Mattia Colnaghi came out on top in a tight battle with MP Motorsport teammate Keanu Al Azhari to secure this year’s Spanish F4 title in November. Feeder Series spoke to the 16-year-old about his championship-winning campaign after his appearance at the FR World Cup in Macau.

By Seb Tirado

On his way to this year’s title, Colnaghi took a total of 12 podiums, including six wins. 

After finishing 17th from his first pole position in car racing, the Italian driver quickly bounced back to take his first podium finish at Portimão. At the next round at Le Castellet, he took his first two victories of the year from pole. Colnaghi then scored points in every remaining race bar the first one at Valencia, achieving four more poles and a streak of seven consecutive podium finishes that ended with three wins in a row. 

Colnaghi entered the final round in Barcelona 13 points behind Al Azhari but ended up 15 ahead after winning the first two races. The Emirati driver finished third in race three, but Colnaghi did enough to secure the title by finishing fifth.

Before this year, the last time a rookie driver won Spanish F4 was when Nikola Tsolov triumphed in 2022. Whilst Colnaghi’s title charge was not as dominant as the Bulgarian’s, it was nonetheless a “special season” that he described as “a highlight of [his] career”. 

Colnaghi’s Spanish F4 title is the first of his motorsport career, with his previous best championship result being sixth in the FIA Karting World Championship last year. “I’m not sure if I could believe it or if I still had to process it on the day it happened,” Colnaghi said. “I was not believing I was the champion. Up until the last two rounds, I never thought, ’I’ve actually got a shot at this’. After Jerez, after the double win, and in Barcelona after the pole position, I was like, ‘Wow, I could actually get this.’

“I don’t think it’s fully sunk in. It’s not like not believing it, but I haven’t realised yet. Like, if someone tells me, ‘You’re the Spanish F4 champion’, I don’t think I am. It hasn’t hit me.”

After his title-winning campaign, Colnaghi participated in the inaugural FR World Cup at the Macau Grand Prix with MP Motorsport. Despite crashing out of both the qualifying race and the main race, Colnaghi still said the experience was beneficial.

“It was very good prep for whatever I race next year,” he said. “It was good to drive a car with some downforce and also [for] a first experience in between walls on a street circuit.

“It was difficult. I was not expecting it to be so difficult, but I think the key part that played into it being so difficult was the fact that I had never driven the FRECA [car].” 

Before going to Macau, Colnaghi did one test day at Monza in the Tatuus F3-T318 chassis that both FR Europe and the FR World Cup use. “It was difficult, not so much the track but adapting to the car [and] knowing how much speed you can carry [in] these things. And obviously, trying to get the best result I could, sometimes I overdid it during the weekend.”

Colnaghi said one difficulty in Macau had to do with tyres. The FR World Cup used Pirelli tyres whilst Spanish F4 used Hankook tyres. 

“I think it’s less of a step when you’re driving [in] Italian F4. You have Pirellis; you already know more or less how to use the grip,“ Colnaghi said. “But when you’re coming from a Hankook tyre, it was quite a big step. For example, in Monza, I was not expecting to be able to carry so much more speed in the corners.“

The main difference, Colnaghi said, involved their respective drop-offs in grip.

“The Pirellis have a very high initial grip when they’re new and then tend to drop off and stay flat. The Hankooks have less of a peak grip but then don’t drop off as much. 

“Let’s say the Pirellis have a three-lap grip max. With the Hankooks, this grip max is five laps and then it doesn’t drop off as much – a two-tenths drop rather than a half a second drop.”

Colnaghi said he intended to return to Macau in 2025 and had already set high aspirations for his second visit. “This year was part of the learning experience,” he said. “Next year, if I go, I’m going there to win it.”

Whilst Colnaghi did not give any hints about his main 2025 plans, he is expected to stay with MP Motorsport while moving up to Eurocup-3. Colnaghi recently tested the championship’s machinery with MP at various circuits on next year’s calendar, such as Portimao, Jerez and Barcelona.

“The ideal would be to get the title in whatever I race in, but that depends on what grid there is,” he said. “Obviously the fact that I am now Spanish F4 champion is a good confidence boost, and I think my driving ability is just improving. I’ve not reached the maximum of it yet, so I think I can go for the title in whatever I race in next year.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency