Written by Lorenzo Baer, Edited by Meghana Sree
Over the next six weeks, the DIVEBOMB team will offer its readers a complete insight into Formula 4 throughout 2024, demonstrating the main highlights and promises of the new generation of drivers excelling on tracks around the world this year.
The first part of this special is dedicated to the Middle East championships, in this case, the Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates F4 tournaments. Who were those who shone out on the sands of Arabia in 2024? Find out below!
Aramco F4 Saudi Arabian Championship
Despite being called the Saudi championship, in reality, this tournament is one of the most international on the Formula 4 calendar, with races in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia itself.
Launched in late 2023 as a platform to boost talents in the landscape of Middle East motorsport, the project has its goal line set for 2030, with the objective of becoming a consolidated and strong base for single-seater series in the region.
With a promise to be a championship that would be carried out through the winter months of the northern hemisphere motorsport calendar, the championship also has an interesting proposal for an exchange between foreign and Arab drivers, in order to promote the symbiotic development of both parties.
The competition format was a little complex, with a peculiar grid formation system. For the sake of competitiveness (totaling 20 races/heats throughout the year), a grid inversion system was used in conjunction with the regulatory timing sessions, mixing the starting positions in each heat and offering better conditions for a clear dispute between the pilots.
F4 Saudi used FIA’s classic point system with 25 points for the winner, 18 for second, 15 for third, down to one point for the driver in tenth. Three points are awarded for pole position and one point for setting the fastest lap of each race.
The championship kicked off in 2023, in a non-championship race in Bahrain. From then on, there were six other official stages: Two races on consecutive weekends in Kuwait Motor Town (2-3 and 9-10 February), followed by a stage in Qatar, on the Lusail circuit (16-17 March), and closing the season, three events in Jeddah – one in March (28-29) and two in April (1-2 and 6-7).
The big favourites at the beginning of the year to compete for the F4 title in Saudi Arabia were Suleiman Zanfari, the Moroccan who despite being just 18 years old, had good experience in motorsport (having regularly participated in the Spanish F4 championship since 2020) as well the Italo-Emiri Federico Al Rifai. He too stood out in the 2023 F4 UAE and F4 Spanish championships.
Of the two, the one who best met expectations was Al Rifai, who won the 2024 Saudi F4 title in resounding fashion, being on the highest spot on the podium in eight of the 20 races contested throughout the championship. The driver's worst result throughout the tournament was 11th place in the first race of the year, the first of the four heats held in Kuwait.
However, in the following heat the driver demonstrated why critics considered him one of the great promises of the breed of drivers that are surfacing in the Middle East, taking home his first victory.
Throughout the following races, he remained inside or near the podium zone, winning valuable points that later converted into the championship title.
Zanfari, on the other hand, finished the championship in fourth, achieving just three heat victories throughout the year (two in Kuwait and one in Jeddah).
The big surprises came from the Serbian Andrej Petrović and the Russian Kirill Kutskov (who races with a licence from Kyrgyzstan). Both had little previous experience in single-seaters, having spent most of their careers till now in karts, but nevertheless they overtook much more experienced drivers in the category to take second and third positions, respectively, in the 2024 Saudi F4 ranking.
All drivers used Tatuus F4-T421 chassis, equipped with Autotecnica/Abarth engines. It is worth mentioning that there was no team championship, due to all vehicles being prepared and maintained by the Altawkilat Meritus.GP Team.
Formula 4 UAE Championship
In its eighth edition, Formula 4 UAE did not disappoint, offering the public one of the most interesting scenarios in the category around the world.
Like the Saudi championship, the F4 UAE is also contested during the winter months of the European and North American motorsport calendars, which causes many drivers to migrate to these warmer lands during the championship contention months.
Due to the good reputation established by the tournament, which can be traced back to its first edition in 2016, talents are heavily involved in competing for this trophy and, in 2024, the story was no different, with several of the pilots who participated in this edition already having some previous experience in other F4 tournaments around the world.
However, the big news of Formula 4 UAE in 2024 would not be the races themselves, but the announcement that this would be the last edition of the tournament under this name and format.
From 2025 onwards, the championship will be rebranded as the F4 Middle East Championship, with competitions held not only in the United Arab Emirates, as has been happening mostly until now, but also in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
But this was still a future issue, as all eyes were still focused on the 2024 edition, which was yet to be contested.
The championship would consist of five weekends, three at the Yas Marina circuit and two at the Dubai Autodrome), each with three races/heats, spread over the months of January and February 2024, in addition to a non-championship race at the end of 2023. This race served as a support event for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The interesting point about F4 UAE is that instead of being contested under a fixed number of laps, each race was to run in time format, with 28-minute heats plus one-lap, all of which will award points in the FIA's standard format, granting the winner 25 points and down to one point for tenth place. Securing the fastest lap of a race will not award an extra point, nor will pole position.
It was impossible before the start of the championship to name a favourite driver to win the tournament, but it was expected that the winner would probably come from Prema Racing, Mumbai Falcons, or the Hitech GP teams. All of them had stood out in 2023, and the reinforcement of their line-ups for 2024 was quite clear.
Expectations were confirmed, with British drivers Freddie Slater and Kean Nakamura-Berta, both from Mumbai Falcons, securing the first two places in the overall standings at the end of the championship. Slater, a well-known figure in British F4, Italian F4 and Euro4 in 2023, had a stellar start in Formula 4 UAE 2024, placing on the podium in five of the first six heats of the year.
From then on, the Brit's results fluctuated, with a disastrous rainy weekend in the fourth stage of the year, in Yas Marina, but a good performance in the season ender at the Dubai Autodrome was enough to guarantee Freddie the title, just four points ahead of his teammate Nakamura-Berta.
Another interesting name in the tournament was Emirati racer Keanu Al Azhari, from the Yas Heat Racing Academy. With two heat victories this year, his consistency throughout the 2024 F4 UAE season was remarkable, placing third in the general classification and just four points behind Nakamura-Berta.
Due to the good results of their drivers, in addition to Slater and Nakamura, the contributions of Alex Powell in sixth and Dion Gowda in 11th ensured Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited easily won the team’s title, well away from second place Prema Racing.
However, the Italian team can consider this title partially theirs, since the Mumbai Falcons squad is one of the Italian outfit's several satellite teams spread around the world!
During the season, all drivers used the Tatuus F4-T421 chassis, equipped with Autotecnica/Abarth engines.
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