Sebastian Wheldon dominated the first race of last weekend’s Formula Trophy UAE contest on his debut in international Formula 4 competition. The Andretti junior spoke to Feeder Series at the Yas Marina Circuit about his first car race outside his native United States and what might lie ahead in his career.

By Michael McClure

Wheldon, the son of late IndyCar champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon, has primarily competed in American junior single-seaters this year. In a USF Juniors campaign with VRD Racing, the 15-year-old finished third overall with four wins, including one on his series debut, and five further podiums.

Previously, he won the 2023 Skip Barber Formula Race Series title in the first-generation Mygale F4 car and finished second in the 2024 YACademy Winter Series in USF Juniors machinery.

Despite his success stateside, Wheldon has held ambitions on the other side of the Atlantic as well. He began realising those last weekend in Formula Trophy UAE by taking victory in his first race outside the Americas.

Wheldon joined the Prema Racing–run Mumbai Falcons team for the final round of the championship, held in the UAE across three consecutive weekends. The American-British driver replaced points leader Rashid Al Dhaheri, who skipped the final round to prepare for his upcoming campaign in the FRegional European Championship.

In his first qualifying session outside Europe, Wheldon topped the timesheets by 0.215 seconds with a 1:56.021, a time faster than Al Dhaheri’s best from the previous weekend. He went even faster in the second qualifying session with a 1:56.001 but finished third behind teammate Chi Zhenrui and Xcel Motorsport’s Kabir Anurag.

A few hours later in race one, Wheldon faced his first standing start in cars. He reacted slowly and fell to second behind teammate Chi Zhenrui but overtook the Chinese driver at the end of the fourth lap by diving to his inside at Turn 6 and holding the line around the outside at the Turn 7 right-hander.

After emerging in front, he was unchallenged, cruising to victory by 5.577 seconds in the 14-lap contest.

In race two, Wheldon lost a place to eventual champion Kai Daryanani off the line and ceded another position to August Raber in Turn 12 a few corners later. He then passed polesitter Chi for fourth at the same spot on lap three.

Wheldon finished fourth, 14.862 seconds behind winner Anurag, having spent the rest of the race fending off his Mumbai Falcons teammates.

In total, Wheldon scored 37 points, good enough for ninth in the standings of the three-round, seven-race series. Mumbai Falcons clinched the teams’ title by 52 points.

“I wasn’t expecting much, to be honest,” Wheldon told Feeder Series Saturday night before leaving the circuit. “I definitely didn’t expect myself to be there up front, especially for my first time at the track. I just did my best and listened to all the guys at Prema, and they helped me to get to speed quickly.”

While the Formula Trophy UAE round was Wheldon’s maiden race in the Tatuus F4-T421, it wasn’t his first time driving the car. In recent weeks he has participated in F4 tests in Italy with Prema, the preeminent team on both the Italian and Middle Eastern F4 scenes.

He said that “learning from [his] other teammates, especially from winter testing down in Italy,” helped him the most ahead of his Formula Trophy UAE weekend. He has also swapped the Continental tyres he uses stateside for Pirellis in Europe and Gitis in the Middle East.

“The car is a lot different in terms of tyres and how you have to manage the tyres in a race,” he said. “The Continental tyres you can just push through the whole race and you don’t have to worry about tyre deg. With these Pirellis and Giti tyres … it’s a lot of tyre saving and just being smart with how you push and use the tyres. And the car’s a lot faster as well.”

Having been an Andretti junior since 2021, Wheldon might be expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, who won both the Indy 500 and the IndyCar drivers’ title in 2005 while contracted with Andretti Green Racing. But the 15-year-old had a different destination in mind when asked about his future plans.

“Long term, I think Europe,” he answered. “It’s where all the competition is and you can really learn quickly, more than you do in the US.

“I feel like the US [has] less competition and more of the same drivers, really, but here I feel like you have multiple drivers that are really close and have a lot of talent and are fast.”

Wheldon has attracted increased interest from the motorsport world since the conditional approval of the GM-Cadillac 2026 F1 entry three weeks ago. The Andretti development driver’s car enjoys prominent sponsorship from insurance technology company Gainbridge, a subsidiary of Dan Towriss’ Group 1001. Towriss is a major player in American team Cadillac’s F1 plans via his role as the chief executive of the motorsport division of TWG Global, which is also the majority owner of Andretti Global.

Header photo credit: Formula Trophy UAE