Following what was probably the most intense season of its recent history, French F4 is now preparing for its upcoming year. 29 drivers participated this year, and while some are set to stay one season more with the FFSA Academy, some are aiming for higher categories. Feeder Series was at Paul Ricard to gather all the information about this silly season.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

There should be some minor changes in French F4 compared to this season. Of course, some faces will leave the series whilst new ones will join. However, in order to try to reduce costs, the FIA has advised national F4 championships to switch from seven to six rounds with only one abroad.

French F4 will follow the FIA, but even though there will be one less round compared to before, drivers will have more racing time as all three races will be extended to 30 minutes + 1 lap. This could also partially solve the issue of nearly half of some races being spent under safety car conditions because of one simple crash at the start of the race, as seen twice at Paul Ricard last weekend.

The three championship contenders

The controversial finale initially crowned Yani Stevenheydens in the morning and then Taito Kato in the afternoon. Following an appeal from the Belgian, the title could still go back to Stevenheydens in several weeks. Feeder Series understands that not only drivers will be leaving the series: driver advisor Éric Hélary, involved since this year in stewarding, will focus on coaching one of next year’s French F4 drivers.

This uncertainty is not ideal for 18-year-old Yani Stevenheydens. The Belgian is aiming to move up to FR Europe with increased support of the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium, which was supposed to be conditioned with an F4 title. In the meantime, first tests will take place next week at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and Stevenheydens will discover Formula Regional machinery for the first time with ART GP. If Stevenheydens doesn’t get the French F4 title, will he keep the support to stay in single-seaters?

Honda Racing School protégé Taito Kato is also strongly believed to stay in Europe after being one of the biggest revelations of the international F4 scene, even though a return to Japan could be one option. Undoubtedly the quickest driver of the two final rounds, the 16-year-old Japanese rising star told Feeder Series a move to FRECA was probably the wisest.

Despite early talks with R-ace GP and ART GP in FRECA, the signing of 16-year-old Jules Caranta with the Red Bull Junior Team seems to have changed the Frenchman’s plans. He should be one of the main attractions of next year’s Eurocup-3 and Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championships at Campos Racing, with the series set for the most competitive season of its young history with many drivers coming from Spanish F4. 

Set for other plans

Following a breakthrough season that brought him to new heights, 18-year-old Chester Kieffer from Luxembourg will be leaving Formula 4 after the FIA Motorsport Games at the end of the month. He will be participating in several testing sessions, the first one being with ART GP in FRECA. His main priority is to sign with a competitive team of FRECA or GB3, with a backup plan already prepared in a Porsche Carrera Cup series.

Starting from zero last year, Frank Porté Ruiz has shown amazing progression in his sophomore season. The 18-year-old from Andorra is eyeing a move to the Road to Indy pathway, even though it is unclear at the moment of the category he could enter and with which team. 

2023 Feed Racing winner Augustin Bernier will probably be the highest-classified driver to leave single-seaters. The 17-year-old Frenchman is in talks for a move to sportscars, even though he will probably not be joining his brother Victor in the Porsche Carrera Cup series. LMP3 is the main option on the table for him at the moment.

Considering the fact that he was the only driver to miss several times the optional Thursday testing days before race weekends, Alex O’Grady could be forced to leave single-seaters. Despite this lack of mileage, he has delivered some very solid drives, such as his two podiums at Lédenon and the Nürburgring, or his P4 in his first visit to Paul Ricard. If he manages to attract sponsors during the off-season, the Irish driver could stay in French F4 or go to British F4.

Extremely controversial race-winner at Paul Ricard, Gabriel Doyle-Parfait could also exit single-seaters but is still evaluating his options. A switch to GT is possible for the French-British driver who does his studies in England, even though a return to the United Kingdom is quite unlikely because of the required budget that would be higher compared to continental Europe.

After two seasons in the series, Leonardo Megna will go to GT racing with Ferrari. The championship he will be joining is still unclear.

Having scored points at the Nürburgring, Édouard Borgna is unlikely to do a third season in F4 but aims to continue in single-seaters. There is a possibility this will entail a winter program in FR Oceania before a main program in the Ultimate Cup Series’  or even in Eurocup-3.

Coming back for more?

Rayan Caretti could well be the highest returning driver next season. The French-Thai driver collected multiple top 5 finishes in his rookie season this year but he is now aiming for more consistency, podiums and wins, and will hope to follow the examples of brilliant sophomore drivers such as Stevenheydens this year or Enzo Peugeot the year before.

Montego Maassen had a brilliant second half of the season and will hope to have one more shot at it next season. This will however depend on the ADAC that will be assessing their ADAC Formel Junior Team program in mid-October. It is quite likely that Maassen will be re-engaged by ADAC in French F4, but the German driver also has options in British F4.

Jules Roussel might have been one of the main surprises of the 2024 French F4 season with very strong qualifying performances. Even though he doesn’t yet know whether his budget will allow him to come back next year, a second season in the series is his target to improve during the races and to become a bit more aggressive.

Some of the youngest drivers of this year’s campaign are set to come back next year with more experience under their belt, such as Arthur Dorison, this year’s only race-winner born in 2009, Alexandre Munoz, or Alpine protégée Lisa Billard who joined the series for the final three rounds.

19-year-old Paul Roques should also be doing another French F4 season after a maiden challenging season where he nearly had to learn everything.

New rookies for 2025

Alongside returning drivers, some new faces are also set to join the French F4 grid. This will be the case of Feed Racing’s latest winner Malo Bolliet, also a runner-up in the IAME World Finals last year. Protégé of former endurance and GT star Soheil Ayari, the kart champion should also be joined by some of the drivers he has beaten at Feed Racing this year.

Runner-up of Feed, Hugo Herrouin has also collected several wins and podiums on the international karting scene in the OK-N category at the Champions of the Future Academy Program. Thanks to his achievements at Feed, he and third-place finisher Tommie van der Struijs have been awarded a free test day with the FFSA Academy. Both drivers could join the grid afterwards, the former being very likely.

Other Feed finalists Aaron Ferrazzano of Belgium, Elio Saintpaul of France and Mathys Cappuccio of France are also trying to gather the budget to join the grid.

Even though he was eliminated in the semifinals, Éric Hélary’s protégé Rafael Perard was an unexpected surprise at Jacques Villeneuve and Patrick Lemarié’s racing school. He has already participated in the Thursday testing at Paul Ricard last week. Pablo Riccobono Bello, also a Feed semifinalist but in 2023, did one F4 round at Dijon-Prenois and is expected to use this meeting as a preparation for next year.

French-Russian 17-year-old Aleksandr Burdo made his racing debut last weekend at Paul Ricard, coming from horse riding and starting from basically zero. He showed steady improvement and will hope to close the gap with the others during the winter.

Tenth in the FFSA Junior Karting championship this season, Pierre Devos is expected to make the step to single-seaters, like his fellow competitor Grégoire Merly-Alpa. Coming from the same category, Jade Jacquet could also be joining Billard as another girl on the grid.

French rising karting stars Louis Iglésias, Andrea Dupe or Jimmy Hélias are believed more likely to be taking the Spanish or Italian F4 route.

French F4 will come back for the traditional “Coupe de Pâques” (Easter Cup) at Nogaro, for the opening round of their 2025 season, on 20 April.

Header photo credit: FFSA Academy