Gedlich Racing’s Formula Winter Series launched its third season at Portimão last weekend and offered a great first taste of European F4 racing in 2025. Feeder Series was on the ground to capture all the action and gather the stories percolating through the paddock.

By Finjo Muschlien

The duel between US Racing and Hitech TGR was the headline of the weekend. The two teams sit first and second in the teams’ championship, separated by 26 points, while their drivers fill up the top six spots in the drivers’ championship.

Comfortably at the front of that list is US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez, who won both of the first two races from pole and also brought home a third-place finish in Sunday’s third race. They were his first three podiums in single-seaters.

Prior to qualifying, Gomez raised attention after he accumulated a series-low four track-limit violations in the 90 laps he completed in collective testing. By contrast, Campos’ Rafaela Ferreira and US’ Kabir Anurag had the highest totals of the field with 30 and 31 violations from 114 and 94 laps respectively.

When the first race got underway, Gomez lost out to Hitech’s Leo Robinson, who started from third, but he secured it back on the final lap after an overtake he prepared for 10 corners. 

“It was a pretty difficult race, to be honest,” Gomez said. “I was expecting an easier race starting from the pole, but I did a huge mistake in the start and then in the first corner I lost the braking point and I lost the first position.

“And then that was a really difficult race because my pace was better than [Leo] Robinson’s, but when I [caught] him, it started with the dirty air and it’s really difficult on this track to be close with the car in front, with the dirty air.”

The race ended with a one-lap dash to the flag after a late-race safety car. Gomez was close to Robinson from the third corner onwards and drew alongside him at the exit of the Turn 5 hairpin. The Brazilian lined up his next attempt going into the two right-handers at Turns 7 and 8.

“I was expecting him to leave a little bit more space for me on the outside, but he didn’t leave any space for me there,” Gomez said. “I almost [went] out of the track, but I managed to prepare a good exit and made a switchback and then in the next corner, the entry of T10, I was on the inside and managed to do the overtake.” 

Robinson, who otherwise competes in British F4, said Gomez’s pass was “a frustrating way to lose” a possible victory from third on the grid.

“In the first couple of laps I was under pressure. Over here, it’s a lot with the tyre wear, which you don’t get in Britain,” he said. “The races are almost double the length here and there are no safety cars, so I cooked my tires a bit and as soon as I got graining, I was like, ‘Ooh’,” he said.

After the safety car, Robinson said, “I went into Turn 1 and I had no more tyres left and it was just about holding on. In the end, maybe I could have done a better job, but I still got P2 starting P3.” 

The second race later that Saturday played out similarly, at least at first. Gomez started from pole but again lost out to Leo Robinson, who described starts as his ‘strong point’. The Algerian-British driver’s race, however, quickly unravelled as he entered Turn 1.

“I went and tried to go around the outside, but then a bit of the kerb ended up flinging me into the air,” he said. “Then going through the next bit, I got tapped and I got a puncture.” Teammate Fionn McLaughlin, contesting his second-ever F4 race, was the driver who hit Robinson and caused his puncture and eventual retirement.

“We just had contact at T3,” McLaughlin told Feeder Series after the race, which he finished 23rd. “[It was] small contact which unsettled the front wing. I stayed out for a couple of laps because it was fine, but then we come across the next time and it was just loose, so I had to box for a new front wing.”

Gomez eventually won from US Racing’s Edu Robinson and Maksimilian Popov but remained disappointed with his race starts.

“It’s my mistake,” Gomez said. “If [the other drivers] can do it, I can also. We will study a lot tonight to understand what we need to do for tomorrow.”

Gomez’s next attempt at a start proved academic. Confusion reigned on a damp rack when only three lights went out, and the race was paused after not even one lap was completed. At the restart behind the safety car 14 minutes later, drivers assumed their original starting positions.

From fifth, McLaughlin took the lead on the opening lap despite a mistake at the first corner.

“I locked up really badly in T1, so I went straight on and then I brought it back on to the spot I was in and then I hung it around the outside in T3 and I made up quite a lot of positions there,” McLaughlin said. He “just managed from there” to take his maiden single-seater victory by 4.428 seconds over teammate Robinson, with Gomez classified third.

The other two Hitech drivers made headlines as well for taking wins in their respective secondary classes.

Dutch driver Nina Gademan won all three races in the female driver class, finishing sixth, 10th and 11th in the three races. She described her first race weekend of 2025 as “a big step up from last year”, when she finished 18th in British F4.

“Coming to this weekend, we don’t really know where we were standing, so it was a bit of a gamble,” she told Feeder Series. After a “messy” qualifying affected by traffic, Gademan “had a great race one” to recover from 13th to seventh, which became sixth after Maxim Rehm was disqualified from all three races.

She briefly ran even higher in race three.

“I got a mega start, from P15 to P5, but unfortunately there was the red flag and then we did the safety car restart. We had a massive gap to the group in front,” she said. “I only made up a couple of places and then it was just driving, a bit on your own.” At the restart in the wet conditions, Popov in seventh and US Racing’s Andrija Kostić in 13th both ran slick tyres and held up those behind as they struggled for grip. 

Gademan said she normally didn’t like ‘to be separated’ with their own class but was happy with the class wins considering the additional competition, including from several of her fellow F1 Academy drivers.

“There are nine or ten girls and of course it’s a bit better,” she added. “It’s a nice strong start to show what I’m capable of.” 

Rookie class runner-up Thomas Bearman also impressed in Portimão with fifth in race two, which earned him his only rookie win of the weekend. 

Earlier in the day in race one, a collision cost him his front wing and left him to finish 24th. 

“It was a tough start,” Bearman said. “I think I was three wide into Turn 1. I got clipped a bit in T1 and got forced out wide and then lost a few positions from that. Spent the next half of the race battling with some other guys to get back up the order after dropping down a bit. Then unfortunately …, I went for a move on a driver and he moved a bit under braking, and I lost the front wing and then I had to go to the box.”

Bearman was one of the drivers held up by his teammates’ collision in race two. 

Still, he raced in the top five for the first time, fighting US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto but eventually coming out behind. “It was a good fight,” he said. “It’s a completely different experience to fight in an F4 car to what I’ve previously done, such as karting..”

Bearman had a lonely race three en route to fourth as Popov on slick tyres held up those behind him. The Briton rounds out the top six overall with 22 points.

His Hitech team also entered Portimão, their first race event of 2025, with new branding. As F4 team manager Dominic Stott confirmed to Feeder Series, the TGR in Hitech’s name is indeed Toyota Gazoo Racing. The Japanese marque is just a sponsor as of now, but Stott added that there would be something to announce at a later stage.

TGR is currently a technical partner of the Haas F1 Team, for whom Bearman’s older brother, Ollie Bearman, is a driver. As part of the partnership, Toyota junior and F2 driver Ritomo Miyata got to test the Haas’ VF-23 car last month at Jerez, the circuit Portimão replaced on the FWS calendar.

Another team with new branding is AS Motorsport, whose black and white livery made its debut this weekend. Driver Mathilda Paatz missed the first two collective tests on Thursday because of illness but drove in the third test despite initially expecting to miss the whole day. 

“I have got a lot of track limits because I got to catch up a lot from yesterday,” Paatz told Feeder Series on Friday.

The German driver also confirmed she would no longer be part of the ADAC Stiftung Sport programme and wouldn’t return to French F4, in which the national federation entered its drivers for the past two years. Instead, she has options to race in Italian F4 or F4 CEZ with AS Motorsport or in British F4. Paatz tested with AS and Jenzer Motorsport throughout the winter and finally decided to race for AS after receiving a recommendation from a friend. 

Teammate Sebastian Bach is currently set to race in the first three rounds of FWS, with his participation in fourth round being a question of budget, he told Feeder Series. Bach tested with AS on multiple occasions during the winter but is not expected to race for the team in another series. He is confirmed to be returning to Nordic 4 with Step Motorsport.

Maffi Racing will rotate Kirill Kutskov and David Walther during FWS. Kutskov already contested the season opener at Portimão and will return for the final round of the season at Barcelona as karting graduate Walther replaces him for Valencia and Aragón. Feeder Series understands, however, that Maffi is evaluating options to field an additional fourth car for some of the remaining rounds to field both Kutskov and Walther. 

Simon Schranz of Renauer Motorsport was one of the positive surprises of the weekend, bringing home a third-place -finish in the rookie class in the second race. The FWS grid is the most competitive the simulator convert has faced in his single- seater career, which previously only included two rounds of the F4 CEZ championship and most of the 2024 Carbonia Cup.

“To be honest, we didn’t expect this,” Schranz told Feeder Series. “We would have been happy if we kept two or three cars behind us.” 

One that wasn’t so fortunate was Georgy Zhuravskiy. The 2024 Eurocup-3 driver stood in at AKM for Guy Albag, who missed the round to spend time with his family in Israel following the release of his sister from Hamas hostageship.

Zhuravskiy’s F4 return was not smooth, though, as he said he had issues in qualifying and the first race.

“In qualifying, I was 20 kilometers an hour slower on the straight than myself yesterday and I’m honestly surprised that I’m not last, with such a deficit in the engine,” he said.

Before the first race, “[Autotecnica] replaced a broken part with a new part that was faulty from the get-go,” Zhuravskiy said. “I started the formation lap and basically the car, when I go into 4000 rpm, it just wouldn’t go further.” Zhuravskiy came to a halt on the start-finish straight during the formation lap and only drove out of the pits laps later. Autotecnica did not respond to Feeder Series’ request for comment.

The unluckiest driver at the end of the weekend, however, proved to be Maxim Rehm, who was disqualified from all qualifying sessions and races for competing brake discs that did not comply with what was prescribed by the technical regulations.

“We came here with the thought that we would win,” he told Feeder Series after the third race. “We had to understand quite early that the speed just wasn’t there from the beginning, but we knew that we would be strong in the races, just because of the racecraft.” 

Before his disqualification from all sessions, Rehm finished the first qualifying session ninth and crossed the line seventh, which became sixth following a penalty for teammate Sammalisto. He started and finished fourth in race two and stood on the podium in the third race after again starting fourth. 

“With the way the weekend ended, I’m quite happy, but we still need to understand why the pace was missing,” he said. “I’m sure that when we are in Valencia, we will be strong again and fight for wins or podiums.” 

The German was seen as one of the pre-season favourites for the FWS title, but his championship chances have now almost disappeared. Following his exclusion from the full weekend – a rarity in junior single-seaters – he sits last in the drivers’ standings, 69 points behind Gomez.

FWS returns this weekend for its second round of 2025 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo near Valencia, where track limits and disqualifications were also a major talking point last season.

Header photo credit: Daniel Bürgin