With a planned 2024–25 season that was cut short last year, F4 NACAM caught many by surprise by announcing a new 2025 calendar with different dates and locations included. The championship will now start its ninth season this weekend, and Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about it. 

By Laura Anequini

When F4 NACAM announced its calendar last year, the season was supposed to start in October 2024 and continue through May 2025. However, after the third round of the championship in December, the eighth season of F4 NACAM abruptly ended. Why the season was cut short was not disclosed.

With that, José Carlos Hernández from Alessandros Racing was crowned the champion after finishing on the podium in every race and taking five wins on his way to the title. Where he will be racing this year has not been announced yet.

The calendar 

This year’s season will start in Puebla. In addition, a championship round will be held outside of Mexico for the first time since 2016; as was supposed to happen last year, Panama will host the second round of the championship. All other rounds will happen in Mexico City.

• Round 1: Autódromo Miguel E. Abed (8–9 March)
• Round 2: Autódromo Panamá (5–6 April)
• Round 3: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (2–3 May)
• Round 4: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (20–21 June)
• Round 5: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (15–16 August)
• Round 6: Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (24–26 October)

The format 

This season’s weekend format remains the same. There will be two 30-minute free practice sessions and a 20-minute qualifying session every round. The grid for race one is determined by the fastest laps in qualifying, while race three’s grid is set by the second-fastest lap in the same session. The starting grid for race two is decided by reversing the top half of the finishing order from race one.

The points system is the same as in F1. 

Where to watch 

Races, when shown, will be streamed on the Notiauto Racing YouTube channel. It is not yet known whether all races will be streamed. In addition, last year Parc Ferme TV streamed the races with Italian commentary, but it hasn’t been announced if it will continue this year.

Teams and drivers 

Alessandros Racing 

Alessandros Racing was successful throughout the shortened season last year. The team, supported by European juggernaut Campos Racing, won both the teams’ championship and the drivers’ championship with Hernández. They will be fielding four drivers for the season opener, but one driver has yet to be announced.

The first among the returnees is José Martínez (#17). The Mexican will be continuing with the team for his second full season in the championship. Martínez, who had just stepped up from karting before joining the team last year, finished fifth in the standings with 78 points. In F4 NACAM’s winter test, which took place in Mexico City in the beginning of February, Martínez was the third fastest driver overall.

Alex Bobadilla (#08) is the other returning driver confirmed to stay with the team this year. The 17-year-old, who also raced in the Florida-based Formula FARA series last year, finished fourth in the NACAM F4 standings last year with four podiums and 88 points. He did not participate in the winter test. 

Alongside the two returnees will be rookie Fernando Luque (#29), who will make his single-seater debut with the team. The Mexican has had a successful karting career and is a three-time national champion in X30 karting. 

Three other drivers joined Alessandros Racing for the winter test last month but did not appear on the opening round’s entry list. American karter Truly Adams, 14, topped the overall times in the test, but he will not yet make his single-seater debut. Trucks México Series competitor Santiago Cruz finished sixth, while karting graduate Juan Pablo Gutiérrez – who also tested British F4 machinery with Fortec Motorsports in Silverstone at the end of last year – finished eighth. 

Ram Racing 

Ram Racing comes with the most experienced driver line-up this season, with three out of their four drivers having already participated in the shortened 2024 season. With this level of experience, Ram Racing will be a serious contender for both teams and drivers’ championships this year, having won the latter in 2022 and 2023.

Zaky Ibrahim (#34) has the most to prove in 2025 and enters the season with momentum. The 18-year-old Mexican finished third in last year’s standings, making him the highest-placed returning driver as Hernández and runner-up Helio Meza are not competing this season. Ibrahim had two podiums last year, finishing the season with 89 points, and was second in the winter test. 

Max Mora (#13) is also returning for his second season with the team after finishing seventh in the standings last year. Mora finished inside the points every race but did not manage to score a podium, taking a best race finish of fourth in Puebla. He came fourth in the winter test. 

The last among the team´s returnees is Alan Zezatti (#33). Like Mora, Zezatti finished inside the points in every race last year and had a best result of sixth in Puebla. Despite the consistent results, the 16-year-old was the RAM Racing driver who scored the fewest points last year, with a total of 39. In the winter test, however, he finished fifth, showing that he may be able to fight for better positions this year.

The only rookie on the team’s roster is Elías Vignola (#19), who will contest his first season in single-seaters. The 14-year-old Mexican raced in several national and international karting championships in recent years, including the British Karting Championship’s Junior X30 class in 2023 and the Campeonato Centroamericano de Karting in El Salvador alongside his Ram Racing teammates. He finished seventh in the winter test.

HRI / RRK Racing 

RRK Racing, third in the teams’ championship last year, only participated in the opening two rounds of the 2024 season. They fielded Cristian Cantú for the first round alone and Alex Franco for the first two. Though the team achieved great results with Cantú, who is now racing in Eurocup-3’s winter series, the team struggled to keep up the momentum with Franco.

This year, they will field Ivanna Richards (#20), who will enter her first full season in single-seaters with a strong prior track record. The 16-year-old was a finalist in the junior class of the FIA Girls on Track – Rising Stars competition in 2021 and has also won three national karting championships in Mexico: Micro Swift in 2018, Mini Swift in 2019 and KZ2 in 2022. In 2023, she raced in the last round of F4 NACAM and finished on the podium in her first race in single-seaters. Though she was announced to be racing in F4 NACAM’s 2024 season last year, she ended up not participating and instead raced in Mexico’s Súper Copa series in the GTM division.

Franco, 15, also appeared in the series’ winter test, but he did not set a time. He is not on this weekend’s entry list.

Header photo credit: F4 NACAM