Emanuele Olivieri took a stunning victory in Saturday’s FIA Formula 4 World Cup qualifying race at Macau after snatching the lead early on in the race. Feeder Series reviews what happened in a dramatic race and spoke to the key players ahead of the main race Sunday.

By Kaylene Lau

At the start, Olivieri, who started third on the grid for the eight-lap contest, got the best launch out of the top three, immediately putting Wheldon and Nakamura-Berta ahead of him under pressure. Olivieri passed the latter on the straight between Turns 1 and 2 before making a daring move around the outside at Mandarin to snatch the lead from Wheldon. 

Just after Olivieri took the lead, both Wheldon and Nakamura-Berta understeered at Lisboa, hitting the barriers and bringing out the safety car. The incident meant that the two drivers that started on the front row on Saturday would therefore start near the back tomorrow.

Not long after at Moorish, Tiago Rodrigues lost control of his car and hit the barriers, leaving Thomas Bearman with little opportunity to avoid him. The two had started fifth and fourth respectively. There was a fifth retirement in the form of Gino Trappa, who switched to the car previously driven by Fionn McLaughlin in practice. Trappa retired on the first lap after the car experienced clutch and gearbox issues.

At the safety car’s deployment, the top three were Olivieri, McLaughlin, and Rintaro Sato. 

Olivieri maintained his lead at the restart with five laps to go, but McLaughlin, who started sixth, was now putting the pressure on the leader. The Irishman made a challenge for the lead at Lisboa, but Olivieri successfully defended his position. McLaughlin then tapped the back of Olivieri’s car at the Melco hairpin, but both drivers managed to continue without damage. 

With four laps to go, Emily Cotty, who was running 10th, hit the barriers and damaged the right rear of her car. A yellow flag waved in sector three for Cotty’s car, stopped close to an escape road at Turn 14, but the safety car was not deployed. At the same time, Alexandre Munoz, who rose from 18th to 10th on the opening lap, retired in the pits with a suspected engine compressor problem, dropping the number of runners to 12.

At the same time, Sato faced pressure for third from Jules Roussel, who started from ninth after a three-place grid penalty. On the final lap, the Frenchman attempted to take third at Lisboa but did not succeed, seemingly deciding the podium.

That stability lasted until the Melco hairpin, where McLaughlin hit the wall, damaging his suspension and stopping on track. As his car crept down the hill, Simon Zhang clouted the rear of his car, damaging his front wing and both front suspension elements. The Chinese driver dragged his car to the chequered flag to finish eighth on the road, while McLaughlin was classified 12th.

Amidst all of the chaos, Roussel got a better run through the final sector when avoiding McLaughlin’s car. With that, he passed Sato just before they took the chequered flag to take second place after starting ninth.

After the race, Sato, who had originally finished third, got a 30-second penalty for failing to enter the pit lane after being out of position at the first safety car line. This promoted Caretti to third and dropped Sato to last out of the 11 finishers. Ary Bansal, Kimi Chan, Kyuho Lee, Zhang, Itsuki Sato, Marcus Cheong and Wang Yuzhe completed the top 10. 

“It was not an easy start. I mean, I was quite happy already with my jump because I knew the straight is quite long, so I had my opportunity to overtake Wheldon,” Olivieri said in the post-race press conference. “I thought Turn 2 was quite easy flat, also around the outside, but I guess it was not because I already ended up close to the wall. Anyways, it was a good move.

“After the race, I thought my pace was a bit better because I had Fionn right behind me, but I think he had new tyres. I had used tyres so … with the rear, I was struggling.” McLaughlin was on tyres that he had used in practice, though he did not turn a competitive lap in either session because of mechanical issues.

“Today was the hottest track temp of the day, so usually the more hot, the more slippery it is,” Olivieri told Feeder Series. “We chose to be [on] old tyres to be all set for tomorrow. I don’t think it was maybe the best choice, but anyways, we won the race, so I won’t complain too much.

“I was struggling to actually keep the car on track because you could see on the onboard I was really oversteering on every corner, so I was also trying to be safe, to not do some silly mistake. But I think the tyre advantage is giving you quite a lot of lap time and confidence.”

Roussel said that he had to ‘keep it safe’ in his charge through the field.

“I start more behind than the front row, so I just go with the mindset that I have to take care of my pace but keep it safe, and that’s what I do in the first big brake, choose the right line.” Roussel said. “I know if we have some crashes, that will be on the outside, so I take the opportunity here.” 

Once he got past the opening-lap incidents, Roussel was fourth, but making further progress proved challenging.

“I was behind Rintaro all of the session, so I just tried to push as much in sector four and five … to keep him on the straight,” he told Feeder Series. “I don’t really feel less grip all of the session, but compared to tomorrow with the new tyre or the qualifying, [there is] less.”

Sato said that he hit the wall on the first lap and obtained what he thought was a slow puncture. Even as the only driver out of the finishers with prior experience in Macau, he still felt as though it was his ‘first time’ driving around the Guia Circuit as heavy rain affected most sessions last year. 

Sato’s penalty dropped him out of the top three and promoted Caretti to third. Despite starting 15th, the Frenchman had already been running seventh at the time of the opening-lap safety car before gaining another place on Bansal at Lisboa on lap five. The last-lap incident involving McLaughlin and Zhang put him fourth on track. 

“The race was a bit hectic, especially at the start, because I started at the back so there were a lot of crashes in front. I had to try to avoid everyone which I somehow did,” he told Feeder Series in the F4 paddock. “After that, I was just trying to be as consistent as the group in front of me and not make any mistakes.” 

Caretti, like Olivieri, was also on old tyres to save a new set for tomorrow’s main race. 

“It was grippy, maybe a bit understeery, but apart from the last two turns, everything else was fine, it was drivable,” he said about the track conditions. “I had to take a lot of margin. I think I was losing four tenths in the last two turns just because I didn’t want to crash.” 

Caretti said he ‘didn’t expect’ to move all the way up to fourth. “I was thinking maybe seventh or eighth, but I got P4, so I’m happy.” He said he was now targeting a podium in Sunday’s main race for the F4 World Cup, which will start at 9:15 local time. 

Additional reporting by Michael McClure

Header photo credit: Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee