The 11th edition of Italian F4 started off this month in Misano, with Prema’s Freddie Slater dominating the opening race weekend of the season. The series is now ready to get back out on track for the second time in 2024, with Imola hosting round two of the championship. Feeder Series analyses the main storylines coming into this year’s second of seven race weekends.

By Daniele Spadi

Round one saw a grand total of 37 drivers and 12 teams hit the track, from series veterans such as Prema and Van Amersfoort Racing to new faces like Romania’s Real Racing. The field was once again stacked with talent, and it was very challenging to predict who was going to come out on top.

The Misano World Circuit hosted three races full of overtakes and on-track fights, which once again established Italian F4 as one of the most competitive entry-level championships around. Being the first out of seven rounds, there is still a lot to understand regarding this year’s fight for the title. Whilst the opening race weekend of the season gave us some definitive answers, the season is still very long and anything can happen, as we learned last season thanks to Kacper Sztuka’s incredible comeback in the second half of the year.

Can anyone match Slater?

After coming out victorious from a tense championship fight in F4 UAE earlier this year, Freddie Slater joined forces with Prema in order to play a big part in this year’s Italian F4 title fight. The British driver was definitely one of the hot favourites coming into the opening race of the season, but few could have predicted the absolute brilliance seen in Misano.

Slater was able to take home all three pole positions, converting them to a triple victory that saw him score all 75 points that were up for grabs. He proved just how lethal he can be when he feels as dialled in as he did back in Misano, and despite being the first round, all eyes will be on the 15-year-old in Imola as he looks to increase his championship lead.

But if anyone can stop him from running away with the title early on, it’s Alex Powell. Despite Slater’s lights-out weekend, the Mercedes Junior is only 21 points behind his teammate thanks to three second-place finishes in Misano. Powell, who looked to be slightly off the pace in F4 UAE, seems to have found what it takes to be fast with this car, and is now Slater’s main rival coming into round two.

Can US Racing and VAR step up?

Other than Jenzer back in 2016, US Racing and Van Amersfoort Racing are the only two teams who have been able to take the drivers’ title away from Prema’s hands. However, with the Italian outfit scoring seven podiums from a possible total of nine, the two other powerhouses of the championship were left fighting for scraps.

On the one hand, US Racing took home the remaining two podium places with Akshay Bohra and Gianmarco Pradel. The German team, which won their first ever Italian F4 title with Kacper Sztuka last season, have become the second strongest team in the series in the last couple of years, but this season’s Prema lineup is making things difficult for them.

On the other hand, Van Amersfoort Racing has not looked as strong as they hope for. Though it’s true that Hiyu Yamakoshi is sitting in third in the driver’s standings thanks to his consistency throughout the opening three races, the Japanese driver scored 32 of the team’s 33 points in round one. VAR has now earned a single podium finish in the last 13 races in the championship, and they are already trailing Prema by 96 points after the first round alone. Can Yamakoshi bring them back to the front of the field, or is the Dutch outfit in for a tougher-than-expected season?

Will the fight for points continue?

In 2023, the top three teams (Prema, US Racing and VAR) often locked out the top 10 with their cars; in fact, only eight teams scored points throughout the season, and third-place VAR had more points than the teams from fifth to eighth combined.

This season, things seem to have changed. Six teams have already scored points after round one, with a total of 16 drivers able to put some points on the board. Sure, VAR’s underwhelming performance and the lack of a clear separation between the top three teams and the rest of the field helped a lot, but it was brilliant to see other cars fighting for the top 10 – and not just at the tail end of it. Jenzer saw a big improvement from last year’s results; Ethan Ischer and Reno Francot collected 16 points between them – just 0.5 points shy of the team’s total in 2023.

R-ace GP and PHM Racing also featured in the top 10 on multiple occasions during round one. Despite fielding just two cars this season, the French team had Enzo Yeh finish a strong seventh in the opening race, with Finland’s Luka Sammalisto narrowingly missing out on points, too. On the other hand, PHM saw rookie Andrej Petrovic and home favourite Davide Larini finish in the top 10 in Misano, with the former sitting in third place in the rookies’ championship with two class podiums.

Header photo credit: ACI Sport