Italian F4 crowned its newest champion in a season finale featuring five races, while the Kyojo Cup also celebrated its first title winner since it became a single-seater series at the start of the year. Feeder Series reviews the weekend’s junior single-seater action. 

By Feeder Series

Among junior single-seater categories, Italian F4’s season finale in Misano was the main attraction this weekend. Kean Nakamura-Berta emerged as champion after two of a record five races, marking one of the busiest single weekends in recent years for a junior series. 

The Kyojo Cup might only have held two races, but its had the largest number of distinct practice sessions in recent junior single-seater memory with nine. There too, the drivers’ title was sewn up this weekend by Rio Shimono.

Chinese F4, meanwhile, ended its 2025 season with four races at Zhuhai, in which drivers’ champion Simon Zhang helped ACM Geeke Racing secure the teams’ title too.

In SMP F4’s season finale in Grozny, not covered in detail in this report, Yaroslav Shevyrtalov emerged with the drivers’ title after winning race two, profiting from Artem Severiukhin’s absence to compete in Italian F4. Marko Markozov took his first victory in the opening race after original winner Egor Nosov received a 30-second penalty, while Ivan Pigaev closed out his campaign with a win in race three.

Lastly, F4 Saudi Arabia held its opening event this weekend at Bahrain International Circuit, providing the single-seater debuts of several high-profile karters alongside some familiar faces. Theo Palmer qualified on pole for race one, but after a fierce five-way battle for the lead, Kit Belofsky took his maiden race win on his debut. Nina Gademan and Palmer completed the podium. In race two, Adam Al Azhari led the field from pole to take the win ahead of Palmer and Gademan, with Thibaut Ramaekers finishing fourth as the best rookie. Belofsky leads the standings on countback, tied on 33 points with Gademan and Palmer.

1. Italian F4: Wheldon and Gomez find redemption in Misano as Nakamura-Berta crowned champion 
2. Chinese F4: Zhang leads Geeke to teams’ title as Chan secures second overall 
3. Kyojo Cup: Shimono clinches Kyojo Cup title after dominating wet fourth round

Italian F4: Wheldon and Gomez find redemption in Misano as Nakamura-Berta crowned champion

Misano hosted the 2025 Italian F4 season finale, and it did not disappoint. Sebastian Wheldon returned to victory lane after almost four months, while Gabriel Gomez secured a win after missing out on the title fight because of a mechanical problem. Kean Nakamura-Berta secured the championship after race two, then claimed his ninth victory of the season in the last of the weekend’s five races. 

For the first time since Vallelunga in May, the grid was split in half and qualifying was held in two separate series. Wheldon was fastest in the first session with a 1:35.621 but was beaten by series two’s Gomez with a 1:35.577. Nakamura-Berta set the eighth-fastest time.

Groups B and C hit the track first for race one, with Wheldon starting from pole position. Joining him on the front row was Salim Hanna, who, after a poor start, was overtaken into Turn 1 by Luka Sammalisto down the inside and Maksimilian Popov around the outside. Nakamura-Berta then also passed the Colombian driver for fourth at Parco.

The Japanese-Slovakian started his climb up the order from there. On the third lap of the race, he overtook Sammalisto for third at Quercia, and on lap 12, he passed Popov around the outside at Tramonto for second. Wheldon led from lights to flag and brought home his fourth win of the season, with Nakamura-Berta and Popov rounding out the podium.

Groups A and B took centre stage in race two, but Nakamura-Berta didn’t need to put up a fight in what was meant to be the title decider. Gomez had an alternator failure on the reconnaissance lap and had to retire, meaning Wheldon inherited pole position.

On the first lap, Popov, who had started fourth, lost position to Andrea Dupé at Parco, as Nakamura-Berta went wide at Rio to slot behind Anurag in sixth. Slight contact between Popov and Anurag on lap two caused the latter to lose six positions and end up 11th, with Nakamura-Berta inheriting fourth from Popov. On lap five, the Japanese-Slovakian made up one more position by passing Dupé for third at Parco.

Wheldon signed off from Saturday with two wins from two races, as Chi came home second and Nakamura-Berta third – enough to be crowned champion. 

Gomez managed to start from pole position at last in race three, in which drivers in groups A and C competed. The race lit up on lap seven, when Sammalisto passed Chi at Tramonto to climb to third. Chi lost speed on exit and position to Bondarev and Dupé, but he regained fifth place by passing the Frenchman at Carro on lap 14.

As the frontrunners held station for the race’s second half, Gomez redeemed himself with a win after missing out on race two, while Hanna and Sammalisto rounded out the podium.

Only the 36 top-finishing drivers of the weekend took part in race four, the so-called final. As the lights went out, Gomez tried a move on Hanna for third but was pushed into the grass and sent tumbling down to ninth. Heading towards Turn 1, Nakamura-Berta snatched the lead from Wheldon as Sammalisto passed Chi for fourth. On lap three, the Finnish driver overtook Hanna as well for third.

The safety car made its first appearance of the weekend after Oscar Repetto and Oleksander Savinkov came together at Turn 2 on lap four, but green-flag conditions were reinstated after just one lap. On lap seven, Wheldon regained the lead into Turn 1 with a move on Nakamura-Berta and sailed to victory, with the Japanese-Slovakian having to settle for second and Sammalisto taking the lowest step of the podium. 

Race five served as a replacement for race two in Imola, which ended prematurely back in August because of a major crash at the start. As Gomez led from pole, Hanna passed Popov for sixth at Turn 6 and Nakamura-Berta overtook Bondarev for second at Turn 8.

An incident between Francesco Pio Coppola and Nathanaël Berreby on lap seven brought out the safety car for one lap. From there, a breathtaking conclusion saw Nakamura-Berta snatch the lead from Gomez at Curvone on the final lap, with Bondarev rounding out the top three. 

Report by Francesca Brusa

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Sebastian Wheldon, 1:35.621	Zhenrui Chi, +0.161s	Luka Sammalisto, +0.254s
Qualifying 2	Gabriel Gomez, 1:35.577	Salim Hanna, +0.122s	Maksimilian Popov, +0.156s
Race 1 (17 laps)	Sebastian Wheldon, 27:29.342	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +3.541s	Maksimilian Popov, +4.526s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Sebastian Wheldon, 27:30.699	Zhenrui Chi, +3.968s	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +6.493s
Race 3 (17 laps)	Gabriel Gomez, 27:34.023	Salim Hanna, +0.564s	Luka Sammalisto, +3.837s
Race 4 (16 laps)	Sebastian Wheldon, 26:53.347	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +3.159s	Luka Sammalisto, +6.865s
Race 5* (16 laps)	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 27:19.125	Gabriel Gomez, +0.324s	Oleksandr Bondarev, +0.813s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 342	Prema Racing, 825	Salim Hanna, 356
P2	Gabriel Gomez, 267	US Racing, 447	Zhenrui Chi, 314
P3	Sebastian Wheldon, 256	R-ace GP, 267	Oleksandr Bondarev, 222
P4	Salim Hanna, 180	Van Amersfoort Racing, 209	Artem Severiukhin, 201
P5	Zhenrui Chi, 162	Jenzer Motorsport, 104	Marcus Sæter, 164
P6	Maksimilian Popov, 143	PHM Racing, 54	Dante Vinci, 162
P7	Emanuele Olivieri, 140	Maffi Racing, 29	David Cosma Cristofor, 156
P8	Luka Sammalisto, 132	Real Racing, 14	Aleksander Ruta, 144
P9	Alex Powell, 126	Technorace, 0	Bader Al Sulaiti, 96
P10	Oleksandr Bondarev, 89	Cram Motorsport, 0	Andrea Dupé, 93

* Race 5 was the replacement race for the second race due to be held at Imola. The results are provisional because of ongoing technical inspections.

Read the previous round’s report here.

Chinese F4: Zhang leads Geeke to teams’ title as Chan secures second overall 

New champion Simon Zhang took three more wins in Chinese F4’s season finale in Zhuhai, helping Geeke secure their first teams’ title since 2020. Zhang, who took the drivers’ title last time out in Chengdu, finished the season with a total of 424 points. Kimi Chan emerged victorious over Dai Yuhao in the battle for second overall, with 291 points to Dai’s 254. 

Chan secured pole in qualifying one with a 1:39.816, a time 0.152 seconds faster than Dai’s. Chen Sicong qualified third with a 1:40.040. Chen then set the fastest time in the second qualifying session with a 1:39.762, narrowly beating Cheng Meng by 0.083s for pole. Dai set the third-fastest lap time with a 1:39.874. 

Dai took his third win of the season in the weekend’s first race. Starting from second, Dai overtook Chan for the lead at Turn 1. Zhang started from sixth but made up four places at the start before overtaking Dai for the lead at Turn 4.

Dai then re-passed Zhang at Turn 3 just before the safety car came out as Cheng hit the barriers at Turn 1. When it came back in, a four-way battle for second between Zhang, Chan, Chen and Tiago Rodrigues ensued, and Chen won out. With 15 minutes left, Rodrigues overtook first Chan at Turn 11, then Zhang at Turn 1 on the next lap to complete the podium. 

Zhang won the second race on Saturday, starting from sixth. Yang Peng had reverse-grid pole, but debutant Héloïse Goldberg, starting second, overtook him for the lead at the first corner. Zhang then took the lead by Turn 4 and never looked back.

By the end of lap one, Ethan Ho, who started fourth, was second with Andrei Dubynin third. Goldberg, meanwhile, retired after a collision with Yu Yan at Turn 11, which brought out the safety car.

Once it was withdrawn, Dubynin overtook Ho for second at the first corner, eventually finishing there for his season-best result. Chan challenged Ho and briefly overtook him for third, but with 10 minutes remaining, Ho reclaimed the position at Turn 1 to complete the podium. 

Zhang secured another victory in the first race on Sunday, starting from fifth. By Turn 1, he had already taken a lead he would never relinquish. An opening-lap collision at Turn 5 between Dubynin and Rodrigues brought out the safety car. At the restart, Chan attempted to challenge Dai for second, but Dai successfully defended his position.

With five minutes remaining, Dai started slowing at the exit of Turn 10 and stopped further around the track, bringing out the safety car. This allowed Chan to inherit second, and Ho completed the podium with another third-place finish. 

Viktor Turkin started the season’s final race from reverse-grid pole, but Cheng alongside him took the lead entering Turn 1. Cheng held on to first for most of the race, but with 10 minutes remaining, he spun on the main straight, being narrowly avoided by most of the cars that were coming through before Yu struck his rear tyre.

After Cheng retired, Zhang inherited the lead to take the final victory of the season. The podium was exactly the same for both races on Sunday, with Chan second and Ho third. 

Report by Kaylene Lau 

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Kimi Chan, 1:39.816	Dai Yuhao, +0.152s	Chen Sicong, +0.224s
Qualifying 2	Chen Sicong, 1:39.762	Cheng Meng, +0.083s	Dai Yuhao, +0.112s
Race 1 (18 laps)	Dai Yuhao, 32:13.673	Chen Sicong, +9.193s	Tiago Rodrigues, +14.510s
Race 2 (17 laps)	Simon Zhang, 31:16.890	Andrei Dubynin, +2.635s	Ethan Ho, +3.760s
Race 3 (16 laps)	Simon Zhang, 32:30.748	Kimi Chan, +0.651s	Ethan Ho, +1.019s
Race 4 (17 laps)	Simon Zhang, 33:20.780	Kimi Chan, +1.802s	Ethan Ho, +2.434s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Simon Zhang, 424	ACM Geeke Racing, 430
P2	Kimi Chan, 291	Champ Motorsport, 351
P3	Dai Yuhao, 254	Black Blade Racing, 297
P4	Chen Sicong, 197	ONE Motorsports, 260
P5	Andrei Dubynin, 170	Apollo RFN Racing Team by Blackjack, 192
P6	Ethan Ho, 156	Venom Motorsport, 181
P7	Wang Yuzhe, 85	Team KRC, 156
P8	Yu Yan, 75	Black Blade GP, 92
P9	Cheng Meng, 67	GYT Racing, 20
P10	Wang Yi, 60	Kai Fei Motorsport, 17

Read the previous round’s report here.

Kyojo Cup: Shimono clinches title after dominating wet fourth round

Rio Shimono of Team Impul with Dr.Dry claimed her first title in single-seaters at Fuji this weekend, having won both the sprint race and final race of the Kyojo Cup’s penultimate round in dominant fashion. The 25-year-old entered this weekend  with a 26-point lead over Team KCMG’s Miki Onaga and only needed to extend this gap by seven points to 33 at the weekend’s conclusion. 

Shimono collected three points in qualifying on Saturday morning in very wet conditions, taking pole by 0.194 seconds over Team KCMG’s Rami Sasaki and 0.294s ahead of Onaga, who took one point. 

The sprint race on Saturday afternoon likewise took place in extremely wet conditions, and unlike Super Formula’s race later that day, Kyojo Cup’s 10-lap sprint race got to green flag conditions after three laps behind the safety car. 

On lap five, second-placed Sasaki made a mistake in the braking zone of Turn 10 and ran wide. Onaga thus had a better run through the following three corners, but she briefly lost the position again at Turn 14 before diving to the inside of Turn 15 to regain second position. 

Up front, Shimono extended her gap over second place to more than seven seconds entering lap six, just 4m40s after green flags were waved. 

The gaps between the drivers in frontrunning positions grew until the end of the race, and Shimono took her fifth consecutive race win ahead of Onaga and Sasaki. With that, she extended her championship lead to 29 points, meaning a win in the final race would result in her winning the title. 

The track was damp but mostly dried up for the final race on Sunday. Shimono got the best start from the front row’s inside position of the double file and led into Turn 1. Onaga followed close behind her ahead of a pack led by TOM’S’ Aimi Saito. 

Onaga stayed close, even reducing the gap to Shimono ahead to less than seven tenths on lap five, but she was in no position to launch an attack. Onaga then made a mistake on lap six, costing her seven tenths to Saito behind. 

Going into Turn 1 on lap seven, Saito launched an attack down the inside and inherited second position as Onaga outbreaked herself. The error cost Shimono’s biggest rival another nine tenths to Inging’s Riona Tomishita, who was three seconds behind at the time. 

By lap nine, Tomishita had reduced the gap to just two tenths, but Onaga kept her position until the final lap. Tomishita then launched an attack into Turn 1 and passed Onaga to take third.

Shimono won the race, 3.084s ahead of Saito and 5.763s ahead of Tomishita, and with that took the title in Kyojo Cup’s first season as a single-seater championship. 

Report by Finjo Muschlien

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Rio Shimono, 1:56.458	Rami Sasaki, +0.194s	Miki Onaga, +0.294s
Sprint race (10 laps)	Rio Shimono, 23:48.680	Miki Onaga, +8.496s	Kokoro Sato, +16.095s
Final race (12 laps)	Rio Shimono, 21:11.735	Aimi Saito, +3.084s	Riona Tomishita, +5.763s

Standings	Drivers
P1	Rio Shimono, 116
P2	Miki Onaga, 74
P3	Aimi Saito, 55
P4	Kokoro Sato, 47
P5	Riona Tomishita, 36
P6	Mako Hirakawa, 33
P7	Rami Sasaki, 30
P8	Itsumo Shiraishi, 26
P9	Ayumu Nagai, 18
P10	Kilei Kanemoto, 18

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Federico Basile