winter series for a young driver, we are really focused on driver development. The budget for the Indian championship is roughly around ten to twelve days of testing in Europe.”

A bigger field for the future?

This may have come to the attention of our readers that Indian F4 will “only” welcome twelve drivers for their maiden season. Why this choice?

“We have fifteen cars available but we have taken a conscious decision to run a maximum of twelve cars in the first year.

“We will assess our future grid size to ensure we always remain a top-quality championship that is not driven purely by the number of cars on the grid. We want to offer a great, hopefully the best, experience for the drivers. We believe that the emphasis should be on quality seat time and learning.”

By running a championship from November to December, Indian F4 takes the risk of clashing with some European post-season testing. Reddy, however, does not anticipate this becoming an issue.

“The decision to conduct the championship at this time of the year bodes well with the weather. Those months also have major Indian festivals, we can expect maximum attendance at the races.

“At the F4 level, testing and racing is almost non-stop these days, so no matter what time of the year we choose, we would invariably be in clash with either testing or another championship!

“Winter testing is crucial, but drivers learn a lot more over a race weekend doing qualifying laps, starts, reverse grids, etc. — a balance between testing and racing provides the right development for an F4 driver.”

An Indian feeder series ladder

Two years ago, Indian F4 planned to launch alongside a Formula Regional Indian Championship (FRIC). Even though FRIC won’t launch this year, the plans for this series are still alive.

“RPPL is creating a whole ladder of motorsport opportunities in India. 2023 saw the launch of the Karting Super Series (KSS), and Indian F4 is an addition to that ladder. We are definitely working towards a Formula Regional series in India in 2024 and will reveal our plans once the F4 championship is over.”

MP Motorsport had already been working with India earlier this year in Formula Regional Middle East with the Hyderabad Blackbirds by MP, clinching their first wins thanks to Mari Boya and Sami Meguetounif.

“MP is one of the few teams with the experience of operating a single-team structure [with the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy, e.n.], and their success with Hyderabad Blackbirds in FRMEC made it easy to continue the relationship in Indian F4. MP are aligned to RPPL’s vision of developing India as a major player in global motorsport.”

The next deadlines for major Indian F4 announcements before the start of the season in November are known. 

“We currently have seven drivers confirmed with announcements to follow soon, and we expect to announce the full grid by the middle of October. We are in discussions for the remaining seats and would like anyone interested to get in touch with us!”

Indian F4 will have its maiden round on the weekend of 4-5 November, with rounds in Hyderabad (street circuit), Buddh (permanent track) and Chennai (permanent track and street circuit) currently planned.

Header photo credit: Mygale Cars