Gabriel Gomez is the only driver not from Prema Racing to have claimed a win in Italian F4 in 2025. Feeder Series spoke to the 2025 Formula Winter Series champion in the Monza paddock to review his achievements in single-seaters until now and discuss his expectations for the future.

By Francesca Brusa

When Gabriel Gomez set foot in Misano for the first round of the 2025 Italian F4 championship, he had barely ever raced in Italy before. The only exception was his cameo appearance in the Mugello round of Euro 4 last year, when the Brazilian racer joined forces with PHM Racing and claimed a best finish of 12th in race two. 

That round, he explained to Feeder Series in Monza, was useful to get to know the tyres and brakes. “It was a good, not a really good race. It was quite solid, but I also went there with no test before, so it was the first time in Mugello and directly to the race. But for sure it helped for this year, for I had more experience.”

The opening round of the 2024 Euro 4 season was not the first time Gomez jumped into a car in which he did little to no testing. Similar circumstances preceded his first full campaign in single-seaters in Spanish F4 earlier that year. 

“It was a year of a lot of experience for me, especially because before I started the season, I had almost no tests in the car. It was maximum 10 days before I started the first round of the championship,” he said. “I never drove the [F4 car] so much before, so it was everything new for me during the championship. Also the same thing with the team, TC Racing. Everything was new. They started the team like two months before the championship.

“It was a good experience from both of us. We learned a lot for sure. I learned a lot as a driver, as a person, during this championship because there was so much stuff where I got a lot better during the year. And in the last three rounds of the championship, we were strong enough to score [a rookie] podium, so it was a good end of the season compared to how we started it.”

Gomez moved to Italian F4 for his main campaign in 2025 and joined US Racing, but first, he remained in Spain for the 2025 Formula Winter Series with the team. Initially, the 18-year-old was only set to compete in three of the four rounds, but with three wins, six further podiums, four pole positions and two fastest laps, he dominated the championship and claimed his first title in cars. 

A key factor in his success, Gomez said, was teamwork with US Racing, who fielded between four and six cars total per round.

“From the beginning of the year already, when we started to work with the team, we worked very well together and we are showing good results,” he added. “When you have a good match with the team, it is very important for you to work together.”

US Racing have been one of the most successful teams in Italian F4’s recent history, claiming the runner-up spot in the teams’ championship every year since 2022. There was only one time the Kerpen-based squad truly rose above everyone else: in 2023, when Kacper Sztuka was crowned champion over Prema Racing’s Ugo Ugochukwu, Arvid Lindblad, James Wharton and Tuukka Taponen, all F1 juniors at the time. 

Sztuka took the Italian F4 title after securing the FWS crown in dominant style, just as Gomez did, and the Polish driver was the only non-Prema winner in the first four rounds of the 2023 Italian F4 season. As the second half of the 2025 Italian F4 season fast approaches, Gomez is also the only driver not from Prema to have claimed victory in the championship this year thanks to his triumph in the final race at Vallelunga. 

“I was very relaxed because we knew our pace was very good in the Vallelunga week,” he said. “[We were] just a bit unlucky in the quali in the rain. I didn’t match any perfect lap, but the pace on the dry was very good and we saw it already in the two heats before.”

Gomez finished third from fifth and sixth on the grid in the first two heats, both of which Kean Nakamura-Berta won. Then in the final, which he started from fourth, a racing incident involving Nakamura-Berta and teammate Sebastian Wheldon helped the Brazilian driver take the lead on lap one and sail to victory.

“In the final, I just started a little bit more in the front,” he explained. “The mindset was just to try to fight for the lead as soon as possible, and then after this, I was very relaxed when I was in P1 because I knew the pace was good. It was just full focus to not make any mistakes.”

With one win, five further podiums and 114 points total, Gomez has already made a name for himself in the championship. But with a 51-point deficit to Nakamura-Berta, will he be able to replicate Sztuka’s masterclass and take home the grand prize? 

“Obviously if we are here, we are here to win, so for sure we want to bring the title home,” he said. “It’s very difficult, we are in a very, very big fight, but we are doing the maximum to try to fight for the wins and the title.”

Header photo credit: Alex Galli