The premier destination for winter Formula 4 competition, F4 UAE, returns for its eighth season in action. The series once again welcomes a talented international grid, twelve months after Formula 1 juniors James Wharton, Tuukka Taponen, Ugo Ugochukwu and Arvid Lindblad fought for glory on the Middle East’s most prestigious circuits. Feeder Series tells you everything you need to know about the 2024 F4 UAE season.

By George Brabner

After experiencing supreme growth alongside its senior series Formula Regional Middle East (FRMEC) last year, F4 UAE picks up from where it left off in 2024. 

Over five race weekends, 35 drivers from 12 teams will offer us our first insight into the lie of the land this season. Highly-regarded karting graduates, proteges of the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull F1 driver academies and a plethora of proven F4 winners will take to the Yas Marina Circuit and Dubai Autodrome aiming to start the new year on the front foot.

With the entire top five from the 2023 championship now competing in FRMEC, F4 UAE has proven itself as the best place for drivers to lay the first foundations of a successful single-seater career.

The calendar

F4 UAE introduced an international round to its calendar for the first time in its history last season, but the Kuwait Motor Town circuit has been dropped for 2024. As a result, the series will remain within the UAE for its entirety, visiting the Yas Marina Circuit three times and the Dubai Autodrome twice. Both are FIA Grade 1 venues, and thus the calendar’s limited selection remains attractive, offering the perfect opportunity for drivers to develop on tracks similar in style to those featured on various summer series calendars.

To aid variety, F4 UAE will use two of Yas Marina’s four layouts. Drivers will compete on the ‘Corkscrew’ layout, which cuts through the infield in sector one and skips the turn five hairpin, for the season opener but will return to the full ‘Grand Prix’ configuration for rounds two and four. 

• Round 1: Yas Marina Circuit (12-14 January)
• Round 2: Yas Marina Circuit (19-21 January)
• Round 3: Dubai Autodrome (2-4 February)
• Round 4: Yas Marina Circuit (9-11 February)
• Round 5: Dubai Autodrome (16-18 February)

The format

F4 UAE’s weekend format will be modified slightly for 2024.

Each round will begin with two hours of official testing on Friday ahead of one final thirty-minute practice session on Saturday morning. Two qualifying sessions will then be held; the results of qualifying one will set the grid for race one, whilst qualifying two will determine the starting order for race three.

What is new, however, is that the grid for race two will be set by reversing the top 12 of race one’s results rather than being determined by the fastest laps set in that race. Drivers classified 13th or lower in the first race will start the second race from those positions.

Three 28-minute plus-one-lap races will follow, all of which will award points in the FIA’s standard format, granting the winner 25 points down to one point for tenth place. Securing the fastest lap of a race will not award an extra point, nor will pole position.

Where to watch

Also carrying over from the 2023 season is F4 UAE’s broadcast package, which offers full coverage of every qualifying session and race on YouTube with Jake Sanson as the series’ commentator. Practice sessions will not be streamed, but they can be followed via a live timing channel provided by the championship.

Teams and drivers

Mumbai Falcons

Mumbai Falcons enter the 2024 F4 UAE season as favourites for title glory. Having taken James Wharton and Tukka Taponen to first and second in the team’s standings one year ago, the Prema satellite outfit returns to the UAE with a four-car lineup.

Freddie Slater (#27) will contest his first full season in F4 cars with Mumbai Falcons. The Briton dominated the Ginetta Junior Championship fresh from karting last season before stepping up to compete in select rounds of British F4, Italian F4 and Euro4 and enter the Macau Grand Prix. Already a race-winner with Prema Racing, Slater is expected to make an impact on the F4 UAE field.

Joining Slater at Mumbai Falcons will be Kean Nakamura-Berta (#51) and Alex Powell (#80). 

Part of the Alpine Academy since 2023, Nakamura-Berta has already made his first steps into F4 competition in F4 SEA, in which he scored two pole positions and a podium finish. When paired with an impressive karting record that includes four championships, hopes are high for Nakamura-Berta who, like Slater, is set to compete in Italian F4 and Euro4 later this year. 

Powell, meanwhile, is a member of the Mercedes Junior Team. A winner in karting, the Jamaican native has been nurtured by the team since 2019. He made the step into single-seaters with Prema late last year, scoring one top-ten finish in six Italian F4 appearances. 

Rounding out Mumbai Falcons’ F4 UAE squad is Dion Gowda (#55) who joins Prema’s stable for the first time. The Indian driver competed with Rodin Carlin in British F4 last year and took a quadruplet of victories on his way to fourth in the final standings. Predicted to be preparing for a second full season in F4 with a campaign in the UAE, Gowda is a driver to watch.

Prema Racing

Prema will enter four cars under their own banner alongside the Mumbai Falcons team. 

The Italian team’s only full-time driver will be Rashid Al Dhaheri (#14). The Emirati will start his second season racing in F4 with Prema after making his single-seater debut in Italian F4, having missed out on an F4 UAE seat twelve months ago because of his age. Al Dhaheri took a third-place finish in the Trophy Race last November and he is likely to challenge for the top five spots.

Taking the spotlight at Prema is Doriane Pin (#28), who continues to build a surprise F4 resume despite a rocketing sportscar career. The Frenchwoman will compete in the first three rounds of the season after making her single-seater debut in F4 SEA last year. She won in only her sixth race and finished the campaign as the best-placed rookie, leading to high expectations despite her inexperience. 

Rumoured to be preparing for an F1 Academy assault later in the season, her performances over the next three weeks could give an early indication of how a summer F4 campaign will pan out.

Once Pin vacates Prema, Latvian Tomass Štolcermanis will take her seat. He also made his single-seater debut in F4 SEA in 2023, jumping up from karting.

Completing Prema’s lineup for round one is Chinese driver Chi Zhenrui (#29), who will also be graduating from karting as a winner to make his single-seater debut.

Hitech GP

Following a successful second year racing F4 cars in the UAE, Hitech GP returns to the region with a squad of four drivers.

They will take on 2023 British F4 race winners Deagen Fairclough (#7) and Gabriel Stilp (#6), both of whom are embarking on their second full F4 campaigns. Fairclough finished third in British F4 last year with an impressive two victories and five podiums under his belt, whilst Stilp took ninth place with one win and two podiums. 

Fairclough’s maiden single-seater campaign yielded more success than his new teammate, but it is Stilp who has already settled in with Hitech, having already spent 12 months competing with the team in British F4.

Alongside the two Britons will be Reza Seewooruthun (#4) and Scotsman Sebastian Murray (#5). Seewooruthun will make his single-seater debut ahead of a British F4 campaign with Hitech, whilst Murray returns to the UAE after a pointless season with Cram Motorsport one year ago.

PHM Racing

PHM Racing, which recently gained title sponsorship from Emirati investment advisory firm AIX, will have its four-car squad led by 2023 F3 driver Nikita Bedrin (#10). The Russian, who races under an Italian licence, will compete with the team full-time, despite leaving its F4 ranks at the end of 2022. 

Having taken two podium finishes in F3 with PHM, he will be dropping down to the team’s F4 squad to act as a reference for his young teammates and help drive the team forward. No matter his reasoning for competing in F4 UAE, though, there is no doubt that he is a likely candidate for title glory.

Alongside Bedrin will be Kamal Mrad (#70), Maksimilian Popov (#33) and Everett Stack (#9). 

F4 UAE will be Mrad’s first full single-seater campaign after he competed in one round of both the Italian F4 and Euro 4 championships in 2023, achieving a best finish of 21st and 19th respectively. 

Popov will be making his F4 debut with PHM, graduating from the international karting scene with the German squad, and Stack will be racing outside of the USA for the first time in his career, a step away from F4 US, in which he finished 33rd overall.

Pinnacle Motorsport

After striking a deal to enter F4 UAE in partnership with Van Amersfoort Racing 12 months ago, Pinnacle Motorsport will enter without the Dutch team by their side in 2024.

They will enter only two drivers this season: Kai Daryanani (#88) and Fu Yuhao (#99). 

Daryanani returns to the Middle East for a second consecutive F4 UAE assault with Pinnacle after a full British F4 campaign and partial seasons in GB4 and F4 SEA. 

Meanwhile, Yuhao continues to be a part of the Irish squad’s single-seater roster after making his debut with them in round three of the F4 SEA season.

R-ace GP

French squad R-ace GP will enter five drivers this season, three of whom are F4 rookies. 

Raphael Narac (#76) will continue with the team after first joining forces with them in F4 UAE last year, taking a best finish of 14th, before switching his concentration to Italian F4, in which he ended 19th overall. His 2024 F4 UAE campaign will precede a second season in Italian F4.

Alongside Narac full-time will be Enzo Yeh (#77) and Luka Sammalisto (#8). 

Yeh, who is from Taiwan, took one podium in a partial F4 SEA campaign last year after making his single-seater debut on the streets of Macau. 

The 2024 F4 UAE season will also mark Finn Sammalisto’s first full-time campaign after being one of two drivers to win R-ace GP’s internal shootout.

Sharing R-ace GP’s fourth car will be FRECA-bound Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny and Jules Caranta (#83). Frenchman Cantara will drive in round one, in which he will make his single-seater debut, before Deligny takes over for the final three rounds of the season.

Yas Heat Racing Academy

New-for-2023 team Yas Heat Racing Academy, who are affiliated with the Yas Marina Circuit entity and run by Xcel Motorsport, will enter their second season in F4 UAE with two drivers.

Keanu Al Azhari (#11) will take a lead role in the outfit as he embarks on a sophomore campaign. The Emirati driver claimed two podium finishes on his way to seventh in F4 UAE last year, which was his first full season in single-seaters, and went on to take ninth in Spanish F4. Having won back-to-back races from pole in last November’s Trophy Round, hopes are high for the now-experienced Al Azhari.

Zack Scoular (#23) will round out Yas Heat’s official entries. Also hailing from the UAE, he is a multi-time local karting champion and will make his full-time F4 debut this season after taking two 12th-place finishes in the Trophy Round.

Alongside their two entries, Yas Heat will continue to support Rashid Al Dhaheri, who will race with Prema in Yas Heat colours.

Xcel Motorsport

Local powerhouses Xcel Motorsport will enter four cars of their own whilst providing technical support to Yas Heat.

Taking centre stage on their roster are two top drivers from the 2023 Chinese F4 season, champion Tiago Rodrigues (#3) and runner-up Liu Kaishun (#2). 

After taking seven wins with Champ Motorsport in Chinese F4, the series victor raced in F4 SEA for the first three rounds of the season, claiming three podiums before dropping out to save budget for the F4 UAE season. 

Teammate and 2023 rival Liu also took seven wins in Chinese F4 last year on his way to second before similarly jumping to F4 SEA, in which he had a best finish of seventh. 

Completing Xcel Motorsport’s lineup will be Italian Alvise Rodella (#35) and late addition Yuanpu Cui (#55). 

Rodella raced primarily in Spanish F4 in 2023, finishing 20th overall, but he also made sporadic appearances in Italian and British F4, as well as the Formula Winter Series. 

Cui, meanwhile, will make his single-seater debut with Xcel. The Chinese driver is part of the Mercedes Junior Team and is set to drive in British F4 with Argenti Motorsport in 2024.

Saintéloc Racing

French team Saintéloc Racing has gone from strength to strength since making their full-time single-seater debuts in F4 UAE last year, taking Theophile Nael to Spanish F4 title glory later in the season and entering Formula Regional competition. They will field four cars in F4 UAE this year.

Ferrari Driver Academy member Aurelia Nobels (#40) will enter her third year in single-seater racing with Saintéloc. The Brazilian-Belgian looks to build on her 2023 season in Italian F4 and Euro4 with Prema Racing, in which she finished 26th and 22nd respectively, before launching an F1 Academy campaign later with the support of Ferrari.

Alongside Nobels will be two second-year F4 drivers, Matteo Quintarelli (#93) and Maximiliano Restrepo (#17). 

Italian Quintarelli will make his second full-time appearance in F4 UAE this season after debuting with Yas Heat last year and finishing 34th. He went on to compete with R-ace GP in Italian F4 in 2023, finishing 31st, before kickstarting a winter testing programme with Saintéloc.

Meanwhile, Colombian Restrepo embarks on a second year in F4 competition after racing full-time in Spanish F4 last season, in which he took a best result of 21st.

Rounding out Saintéloc’s lineup will be Sri Lanka’s first-ever F4 driver, Yevan David (#21). He will graduate from karting with the French team before competing in Spanish F4 later this season.

AGI Sport

Australian team AGI Sport is F4 UAE’s only new outfit for the 2024 season. They will retain their entire roster from the 2023 F4 SEA season, which was made up of Aussies Jack Beeton (#45), Nicolas Stati (#15) and Peter Bouzinelos (#46), and will also take on German Carrie Schreiner (#16).

Beeton competed with Pinnacle VAR in F4 UAE at the beginning of 2023, finishing 23rd overall, before entering Italian F4, Euro4 and F4 SEA, the latter of which he was crowned champion with two race wins under his belt. Alongside him, Stati, who won in F4 SEA, and Bouzinelos, who took a best finish of third in the Asian series, will make their full-time single-seater debuts.

25-year-old Schreiner will make her maiden appearance in the UAE in preparation for a sophomore F1 Academy campaign after finishing 11th with one race win in the series last season.

Editor’s note, 13 January 2024, 12:30 CET: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the method used to determine the starting grid of race two. Series personnel have since clarified the ambiguities that led to this misunderstanding. Additionally, the availability of a livestream for qualifying has been noted.

Header photo credit: F4 UAE