French-Thai-Senegalese driver Rayan Caretti ended his 29-race winless streak in French Formula 4 last weekend at Magny-Cours. The highest returning driver from 2024 surged in the standings with two wins and spoke to Feeder Series in the Magny-Cours paddock afterwards about his quest to keep the title fight alive.

By Perceval Wolff-Taffus

From 11th to fourth in the standings in just two race weekends – so went Rayan Caretti’s mid-season resurgence in French F4 this year. 

With four podiums in the last six races, highlighted by two finely controlled wins at Magny-Cours, the Bangkok native has revitalised his campaign at a crucial juncture.

Having finished seventh in the standings last season, only five points away from fourth-placed Chester Kieffer, Caretti was naturally tipped as a title favorite for 2025 considering his consistent maiden campaign in single-seaters. But the first two rounds didn’t go to plan.

“I didn’t have much luck in qualifying,” Caretti explained. “In F4, it’s the most important session of the weekend.

“At Nogaro, there were many red flags and I left the pits last, and in my fastest lap, I had a yellow flag at Turn 10 under the rain with the track improving.

“Afterwards, there was Dijon, where I lost the brakes and I went straight up into the wall. I had done a single push lap and I was fifth during most of the session, but at the end, I dropped to 14th, and last for the third race’s grid as it takes into account the second fastest lap.”

Though he had no top-10 qualifying results in the opening two rounds, Caretti quickly showed his ability to overtake, scoring points in five of the first six races. In the last of those at Dijon-Prenois, he rose from 30th to ninth to take home two points. The weekend after, Caretti made a strong comeback to the front of the field, taking two podiums following spectacular battles in the second and third races.

“In Spa, it was the first time I had no issue in qualifying except that I didn’t have any tow,” Caretti said. “That made me lose around five tenths in the straights, according to the data.”

He finally put everything together in Magny-Cours to qualify second for race one and third for race three. After a year and a half of trying, Caretti won the first race in his single-seater career on Saturday in the first race before making it two wins on Sunday in the third race following early leader Rafaël Pérard’s brake disc failure. The victories came on a  weekend when several other frontrunners, including Pérard and second-placed Jules Roussel, struggled to find their footing.

“It feels so good. It took me time. I should have done this much earlier, but at least now I have done it,” he said.

“Now, the season is not yet a success. I will have to keep on delivering the maximum up to the end.… The target is to win more races and maybe get a few more positions in the standings, possibly P2.”

Sitting fourth overall and 70 points, a full race weekend’s worth, behind championship leader Alexandre Munoz with two rounds left, Caretti knows the title will be difficult to take. 

“I haven’t looked at the points table, but my target is always to be first,” he said. “If I continue to work well and if I have luck on my side, it’s still possible.”

         Caretti made a switch of racing license from Thai to French during the winter, but neither nationality fully encompasses his family background and ancestry. 

“My father is Italian and French and my mother is Senegalese. My father worked in Thailand and in Senegal, where he met my mother, and both of them moved permanently to Thailand, where I was born in February 2008,” the 17-year-old explained.

“Last year, I had a Thai licence because I raced in go-karting for twelve years in Thailand and I lived there, so it was easier. But this year, I’m racing with the French flag.”

Caretti still proudly displays the Thai and Senegalese flags on the most distinctive livery of the whole grid, with shades of purple and yellow surrounding his number in red on the sidepods. The rest of the car maintains the standard FFSA-mandated blue seen on all other cars.

“All the cars are blue, so it’s not easy for my dad to notice what car is mine, so that’s why my livery is so colorful,” he said. “But of course it’s also for the sponsors, to be shown on camera, so that there could be more sponsors in the future.”

Caretti’s season will continue at Lédenon in mid-September before the season finale at Le Mans at the end of the month.

Header photo credit: Edern Frouin