The Formula 4 Central European Zone Championship returns for its third season as an FIA-certified series with three new teams and plenty of rookies on the grid. Feeder Series tells you everything you need to know about the upcoming season of the Czechia-based F4 championship.

By Marco Albertini

Last year, 32 drivers took part in at least one round of the season, 17 more than 2023. In a season-long title battle, Jenzer Motorsport’s Oscar Wurz held off Maffi Racing’s Kirill Kutskov to take the title with one race to spare at the last round at the Salzburgring, Wurz’s home track.

For 2025, the Austrian driver has moved up to Eurocup-3, while Kutskov has moved across to Italian F4. Only a few drivers are set to return to the championship, the most notable being 2024 third-place finisher Max Karhan of Czechia.

The series will continue to use the Tatuus F4-T421 along with the Pirelli DMA tires, making it a similar package to other F4 championships in Europe.

The calendar

Just as in 2024, six race weekends are scheduled for this year. The series will start with two rounds at the Red Bull Ring, one in April and another in May, followed by a trip to the Salzburgring in late May. Though the season-ending round was originally planned to be at Balaton Park at the end of September, it was announced last November that it would be replaced by what is now the second Red Bull Ring round, therefore making the Brno round in September the season finale.

• Round 1: Red Bull Ring (11–13 April)
• Round 2: Red Bull Ring (16–18 May)
• Round 3: Salzburgring (30 May–1 June)
• Round 4: Autodrom Most (25–27 June)
• Round 5: Slovakia Ring (22–24 August)
• Round 6: Autodrom Brno (5–7 September)

The format

The format will remain the same as last season’s, with three races held per weekend. Each weekend includes a 50-minute test session followed by a 30-minute official practice session.

The qualifying session, which lasts 20 minutes, determines the starting order for the first race. The starting grid for race two will be taken from the results of race one. For the third race, the starting order is formed by reversing the top four to eight finishers of race one. The exact number of drivers to be reversed is determined by a lottery held after race one. All three races are 25 minutes long.

The points distribution mirrors that of F1, with the winner receiving 25 points, the second-placed driver 18 points, the third-placed driver 15 points and so on.

Where to watch

Every race will be streamed live on the YouTube channel of the ESET Cup Series, which oversees several championships that run concurrently with F4 CEZ.

Teams and drivers

Renauer Motorsport

Renauer Motorsport, founded in 1997 by former racing driver Sepp Renauer, initially competed in single-seaters before switching to sportscars on a full-time basis in the mid-2000s. On their return to single-seaters in 2023, the Austrian team scored a lone podium in F4 CEZ with Nikolas Taylor in 2023, but they have yet to complete a full season in the series.

Having shown flashes of speed in a limited Indian F4 campaign, Canada’s Hady-Noah Mimassi (#6) will join Renauer with backing from the Formelaustria Young Driver Programme, supported by Alex Wurz, David Coulthard and Riccardo Patrese. Mimassi comes to F4 CEZ off the back of two podiums in Indian F4 scored at the season-ending round at Kari, which helped him finish ninth in points despite missing the first three rounds.

Having made his single-seater debut in the second half of last season, Simon Schranz (#9) will return to Renauer for a full-time campaign in F4 CEZ. Competing in the last two rounds of the season, Schranz scored a best result of fourth three times in the six races he contested last season and finished eighth in the standings. The Austrian also drove Renauer’s sole car in the Formula Winter Series earlier this year, scoring a best result of eighth in the third Aragón race.

Real Racing

Founded as a karting school in 2006, Real Racing moved to Italian F4 and Euro 4 last year. In their maiden year in single-seaters, they barely missed out on scoring points in the former at Mugello.

That performance came from Luca Viisoreanu (#11), who finished 11th in race one. The 16-year-old Romanian continues with the team in F4 CEZ this year. He is no stranger to the championship, having taken a best finish of fifth in race three on his sole entry at the Red Bull Ring.

Maffi Racing

Maffi Racing were founded by Giorgio Maffi in Ethiopia in 1969 as a rally team. Fifty-three years later, Giorgio’s sons Cristian and Daniel Maffi partnered with Alexandre Thouvenin to run the team in single-seaters in Italian F4. Last year, they joined the Formula Winter Series and F4 CEZ championships. In their maiden season in the Czechia-based series, the Swiss team was runner-up in both the teams’ and drivers’ standings, with Kirill Kutskov taking six wins and scoring all but one of the team’s podiums.

Teodor Borenstein (#22) will embark on his first full-season in F4 after appearances in F4 CEZ and Spanish F4 last season and a campaign in this winter’s Formula Winter Series. In an F4 CEZ season compromised by an injury sustained at Autodrom Most, Borenstein scored a best result of sixth in the second race at Slovakia Ring. He later appeared in Spanish F4 as a guest for Tecnicar Motorsport.

Having raced only twice in last year’s Nordic 4 season, Nikolaj Dyrved (#14) joins Maffi Racing for his rookie season in the category. Dyrved scored a best result of 13th at Ring Djursland in his four Nordic 4 races. Prior to that, he raced in the Rotax Max Challenge Denmark in the Rotax senior class.

Andreas Lo Bue (#18), Jean Alesi’s protégé, will also make his F4 debut this season, turning the series’ minimum age of 15 on the Sunday of the opening weekend. After starting his karting career in mid-2022, Lo Bue finished third in the 2023 Swiss Rotax championship and raced in the Rotax Max Challenge Euro Trophy in the junior class last year.

Denmark’s David Walther (#7) will drive for Maffi Racing in selected rounds of F4 CEZ as he is set to compete in Italian F4 on a full-time basis. The 17-year-old comes off a year spent in the KZ2 category of karting as a Tony Kart factory driver. Before that, he won the OK class title in the 2023 WSK Champions Cup.

F4 CEZ Academy / JMT Racing

Established as a Formula Student team at the University of West Bohemia in 2009, JMT Racing graduated to single-seaters in 2020. Last season, they ran Miroslav Mikeš, scoring one win at Most and finishing third in the teams’ standings.

This season, the Czech team will partner with the F4 CEZ Academy outfit, led by driver parents Lukáš Karhan and Tomáš Mičík, to field František Němec (#17). The 16-year-old Czech driver raced with the F4 CEZ Academy for the last two rounds of the 2024 season, scoring a best result of sixth at the season finale.

AS Motorsport

The sole Slovenian team on the grid, AS Motorsport, have mainly competed in Italian F4, but this year, they will put all their resources into F4 CEZ. Debuting in the series last season, the team scored a best result of fourth with both Joanne Ciconte and Michalina Sabaj.

Ginetta Junior Championship race winner 16-year-old Chase Fernandez (#90) is set to race at the Red Bull Ring round only as he prepares for a full season in British F4. Fernandez comes off a full season in the Ginetta Junior Championship in which he won seven races and finished as runner-up to Mercedes junior Ethan Jeff-Hall. Following that, Fernandez raced in both the Spanish F4 and Formula Trophy UAE championships, scoring two rookie wins in the latter at Dubai and Yas Marina.

Poland’s Michalina Sabaj (#61) will also return to AS Motorsport. She finished fifth last year, during which she scored a best result of fourth twice, and was the highest-placed female driver in the standings.

Jenzer Motorsport

A staple of junior formulae since 1993, Jenzer Motorsport most notably competed in FIA Formula 3 and predecessor GP3 from 2010 to 2024 whilst simultaneously running in various F4 championships. They have yet to be beaten in both the drivers’ and teams’ standings in F4 CEZ’s history. This season, the Swiss team will field seven drivers for the opening round at Red Bull Ring.

Bautista Acosta (#25) comes from a slightly unusual path relative to the rest of his teammates. Coming off an eighth-place in Argentina’s Top Race championship, in which he scored one win at Paraná, the 15-year-old was a late addition to the Swiss team’s line-up for the opening round in Austria.

Two-time Mexican Kart champion Nicolas Cortés (#23) will join Jenzer Motorsport. The 15-year-old steps up to single-seaters following a short but successful karting career in his native Mexico, where he won the SKUSA Mexico last year and took runner-up honours in the IAME Mexico Series in the same year.

Third in points last season, 16-year-old Max Karhan (#144) enters the season with high expectations following a strong second half of the season. The Czech driver won four times and was off the podium only once in the final nine races. He ended the season third, 34 points behind Kutskov and 59 behind Wurz.

British F4 alumnus Bart Harrison (#77) returns to Jenzer after racing with them in both Italian F4 and the Formula Winter Series. In the latter, the 17-year-old Englishman took two third-place finishes at Barcelona en route to seventh in points.

Javier Herrera (#24) spent the second half of 2024 testing F4 cars for the Swiss team before making his single-seater debut in the final round of this year’s Formula Winter Series season at Barcelona.

Having come 13th in last year’s Formula 2 Argentina’s standings, 16-year-old Teo Schropp (#21) will compete in only the opening round of F4 CEZ as he prepares for a full campaign in Italian F4.

Brazilian F4 race winner Gino Trappa (#48) will join the Swiss team for a double programme in F4 CEZ and Spanish F4. The 16-year-old was fifth in last year’s Brazilian F4 standings and has since moved to European competition. After racing in both the Formula Winter Series and the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship this winter, Trappa competed in the Spanish F4 season opener at Aragón, where he finished 10th in race three.

Henni Performance

Founded in 1977 by Wolfgang Henni as an auto repair shop on the outskirts of Stuttgart, Henni GmbH, entered as Henni Performance in racing under the leadership of Bruce Henni, began their involvement in motorsports just as his daughter got into motorsports.

In her second year in F4 competition, Kiara Henni (#26) will remain with her family-owned team. Last year, she made her single-seater debut with the Tatuus F4-T421 in the Carbonia Cup. The Wernau-born driver is mentored by European Le Mans Series LMP3 champion Laurents Hörr and was runner-up in the X30 Junior class of the 2020 South Germany ADAC Kart Cup.

Zengő Motorsport

Zengő Motorsport are most notable for their time in touring cars, during which they won two Independent class titles in the now-defunct World Touring Car Championship. After racing sporadically for two years, the team will transition over to single-seaters for the first time in its 18-year history.

The sole Hungarian team on the grid will be represented by 15-year-old Benett Gáspár (#69), who spent most of 2024 testing F4 machinery with the Zoltán Zengő–led team. Prior to that,  Gáspár competed in karts from 2017 to 2023, most notably finishing fourth in the OKJ class of the Trofeo Andrea Margutti in 2023 and participating in his first F4 test the year prior.

Janik Motorsport

Starting out in hillclimb competitions in 1996, Janik Motorsport began competing in circuit racing during the mid-2010s before joining TCR Eastern Europe in 2020 and F4 CEZ last season. The team, fielding Franciszek Hałatnik, competed in the first three rounds of the season, scoring a best result of sixth in race one at the Slovakia Ring before pulling out from the Most round after the Pole’s season-ending crash in practice. The team will return to the series with two new drivers and support from both Orlen and the Aston Martin Racing Driver Academy in GTs.

As was announced last week, Romuald Bocquet (#8) will join the Czech team for his single-seater debut. Last autumn, he participated in the 2024 scholarship selection of Jacques Villeneuve’s Feed Racing School but did not advance to the semifinals. Prior to that, the Frenchman competed in karts, racing sporadically in the IAME Euro Series.

Fifteen-year-old David Gorčica (#88) was announced this January as the first of the team’s two drivers. Making his debut in single-seaters this season, the Czech driver comes off a career in karts. He most recently competed in the KZ2 class of the WSK Final Cup for Forza Racing, finishing 30th in the standings.

Mathilda Racing

Founded in 2012, Mathilda Racing return to racing after a year out. Michael Paatz’s team competed in the Nürburgring-based NLS series and the Nürburgring 24 Hours, taking class wins in the former in both 2017 and 2019.

Continuing down the F4 path, Mathilda Paatz (#188), the team’s namesake, will switch to F4 CEZ, joining her father’s team for her sophomore season in the category. The 16-year-old raced with AS Motorsport in the Formula Winter Series earlier this year, scoring a best result of 14th on two occasions. She previously raced in French F4, in which she took a best result of 10th in the reverse-grid race at Dijon.

Header photo credit: F4 CEZ