The Ligier Junior Formula Championship will return to action this weekend at NOLA with a mix of first- and second-generation F4 cars. Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about the third season of the Parella ladder’s entry-level series.
By Marco Albertini
The Ligier Junior Formula Championship was conceived in 2024 as a cheaper alternative to F4 US, using the latter’s previous generation cars in a non-FIA-certified series run by the same organisers.
Last year, Uruguayan Gastón Irazú scored five wins on his way to securing the title for Champagne Racing, with whom he will drive for in F4 US this year after receiving a scholarship for winning the LJFC title.
From 2026 onwards, LJFC is set to feature two classes as first-generation and second-generation Ligier F4 cars co-exist. The Gen 1 class will feature Ligier JS F416 chassis running Mountune-serviced Honda engines, while the Gen 2 class will be composed of Ligier Storm–powered Ligier JS F422 cars, albeit with a modified electronics control unit to be level with the first-generation car’s. The two classes will have separate podiums, and separate scholarships will be awarded.
The Gen 1 champion will be given a one-year lease of a Ligier JS F422 chassis and Ligier Storm engine to race in F4 US the following year. The Gen 2 champion will receive a similar prize, but in the event that they already have their own car, the series will provide the equivalent value of the lease in a Ligier parts credit as well as any necessary parts upgrades. Both champions will also receive sets of tires from Hankook and paid entry fees from the series promoter.
The championship is generally open to drivers 14 and older. Fifteen is the minimum age required to race F4 cars in FIA-certified championships.
The calendar
The 2026 calendar will remain unchanged from last season’s, other than that the first round has been moved back two weeks and Mid-Ohio has been brought forward by a week. All six rounds will support FR Americas and F4 US.
- Round 1: NOLA Motorsports Park (9–12 April)
- Round 2: Road America (14–17 May)
- Round 3: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (11–14 June)
- Round 4: New Jersey Motorsports Park (31 July–02 August)
- Round 5: Virginia International Raceway (17–20 September)
- Round 6: Barber Motorsports Park (16–18 October)
The format
As in the previous two seasons, the format will remain unchanged for 2026. Every round will begin on Thursday, with two optional 30-minute testing sessions held before one or two 25-minute practice sessions on Friday. A 25-minute qualifying session – increased to 30 minutes at NOLA – then will take place, either on Friday or Saturday, followed by two or three 30-minute races depending on the round. At VIR, LJFC and F4 US are set to run combined practice and qualifying sessions.
Qualifying will set the grid for race one, which will be held on Saturday. The grids for the remaining races will be set by the drivers’ fastest laps in the previous race.
The points system remains the one used in F1, with no bonus points for either pole or fastest lap.
Where to watch
Races will be streamed on Racing America and Amazon Prime Video, both behind a paywall. Live timing is available on Race Monitor.
Teams and drivers
Champagne Racing
Champagne Racing, last year’s teams’ champions, return to LJFC for their second full-time season in the series following a title campaign with Gastón Irazú last year.
For their title defence, the team will field a lone car for Beckham Jacir (#7). The 17-year-old American returns to the team after racing with them in last year’s finale at Barber, in which he scored his only win of the season in race two. Prior to that, Jacir raced in the previous four rounds with LC Racing Academy, scoring two podiums at Road America and Mid-Ohio, which helped him end the year seventh in points. In recent years, the Miami resident has also been part of the Williams F1 Team Gaming squad, competing on iRacing.
Berg Racing
Alongside their maiden campaign in USF Juniors, Berg Racing will return to LJFC for a third consecutive season. Last year, Berg Racing fielded full-season entries for Drew Szuch and Harbir Dass, whose second- and fourth-place finishes in points contributed to the outfit’s second-place finish in the teams’ standings.
Tyler Wade (#9) returns to Berg Racing after testing with them at Road Atlanta towards the end of last year. The 22-year-old from Alameda, California, established a car wash business at the age of 15 to fund his sim racing career before getting his first racing licence in 2023 by participating in the Allen Berg Racing Schools programme at Laguna Seca.
Los Angeles native AJ Abdullah (#21) will make his competitive single-seater debut for Berg Racing following a test with the team in November of last year. The 17-year-old participated in an Allen Berg Racing Schools programme at Laguna Seca in July, having previously competed in electric karting and sim racing.
Truly Adams (#47) joins Berg Racing for his maiden full-time season in cars. Adams was a finalist for a fully-paid French F4 seat in last year’s Feed Racing shootout, losing out to eventual winner Yuval Rosen in the penultimate duel. The 15-year-old Riverside, California, native tested for the team in last month’s NOLA test and previously also tested NACAM F4 machinery in early 2025.
Eighteen-year-old Ella White (#52) will also make her single-seater debut with Berg Racing after testing with them at Sebring in December of last year. A multi-sport athlete, the Colorado native forwent a karting career, with her first taste of racing coming from an Allen Berg Racing Schools programme at Laguna Seca last spring.
Ava Hanssen Racing
Ava Hanssen Racing competed in LJFC as the series’ only one-car, full-season entry, fielding namesake driver Ava Hanssen (#26). After finishing 10th in points in her rookie year in the series with a best result of fourth at VIR, the 15-year-old Wisconsinite and her family team will return to the series for a second season.
Kiwi Motorsport
FR Americas and F4 US regulars Kiwi Motorsport return to LJFC after racing in half of the season’s six rounds last year following their split with Crosslink Motorsports. The team competed from Mid-Ohio to VIR with a single car for Zach Fourie, who took a best result of sixth in his first of seven races.
Jack Speth (#07) joins the team for his maiden foray in competitive single-seater racing. The 13-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, is one of two drivers in the field who will race in the Gen2 class.
Georgia native Will Franklin (#09) will transition to single-seaters full-time as he joins the New Zealand–American team for his maiden season in LJFC, following title-winning campaigns in the SCCA South Atlantic Road Racing Championship’s Formula Enterprises 2 and SR1 classes. He is also competing with Kiwi in the Formula Pro USA Western Championship’s FPUSA-4 class.
Maestro Racing Team
Scuderia Buell return to LJFC under the Maestro Racing Team banner. Last year, they ran a partial season split between Augusto Paschetta and Pablo Benites Jr, with the latter scoring a victory at Mid-Ohio.
Fourteen-year-old Argentine Lázaro Bainotti (#11) will drive Maestro’s only car as he continues his single-seater trajectory after winning the South East Formula Series title in January with the team. The Villa Carlos Paz native is the son of former racing driver Mariano Bainotti, who raced in open-wheel series and TC2000 in Argentina in the late 1990s to early 2000s.
G Tech Motorsports
Sebring-based G Tech Motorsports are one of two new teams on the grid, though they have extensive experience with single-seater car preparation. Their two entries are run in partnership with the Urace kart racing school, based about 100 kilometres to the north in Orlando, Florida.
New York City native Michael Fatutta (#12) will return to the series after competing for Champagne Racing last year, finishing 15th in points with a best result of seventh in race two at Road America.
Florida-based Alexander Savage (#33), one of the field’s youngest drivers, will join the team after making his single-seater debut last year in the final round of the Lucas Oil Formula Car Race Series at Sebring. More recently, he finished fourth in Formula FARA’s winter series.
MLT Motorsports
The second new team on the grid, MLT Motorsports, are new to the series but not the paddock. They raced in F4 US last year and finished second in the drivers’ standings with Alex Popow Jr.
This year, MLT will enter one car for 13-year-old Edward Kennedy (#30) in the Gen 2 class. The Canadian finished eighth in the YACademy Winter Series for the VRD Racing and Pole Position joint entry earlier this year after a career in karts. Competing mainly in North America, Kennedy was sixth in last year’s SKUSA Winter Series KA100 Junior class and 13th in the United States Pro Kart Series KA100 Junior class.
The grid at a glance
| Team | # | Driver |
| Champagne Racing | 7 | Beckham Jacir |
| Berg Racing | 9 | Tyler Wade (R) |
| 21 | AJ Abdullah (R) | |
| 47 | Truly Adams (R) | |
| 52 | Ella White (R) | |
| Maestro Racing Team | 11 | Lázaro Bainotti (R) |
| G Tech Motorsports | 12 | Michael Fatutta |
| 33 | Alexander Savage (R) | |
| Ava Hanssen Racing | 26 | Ava Hanssen |
| MLT Motorsports | 30 | Edward Kennedy (R) |
| Kiwi Motorsport | 07 | Jack Speth (R) |
| 09 | Will Franklin (R) |
Header photo credit: Ligier Junior Formula Championship
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