Italian Formula 4 concluded its 2026 season the same day that Andrea Kimi Antonelli became Italy’s first F1 world champion in 73 years. What else happened in the world of junior single-seaters this weekend? Feeder Series breaks it all down.

By Feeder Series

It was a big weekend for families in junior single-seater racing. Not only did Italian F4 squad AKM Motorsport get to see Antonelli, the son of team owner Marco Antonelli, win the F1 world championship, but Mako Hirakawa rounded out her Kyojo Cup season on the same day that her older brother Ryō Hirakawa made his F1 grand prix debut for Haas.

Of course, Italian F4 and the Kyojo Cup raced this weekend, as did F4 Saudi Arabia, which will continue its 2026 season on Tuesday and Wednesday. Keep reading more to find out how each event unfolded in detail.

NACAM F4 supported the F1 event for their season finale, although their champion, Alex Bobadilla, had already been crowned. Fernando Rivera took pole position but ultimately finished race one in 11th, with Bobadilla 12th. Oliver Trejo took his third win of the season, followed by Alan Zezatti and Leonardo Mancera, the latter taking his maiden podium. Trejo crossed the line first in race two as well but received a five-second penalty during the race, dropping him to sixth. Zezatti inherited the win, with Bobadilla and Marco Alquicira rounding out the final podium. Zezatti finished second in the standings and Trejo third.

In India, single-seaters returned to the Buddh International Circuit where F1 once raced. Arjun Chheda and Aria Kyriakou topped the qualifying timings, but both failed to score in the race they each started from pole position. Race one was won by Ntiyiso Mabunda ahead of Luviwe Sambudla and Aryan Narola, who then took a double victory on Sunday. Kyriakou and Chheda finished second in races two and three respectively, and Mabunda finished third in both. Despite a retirement and a non-start on Sunday, Sambudla remains on top of the standings, ahead of Kyriakou and Mabunda.

Italian F4: Sammalisto seals third hat-trick of 2026 with last-corner pass

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto extended his Italian F4 victory record to 12 after the final weekend of the season at Mugello, picking up wins in all three races he entered to end his championship campaign in sublime style.

For the fourth time in the Italian championship’s 13th season, a record 49 cars were on the entry list. Luka Sammalisto went fastest in the first qualifying group with a 1:49.375, but David Cosma Cristofor’s 1:49.144 in the second group ensured Sammalisto was sorted into group B.

The first race saw a great start for Sammalisto and Christian Costoya, who overtook Elia Weiss on the outside of Turn 1 to go up to second. The squabbling rarely ceased behind, with Andy Consani battling Alp Aksoy for fifth, while Costoya had to fend off Weiss for second. In the end, the top three remained as they were, with Sammalisto beating the McLaren junior by 2.931 seconds and Ludovico Busso narrowly missing out on third.

Group A faced Group B for the second race, with Cosma Cristofor and Sammalisto on the front row. Sammalisto gained the lead at the start, leavingCraigie to hound him for the position all race long, never successfully. Cosma Cristofor lost three positions immediately, and while he overtook Busso for third on the second lap, he slipped back to fourth mid-race and finished behind Busso.

A longer fight was waged between Augustus Toniolo and Aleksander Ruta, who both passed former rookie leader Alp Aksoy during the race. The race’s sole safety car was caused by contact between Alexander Chartier and Jensen Burnett, with the latter joining early spinner Levi Arn in retiring from the race before the chequered flag. With a 17th-place finish, Emma Felbermayr also sealed the Women’s Trophy.

Race three pitted Group A against Group C, and again Cosma Cristofor struggled off the line, falling to third with Weiss leading the race and Arn in second. Costoya, who started fourth, lost places throughout the race and finished ninth.

The safety car was called on lap four for an incident for Dominik Šimek, who speared into the wall exiting Turn 1 after making contact with Kingsley Zheng.

After the restart, Weiss retained the lead, while behind him, Arn, Cosma Cristofor, Consani and Craigie fought for the podium places. Arn slipped to fourth by the penultimate lap, and on the final tour, Robinson took advantage of the battle ahead of him to pass both Craigie and Arn with a brave move to the inside of Turn 1. With that, he finished fourth behind Consani, Cosma Cristofor and race winner Weiss, taking Jenzer Motorsport’s first Italian F4 win in six years.

The final race of the weekend was the first with rain, and drivers started behind the safety car, which led the first three laps. Weiss and Sammalisto battled for the lead once the fourth lap began, with Cosma Cristofor trying to move up to second.

The safety car returned a lap later because of contact between Oscar Repetto and Dean Pedersen, who ended their races in the gravel at Bucine. The restart again lasted just a lap before Noah Killion and Knud Nielsen made contact at the same corner that left the former stranded in the gravel. Arn, Robinson and Busso also touched, dropping all of them down the order.

The race finished with a one-lap sprint, and at the final corner, Sammalisto overtook Weiss to claim his 12th win of the season, with Cosma Cristofor rounding out the podium. Incidents in the midfield sent Burnett spinning exiting Casanova and Thomas Bearman, Pedro Lima and David Walther into the gravel at Palagio, the former two sustaining terminal damage.

Craigie finished fourth and as top rookie to secure the rookies’ championship title over Aksoy, while US Racing took the teams’ title by 200 points over Prema Racing.

Report by Gaia Parmigiani

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying, Group 1	Luka Sammalisto, 1:49.375	Levi Arn, +0.139s	Christian Costoya, +0.210s
Qualifying, Group 2	David Cosma Cristofor, 1:49.144	Elia Weiss, +0.195s	Ludovico Busso, +0.205s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Luka Sammalisto, 27:56.231	Christian Costoya, +2.931s	Elia Weiss, +3.706s
Race 2 (14 laps)	Luka Sammalisto, 27:32.133	Kenzo Craigie, +0.772s	Ludovico Busso, +2.333s
Race 3 (14 laps)	Elia Weiss, 28:28.014	David Cosma Cristofor, +1.343s	Andy Consani, +2.243s
Race 4 (10 laps)	Luka Sammalisto, 29:33.455	Elia Weiss, +0.110s	David Cosma Cristofor, +5.638s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Luka Sammalisto, 452	US Racing, 1284	Kenzo Craigie, 446
P2	Alp Aksoy, 330	Prema Racing, 1084	Alp Aksoy, 428
P3	Kenzo Craigie, 326	R-ace GP, 543	Christian Costoya, 376
P4	David Cosma Cristofor, 324	Van Amersfoort Racing, 443	Augustus Toniolo, 324
P5	Edu Robinson, 306	Jenzer Motorsport, 441	Florentin Hattemer, 300
P6	Ary Bansal, 292	Trident, 354	Oscar Repetto, 279
P7	Christian Costoya, 232	PHM Racing, 179	Levi Arn, 275
P8	Oleksandr Savinkov, 227	Maffi Racing, 146	Knud Nielsen, 260
P9	Thomas Bearman, 216	Cram Motorsport, 70	Dominik Šimek, 239
P10	Ludovico Busso, 207	Real Racing, 57	Iacopo Martinese, 239

*The standings incorporate dropped scores. Each driver’s 16 best results from a possible 21 across the season are retained.

Read the previous round’s report here.

F4 Saudi Arabia: Owen grabs spotlight in Sakhir amid Bayer’s absence

Archie Owen propelled himself into the points lead after winning race one in F4 Saudi Arabia’s first Bahrain round as previous championship leader Marlon Bayer sat on the sidelines amid geopolitical concerns.

Isaac Seah was the pacesetter in qualifying, besting Owen by 0.193 seconds on Saturday morning to take pole for race one, with Amin Kara Osman a further 0.448s back.

The Singaporean, though, lost the lead at the start to Owen, while behind them, Abdullah Kamel rose from sixth to fourth in the first sector before falling down the order with a left-rear puncture. On lap four, Kara Osman and Harrison Mackie began dueling for third, with the Briton coming out on top at Turn 5. Behind them, a battle between Faris Organji and Jordyn Martin ended with the American passing the Saudi Arabian for ninth at Turn 11 on lap six.

Up front, Owen held off Seah to take his third win of the season and move up to the points lead. Mackie joined them on the podium.

Seah was once again the pacesetter on Sunday as he took his second pole of the weekend in qualifying. At the start of race two, Seah was able to pull away as most of the grid struggled to get off the line, including stalls from Zakaria Doleh and Osman, who later were able to get off the line.

Second-place starter Owen fell to third at the start but then passed Devin Walz at Turn 13 before the American was trumped by Mackie at Turn 1 a lap later and fell to fourth. Behind them, Kamel’s front wing broke off, which kickstarted a hotly contested battle for fifth in which Hamza Al Fayez passed the Saudi Arabian at the final corner on lap three. As cars scrambled for the positions behind him, Eva Dorrestijn and Organji collided at Turn 8 on lap four and fell down the order.

Up front, Seah led all 12 laps to take his first career win, 7.017s ahead of Owen and 14.843s ahead of third-place finisher Mackie. Doleh and Osman recovered to seventh and tenth respectively after stalling at the start.

Heading into the fourth round of the season, Owen leads the championship on 123 points, 40 ahead of the absent Bayer and 47 ahead of Seah and Mackie, who are tied for third.

Report by Marco Albertini

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Isaac Seah, 2:06.002	Archie Owen, +0.193s	Amin Kara Osman, +0.448s
Race 1 (12 laps)	Archie Owen, 25:28.151	Isaac Seah, +0.575s	Harrison Mackie, +11.523s
Qualifying 2	Isaac Seah, 2:06.208	Archie Owen, +0.168s	Zakaria Doleh, +0.503s
Race 2 (12 laps)	Isaac Seah, 25:24.210	Archie Owen, +7.017s	Harrison Mackie, +14.843s

Standings	Drivers	Rookies
P1	Archie Owen, 123	Archie Owen, 123
P2	Marlon Bayer, 83	Marlon Bayer, 83
P3	Isaac Seah, 76	Isaac Seah, 76
P4	Harrison Mackie, 76	Amin Kara Osman, 57
P5	Amin Kara Osman, 57	Devin Walz, 38
P6	Devin Walz, 38	Veer Chopra, 29
P7	Veer Chopra, 29	Hamza Al Fayez, 18
P8	Abdullah Kamel, 26	Georges Nassar, 17
P9	Zakaria Doleh, 26	Eva Dorrestijn, 1
P10	Lucas Nanji, 22

Read the previous round’s report here.

Kyojo Cup: Saito soars to title win ahead of charging Sato

For the second time in three years, Aimi Saito has been crowned champion of the Kyojo Cup after a flawless weekend out in Fuji.

After a disappointing outing in the penultimate round, Saito proved she was still undeniably in the fight by claiming pole position, 0.068 seconds over a charging Kokoro Sato.

In the sprint race, Saito held off her challenger through the opening stages of lap one as behind them, Rio Shimono and Joanne Ciconte collided on the run through Turn 8, damaging the former’s front wing and ending her race. Ciconte, however, escaped relatively unscathed and continued the race.

Lap five saw Ai Miura begin to pressure Hana Burton for fifth, culminating in an unsuccessful attack at the beginning of lap eight that forced the American to defend around the outside. One lap later, Miki Onaga made a move down the inside of Turn 1 to take second from Sato, who retook the position at Turn 3.

Saito crossed the line in first to secure a perfect sprint race win and take the championship lead by just two points from Riona Tomishita, who finished fourth. Sato and Onaga, both still in the running for the championship, completed the podium.

Starting from pole once more for the final race, Saito made a clean getaway. After a largely uneventful opening lap, Miura and Burton traded fifth place once again and Paige Raddatz spun at the hairpin. Itsumo Shiraishi then retired later on the second lap with a broken front wing and prompted a safety car period, during which Burton pitted for new rear tyres.

Saito held her lead at the safety car restart on lap six as Sato attempted to challenge but had to settle for second. On lap seven, Shimono overtook Mako Hirakawa for eighth before the pair overtook Kilei Kanemoto on the following lap. Lap nine saw Burton pit once more and rejoin, while Rina Ito retired.

It was smooth sailing for Saito for the remainder of the race, and she came home ahead of Sato and Onaga to claim her second Kyojo Cup title. Her closest challenger Tomishita finished fourth, ahead of Miura, Sara Matsui, Shimono, Hirakawa and Kanemoto. Marie Iwaoka took home the final point in 10th place, just ahead of Ciconte, who slipped from second to fifth in the standings with her scoreless weekend.

Report by Anabelle Bremner

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Aimi Saito, 1:44.369	Kokoro Sato, +0.068s	Miki Onaga, +0.207s
Sprint race (10 laps)	Aimi Saito, 17:37.078	Kokoro Sato, +4.077s	Miki Onaga, +4.639s
Final race (15 laps)	Aimi Saito, 29:46.886	Kokoro Sato, +1.719s	Miki Onaga, +2.385s

Standings	Drivers
P1	Aimi Saito, 102
P2	Kokoro Sato, 89
P3	Riona Tomishita, 88
P4	Miki Onaga, 77
P5	Joanne Ciconte, 70
P6	Rio Shimono, 53
P7	Ai Miura, 34
P8	Sara Matsui, 22
P9	Hana Burton, 14
P10	Rami Sasaki, 14

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: ACI Sport