Following the chaotic second round at Valencia, where track limits and poor organisation led to mass disqualifications, wrong starting orders and delays, things required a changed approach for Aragón. Last weekend’s round was spared from organisational chaos, however track limits again played a factor and caused unexpected results. Feeder Series rounds up what happened in Formula Winter Series’ penultimate round and what’s to be expected from the season finale at Barcelona this upcoming weekend. 

By Finjo Muschlien

Following several hundreds of track limit violations, all 38 drivers were disqualified from the first qualifying session in the second round at Valencia. While the reason for the disqualifications came down to the number of violations per driver, in brief, the fourth track limit violation led to a disqualification. 

In Aragón, however, not a single driver was disqualified from the first or second qualifying session, despite the same rules and the circuit having tarmacked run-off areas, similar to Valencia. As analysed in our FWS Valencia round review, the track limit chaos has shown all drivers – especially the rookies – that pushing single-seaters to the absolute limit requires a lot of care and precision. This was underlined by Aragón race winner Thomas Strauven, who explained to Feeder Series:

“Track limits in Valencia were really hard, because they don’t have very big kerbs, so everyone just runs wide. Here [at Aragón] it was not as hard as Valencia but it was quite hard. But I think learning from Valencia helped me quite a lot with finding the track limits.”

A bigger issue that Aragón provided was the wind. Commentator Adam Weller mentioned several times on the broadcast that the tail winds in sectors two and three created a challenge for the drivers. Most collisions – especially in the second race – happened in the second or third sector, and when debris of Tecnicar’s Lorenzo Castillio in turn 16 was blown away by the wind in the third race, what commentator Weller said was finally underlined for all to see. 

Track limits saga continues

Still, a lot of track limit violations occurred and 26 drivers had at least one lap time deleted in the first qualifying session, and 24 drivers in the second qualifying session. The deletions partly influenced interesting qualifying results. Then championship leader Andrés Cárdenas finished third in the first qualifying session, which put him third on the grid for the opening race and fifth for the second race.

However, Cárdenas qualified just 15th in the second qualifying session, which sets the grid for the third race. His championship rival Griffin Peebles, on the other hand, did not have a good first qualifying session and finished 17th. He started the first race from 17th and the second race from 15th, however he qualified 10th for the third race. 

The races saw several track limit violations as well. In the first race, GRS driver Douwe Dedecker, who was one of very few drivers who didn’t get disqualified for the amount of track limits in Valencia’s first qualifying session, was one of two drivers who received a time penalty for track limits in the first race. The other driver who received a time penalty was his teammate Lia Block, who first received a five-second time penalty for five infractions and later a 10-second time penalty for at least seven infractions.

Following the second race, MP’s Griffin Peebles and Dedecker received a penalty, dropping both drivers three positions. The reason for the penalties was the fact that both drivers overtook other drivers off-track and gained an advantage. Dedecker dropped from eighth to 11th and lost four points, while Peebles dropped from 15th to 18th. 

The third race saw three drivers receiving time penalties for track limit violations. Campos’ Finn Harrison, Jenzer’s Arthur Dorison and US Racing’s Kabir Anurag all received a five-second time penalty. This time, however, Maciej Gładysz, who overtook another driver off-track, lost just one position and Askhay Bohra also overtook another driver off-track, but was given a five-second time penalty for the same incident. 

Rookies steal the show

The third round of FWS at Aragón saw three different race winners, and all three of them got their first wins in the championship. 

After winning two races in the 2024 F4 UAE championship, Keanu Al Azhari finished third in his home countries’ F4 championship. Since the season already ended in February, Al Azhari switched over to Europe to compete in the final two rounds of FWS to prepare himself for his second full season of Spanish F4. The MP Motorsport driver made a great first impression, as he secured top spot in the first qualifying session and got pole position for the first two races of the weekend.

Al Azhari won the start of the first race, however the race was immediately red-flagged, as Gładysz stalled on the grid and was collected by Campos drivers Ernesto Rivera and Carrie Schreiner. Thankfully, all drivers escaped unscathed.

After clean-up, the cars went back on track and drove two laps behind the safety car. But, on the second lap behind the safety car, Drivex’s Francisco Macedo spun while running in eighth. The race restarted, though the drama didn’t end, as championship contender Andrés Cárdenas spun in the first corner and dropped to 28th, far out of the points. 

With four and a half minutes to go, Nathanaël Berreby spun into the gravel trap and couldn’t rescue himself. The race was red-flagged, and based on the regulations, it wasn’t restarted. 

Upfront, no one was able to challenge Al Azhari, who secured his first win in the championship in the first race he competed in. He finished the race ahead of US Racing drivers Jack Beeton – who started the race in second and also made his first appearance of the season – and Gianmarco Pradel, who started the race from fourth position and profited of Cárdenas misfortune. 

Race action continued on Sunday with the second race of the weekend. Based on the second fastest laps set by drivers in the first qualifying session, Al Azhari started from pole, ahead of Beeton and Gładysz, who was lucky to be back on track following the scary accident from the first race. 

Al Azhari kept his lead off the line, ahead of Beeton, but Cárdenas found himself in third at the end of the first lap after starting in fifth. Gładysz got rolling this time, but his start wasn’t smooth and he dropped to 11th. 

The opening lap wasn’t spared from any of the usual FWS chaos. Block was spun around by Monlau’s Lenny Ried in the third corner of the opening lap, though she was able to continue. Macedo spun in turn 12, MP’s René Lammers lost a part his front wing in turn 15 after touching the right rear wheel of another driver, and Campos driver Finn Harrison wasn’t able to slow his car down and hit Lammers going into turn 16.

The safety car was brought out for one lap after the chaotic opening, and Al Azhari kept his lead at the restart ahead of Beeton and Cárdenas, however the Peruvian was involved in a crash with Campos team mate James Egozi at turn 16 at the end of the third lap. While Egozi had front suspension damage, Cárdenas returned to pit lane but had to retire from the race, and the safety car returned for one further lap. 

Beeton overtook Al Azhari for the lead at the restart, while Al Azhari had to defend his second position from Rodin’s Strauven at the end of the lap. A third safety car was deployed with 11:45 to go, as Macedo and MP Motorsport driver Lucas Fluxá collided at turn 16. 

The race restarted with about four minutes to go. Beeton kept his lead while, behind him Strauven pressurised Al Azhari for second, however Al Azhari attacked the leader into turn 16 on the penultimate lap. The Emirati driver chose the outside line, and that proved to be the wrong decision, as Beeton locked up, forcing both him and Al Azhari to compromise their run out of the corner. Strauven – who watched the pair’s battle from behind – was able to use Beeton’s mistake to his advantage and inherited the lead with just one more lap to go.

Al Azhari and Beeton’s battle was ongoing as they went into the first turn of the final lap. Al Azhari eventually was able to build a small gap to his competitor and chased the rookie Strauven for the lead, setting up a lunge for turn 16 in what would have been his final chance to win the race. Strauven weaved to defend his position, but Al Azhari still tried a massive dive going into the hairpin. However, he locked up and Strauven was able to switchback and regain the lead. It was a slipstream chase to the line, but the Belgian rookie was able to win his first race of the season, which also was his first points finish of the season. 

After the race weekend, Strauven told Feeder Series what the final lap felt like from his point of view.

“I was a little bit nervous, […] once I got into the lead. I think the overtake [for the lead] was really good. I opened the corner really well and then I just went for it and did the switchback. Race two was a really good race, I started in P6, got up to P5. Then two people crashed, so I was in P3, then overtook the top two and then Keanu tried to overtake me and I did the switchback. 

“So, I did the switchback on them both and then my team was like, ‘It ‘s last lap!’ I am really [going to] win this one. […] I could see Keanu and Jack Beeton behind me, but they were quite far away. Then, I was quite nervous in the last lap and at the last corner. I saw him [Al Azhari] catching up and then [he] did the move, and I was like, ‘Okay, I need to switchback him.’ I did the switchback and won. It was a really good race.”

For the first time in the 2024 season of FWS, a rookie won a race, and it wasn’t Maciej Gładysz, who was the only rookie to have secured podium finishes prior to the third round at Aragón.

“Well, to beat Maciej was always going to be hard but I think it was always possible to beat him. In Motorland [Aragón] we had the speed of course to be at the front and to stay up there. But to win a race, I didn’t really expect that. After I was in third, I was really thinking, ‘This needs to be it,’ and after the good race I finally won,” Strauven said. 

The Belgian also explained that there was a reason why the third round of the season brought the first success.

“I think in Jerez, I was still learning things, but we still had some speed. In Valencia actually, we had speed in practice but then we had a really bad set, so it was really hard to go forward in the races. And then already from day one in Motorland [Aragón], I was very fast and I think Motorland suits me a little bit better than Valencia for sure. […]”

The second qualifying session has set the grid for the third race of the weekend and it was James Egozi who secured pole position ahead of Al Azhari and Drivex’s Juan Cota. Championship contenders Peebles and Cárdenas started from 10th and 15th respectively. 

Off the start, the positions for the top three remained unchanged, and Egozi kept his lead while and everyone kept it clean on the opening lap. Peebles moved up to eighth and Cárdenas to 10th on the opening lap, but Gładysz overtook Cárdenas for 10th in the first turn of the second lap. 

On the third lap, Peebles overtook Drivex’s Mikkel Gaarde Pedersen for seventh position and just a few seconds later in turn 16, Cota attacked Al Azhari for second and snatched second position from him, while Beeton got past the Emirati driver as well before taking second from Cota in turn one of the following lap. Cota’s jump to second soon turned into fall back to fourth, as Al Azhari overtook the Spaniard in turn five to regain third. 

However, the pair continued fighting and in turn 15, and Bohra overtook both of them to move to third place. Cota then tried to regain the position with a dive in turn 16, however he misjudged his braking point, locked up and went over the top of Al Azhari’s car. Surprisingly though, both of them were able to drive back to pit lane, but both retired from the race later on while a safety car was brought out for Fluxá, who stopped at turn 17 after a spin. The collision helped Peebles to move up to fourth and Cárdenas to move up to seventh.

With 13:45 to go, Egozi restarted the race just ahead of turn 16 and kept the lead ahead of Beeton, Bohra and championship contender Peebles in fourth. Cárdenas in seventh was attacked by Gładysz into turn 15, but managed to keep his position by outbraking the Pole into turn 16. 

On the following lap, Peebles attacked Bohra for third into turn 16, but the Indian was able to re-take that position in turn 18. Further behind, Gładysz overtook Cárdenas in the first corner for seventh again. With three and a half minutes to go, Peebles again tried to overtake Bohra for third but he ran wide, touched the gravel and lost his fourth spot to his team mate Gianmarco Pradel. 

After an incident in which Campos driver Enzo Tarnvanichkul and GRS driver Lia Block collided, a second safety car was deployed with two and a half minutes to go. The incident was cleared at the very last minute, and the safety car entered the pit lane, when the clock hit zero, but since there is one extra lap after the clock hits zero, the drivers had a chance to make up ground in a final one-lap shootout. 

Egozi restarted the race at the exit of turn 16 and kept his lead ahead of an unchanged order going into the first turn and eventually won the race ahead of Beeton and Bohra on track. However, Bohra later received a five-second time penalty which dropped him to 11th position. Bohra’s penalty promoted Pradel to third and Peebles to fourth. Cárdenas moved up to sixth position, despite finishing eighth on track, following Bohra’s penalty and another for Gładysz, having to swap positions at the end.

An off weekend for title protagonists

On Monday, 4 March, Egozi was officially announced as Red Bull junior. However, the 16-year-old already raced with a Red Bull suit since the first round at Jerez, so the signing itself wasn’t related to his performances at Aragón, but perhaps the timing was. 

After the rather consistent results of the top two in of the championship, Aragón marked a low point in the statistics for both Peebles and Cárdenas, who entered the round levelled on points at 108. Peebles finished the races in 10th, 14th and fourth, scoring 13 points over the course of the weekend, while Cárdenas picked up eight points after 14th in the first race, a DNF in the second race and sixth in the third race. 

The pair enters the season-ending round at Barcelona with a gap of just five points, while 75 points are still up for grabs in the final three races.

Header photo credit: Gedlich Racing