Following an exclusive interview with Meritus.GP Team Principal Peter Thompson, Feeder Series can reveal the launch of the new FIA F4 Saudi Arabia Championship. The maiden season will start this weekend at Sakhir before going to other F1 tracks from the Middle-East. From the number of cars, weekend format, drivers, organisation and sponsors, here’s what you need to know about this new series!

By Perceval Wolff

In motorsport, it’s rare to see some secrets kept for several years, especially when it’s about creating a new championship in one of the most influential countries in today’s world. But it’s what Altawkilat Meritus.GP succeeded to do.

Pioneers of Asian motorsport

Meritus.GP is a well-known name in the feeder ladder, after racing in GP2 Asia Series in the late 2000s and organising Formula 4 SEA (South East Asia) from 2016 to 2019. Meritus Team Principal Peter Thompson talked to Feeder Series about its new project in an exclusive interview.

“We’ve worked on this project for three years. We ordered the Tatuus F4-T421 Gen2 cars almost one year ago, so we have been planning this for a long time.”

“The history of Meritus.GP and Saudi Arabia started more than thirty years ago with the EFDA Nations Cup, a Formula Opel Lotus competition launched by Dan Partel [e.n. the cars used could be compared to the current Formula Regional cars]. We had two drivers from Jeddah, Faisal Ali and Raad Aduljawad, who were the two first racing drivers of the country. Their racing license was 01 and 02!” Thompson explained.

“We then participated in the GP2 Asia Series and we were runner-up with Luca Filippi in 2010. We then ran F4 SEA for several years, using a single-make format with all cars and all drivers engaged by our team. By the way, one of our formers F4 SEA race-winners, Hadrien David will be one of our driver coaches, too.”

However, after the COVID-19 Pandemic began, troubles emerged, especially logistically for a Southeast Asian championship. As a result, Thompson explains how he laid the groundwork for this new championship.

“But then COVID happened, and it closed down motorsport in Eastern Asia for several years. It was easier for me to work in the Middle East. I started from zero in December 2020, and we built everything from there.

“Because I put my focus on F4 Saudi, I lost the franchise for F4 SEA. I created it, I invested a lot of money in F4 SEA but I had been outside of the country for so long because of COVID. The Federation in Asia gave the license to somebody else this year.”

A focus on driver development

Unlike F4 UAE or the new form of F4 SEA, F4 Saudi has chosen to run all twenty cars through one single preparator, as French F4 does with the FFSA or Indian F4 with MP Motorsport.

“I chose the FIA single-make organiser because it is more cost-effective to run a championship in Asia, because drivers don’t have the same budget as in Europe. By going the single-make route, I can control everything and that’s why F4 SEA was successful. The new way of F4 SEA with multiple teams means there are globally as many drivers, but very few Asian drivers because they can’t afford to join European teams.”

“I believe the goal of F4 is to enhance national driver development. But if you welcome multiple European teams, nobody will be investing in the development of local talents. In F4 Saudi, I control the fees, I have my own sponsors, so we sponsor every drivers. I believe F4 is there for driver development, not for European teams to make extra money in the winter time.”

A full, mixed grid

With the beginning of the new championship around the corner, Thompson simply explains the thinking behind 20 cars.

“The grid is full. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have 30-40-50 cars, so we locked our grid to 20 cars,” he said. “We will have a 50/50 mix of international and Arab drivers. Ten international drivers from many nationalities, five Saudi and five Arab drivers from the region (Qatar, Kuwait, etc.).”

A full grid of twenty drivers could be considered as surprising for a lot of our readers, as F4 Saudi has been a well-kept secret for several years.

“I’m not a rookie, I have a lot of connections and it’s true we have not publicly announced F4 Saudi. But we are developing the project by word and mouth, without any publicity, just through our relationships and the fact that I have been vising every go-kart track for the last two years,” he explained.

Saudi Arabia is known to be making big investments in sports, especially in football by attracting big names such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema. Asked about whether F4 Saudi could welcome several F4 stars, such as Ugo Ugochukwu or Théophile Naël, Peter Thompson answered: 

“I think when you will see our entry list on the 14th of December, you will smile after the question you have just asked.”

A rich calendar

Here is the provisional calendar of the 2023-24 F4 Saudi season. As you may notice, it features three F1 tracks.

• Round 1 – Sakhir, Bahrain (14-16 December, 2023)
• Round 2 – Losail, Qatar (5-7 January, 2024)
• Round 3 – Kuwait Autodrome (25-27 January, 2024)
• Round 4 – Kuwait Autodrome (1-3 February, 2024)
• Round 5 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (20-23 March, 2024)
• Round 6 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (29-30 March, 2024)

“It’s very important, of course. It’s a major attraction, but we also have to admit that some drivers don’t appreciate it and prefer to race on European historical tracks. But if we can get some of them on the path to F1, when they will look back, they will realise it will have helped them.”

“We would prefer to call our series F4 Arabia, because there is only one licensed track in Saudi Arabia, so it would make sense to make it a regional championship. It would be more politically correct.”

Weekend format

The provisional event schedule is to run from Thursday to Saturday every weekend. There will be three 45-minute testing sessions on Thursday. On Friday, an official free practice session will take place before qualifying. Then, the first race of the weekend will simply use the order of qualifying. On Saturday, race two’s starting grid will use the reversed race one’s result. Race three will use the reversed race two’s result, and race four will use the reversed Race three’s result. It is not confirmed whether only the top six, top eight or top 10 will be reversed yet.

F4 Saudi will use FIA’s classic point system with 25 points for the winner, then 18, 15 and one point for the driver in P10. Three points are awarded for pole position and one bonus point to the fastest lap of the race.

The “Prix d’Or” initiative

Thanks to several sponsors part of the “Prix d’Or” initiative, F4 Saudi has been able to cap the budget required for drivers to participate in the series to 130,000 dollars.

“We have some very attractive sponsors confirmed and everything will be announced on Thursday. They will appear on the different cars, as we will make ten ‘teams.’ Although we are a one-team franchise, we sell branding to Arab teams and sponsors.”

This process could be compared to what W Series did, with all cars run by the championship, but with different names (Puma, Jenner, etc.). 

“People pay a fee for this, but behind the branding is my engineering. There will be a local team principal that will go on the podiums.”

Creating a culture and ecosystem

But Peter Thompson’s ambition does not stop at a national F4 series.

“We’re not just creating a driver development program to find a way for a Saudi or Arab driver in F1 in 10 years-time. We’re starting from zero. We have to create a culture, the employment, train people, inspire kids. Not everyone wants to be a driver, some want to direct teams, some want to be engineers, mechanics.”

“We visited a lot of Universities in the United Kingdom, and we employ graduates from University, and the plan is once we get organised, we will organise a Saudi university joint venture with a British University, and our batch of engineers can then enhance their capacities and their knowledge.”

“It’s not as easy as football because football already exists in the United Kingdom. Motorsport didn’t exist. Of course, F1 comes since 2021 to Jeddah. The whole world comes to Jeddah for one week, and after this, nothing is left behind. Same for the Dakar Rally, they come for two weeks and nothing is left behind.”

“The difference with us is that we have built a permanent base in Jeddah. We have our motorsport technical centre here, we have 104 people employed, with local people involved, we are full-time here, I’m here with my family.”

An Arabian feeder series to FIA F3

When asked about a potential relaunch of the GP2 Asia Series and of a potential all-Asian feeder series ladder that could challenge the European one, Meritus.GP was much more sceptical. 

“It’s impossible to challenge 120 years of history. F3 and F2 are such a great brand, so professional. We are a permanent Asian motorsport industry, we are the feeders to the global feeder series in Europe.”

“We will develop karting, F4, and hopefully a Formula Regional championship. But globally, our focus is to bring drivers to the FIA F3 level.”

Can F4 UAE and F4 Saudi coexist?

Of course, another major F4 series is already present in the Middle East, with F4 UAE welcoming most of F4 stars during the winter to prepare drivers and teams for their European campaign in Italy, Spain or UK. Can F4 Saudi exist alongside it?

“We’re not trying to be better. We’re focused on what we do, which is very different from what they do. They’re focused on giving European drivers an opportunity to do some racing, we’re focusing on developing local talents. F4 UAE is a five or six-week holiday for European teams and drivers, it’s a winter test series in very great conditions, but they are not involved in the culture and the development of motorsport in the region. They’re utilising the great weather we have there in the region.”

“The difference is that we’re always there. We’re focused on bringing the first Arab driver to F1, where F4 UAE has a different focus and a different price category. An F4 UAE season is around 400,000 dollars while we don’t exceed 130,000 dollars. I believe most of the drivers who will be racing with us this year, wouldn’t have raced in F4 without us.”

“There is no doubt we can coexist. We’re not fighting them, we’re not taking their drivers, we are just different.”

“I believe we are making history. People involved in this first Saudi championship will be held on a pedestal in the future. In 10 years-time, hopefully, we will have an F1 driver. The work we are doing is about drivers, mechanics, engineers, managers, about bringing together a motorsport community in Saudi Arabia.”

Header photo credit: Altawkilat Meritus.GP