For the last time in 2024, the Italian F4 grid took to the track at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in challenging weather conditions. Even with several safety car interventions, the series’ champion delivered yet another dominant performance as a sixth driver took a race win in the season finale.

By Francesca Brusa

Slater signs off with two final wins

As Freddie Slater set foot in the Temple of Speed for the final round of the 2024 Italian F4 season, he knew that there was nothing else he had to do. With 13 wins and as many podiums under his belt, the Englishman has achieved almost all he could in his title-winning campaign – except for one thing.

After qualifying second  for the first race, which started in heavy rain behind the safety car, the Prema Racing driver took the lead as soon as the green flag flew with an overtake around the outside of polesitter Jack Beeton at Turn 1. Slater held onto first place through the next two safety car interventions and took a record-breaking 14th win in the series, surpassing the record previously held by 2022 champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

In race two, Slater went on to snatch his 15th victory out of 20 races despite starting on slick tyres on a wet track and almost losing his car in an attempt to overtake teammate Kean Nakamura-Berta. The odds weren’t in his favour during race three, when four safety car interventions limited his chances to pass and forced him to settle for second position. Still, he ended the season with 15 victories out of 21 races and signed off from Italian F4 in 2024 with a 71.4% win rate.

Pradel grabs first win in the series

Just when it seemed the champion would triumph in all three races for the fourth time this season, an unexpected racer rose to challenge him.

As the lights went out for the final event of the weekend, US Racing driver Gianmarco Pradel stormed from third on the grid to the lead by the first corner. Pradel managed to stay ahead as the first safety car restart unfolded, but Slater overtook him after the second restart and held the lead at the third. 

On the second green-flag lap after the third restart, the Australian racer snatched the lead back from the series champion. The Englishman fought back, but as he attempted to go past on the run to Ascari with the safety car came out one last time.

Despite taking position on Pradel, Slater was forced to line up behind him, meaning the US Racing driver became the sixth winner of the season.

Pradel had endured an up-and-down race one and a retirement from race two after an incident with AKM Motorsport’s Oleksandr Savinkov and Prema Racing’s Oleksandr Bondarev. The victory, his first in single-seaters, was a fine way to round out two years in F4 with US Racing. It put him seventh in the final standings.

Powell secures the rookie title

Entering the final round of the campaign as the leader of the rookie championship, Alex Powell faced a number of challenges on his way to success.

Race one saw the Miami-born driver start from the second row, but a problem with his car’s rear light forced him to pit mid-race and left him classified 36th. To make matters worse for the Mercedes junior, teammate Kean Nakamura-Berta, starting from eighth on the grid, made his way through the field and finished third while taking the rookie win.

While the Japanese-Slovakian driver, who entered the Monza round with 282 points to his name, narrowed the gap to Powell to only 11, the Jamaican-American brought home a non-score, finishing last in his category and keeping his total of 318 championship points. 

Powell recovered from 18th to 10th, and seventh in the rookie points, in race two, but Nakamura-Berta took yet another strong result with second overall and victory in the rookie category. That gave him a raw total of 332 to Powell’s 324, but the rule whereby drivers drop their five worst results meant Nakamura-Berta’s actual tally was 322.

In race three, Powell finished third overall and first in the rookie category, one place ahead of Nakamura-Berta in both classifications. Across the season, the Jamaican-American took one fewer point than his rival – 349 to 350 – but the dropped scores rule meant he still lifted the rookie championship trophy, with 343 points to the Alpine junior’s 328.

Final rush for the runner-ups

With the champion already crowned during the penultimate round at Barcelona, all eyes were on the fight for runner-up in Monza. While Hiyu Yamakoshi was second in the standings with 220 points to his name before the weekend unfolded, behind him were US Racing drivers Akshay Bohra, 31 points in arrears, and Jack Beeton, a further six points back from Bohra.

Starting from pole position in race one, the Australian lost the lead on the first lap, but by finishing second, Beeton collected just enough points to leapfrog teammate Bohra, who took the chequered flag in fourth, in the standings. That brought him to  19 points behind Yamakoshi, who finished 12th.

Challenging front-row starters Slater and Nakamura-Berta in race two, the Queenslander was aided by a safety car intervention that froze the positions right after Beeton overtook Bohra. This result helped the Australian racer narrow the gap to Yamakoshi, who finished 18th with zero points, to four with one race to go. 

The US Racing driver finished seventh at the flag in race three as Yamakoshi finished 15th. The six points Beeton earned meant that, with a total of 222 points, he was the 2024 Italian F4 runner-up even with the odds not being in his favour as the weekend began. 

Italian F4 will be back in 2025, with the campaign kicking off in Misano from 2–4 May. 

Header photo credit: Emanuele Clivati