Written by Lorenzo Baer, Edited by Rohan Brown
Formula Trophy UAE
Considered the first act of the 2025 Formula 4 season, the Formula Trophy UAE was actually held in the final weeks of 2024. This was the first edition of this tournament under a new format, before this , the Formula Trophy was a non-championship round of the former F4 UAE.
With the dismissal of F4 UAE beginning of 2024, Formula Trophy found itself as one of the tournament's successors, being raised to the standard of a full championship, with multiple rounds.
The tournament was held in three rounds and seven races, divided as follows: the first stop was the Dubai circuit, where three races were held between November 29 and December 1.
The Formula Trophy UAE circus then moved to Yas Marina for its feature event: two support races for the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, held from December 6th-8th.
A week later, from December 13th to 14th, the tournament reached its final stage once again at Yas Marina, with the two remaining races of the season.
As had been the case with F4 UAE up until then, the Formula Trophy presented itself as a very interesting tournament in terms of drivers, mixing names already established on the F4 world scene, as well as emerging talents in the category.
Two names appeared as the most coveted to win the tournament. The first was Emirati Rashid Al Dhaheri of Mumbai Falcons Team. The driver finished third in the 2023 Macau GP and fourth in the 2024 F4 UAE.
The other name that was coming with high expectations to the contest was James Piszcyk, registered by AGI Sport. The Australian had won the 2024 Australian F4 title, in addition to maintaining a good performance in other F4 tournaments during the 2024 season.
However, expectations were a little far from reality. The 2024 Formula Trophy proved to be an unpredictable tournament, with an almost abnormal balance in F4. There would be five race winners in the season, with only Al Dhaheri and Singaporean driver Kabir Anurag taking multiple victories.
Because of this, the tournament would be decided in the last round of the year, in Yas Marina. Several drivers had real chances of winning the tournament, and, to add a special spice to the competition, the leader of the classification, Al Dhaheri, would not be participating in the race, due to commitments with Formula Regional.
Despite this, the Emirati had a 27-point advantage over his closest pursuer in the classification, the Indian Kai Daryanani. Without much fanfare, the Evans GP driver had achieved good results throughout the season, which culminated in this second-place finish.
And the Indian would not let the opportunity slip through his fingers: by achieving third and second place in the final races of the year, Kai Daryanani had scored enough points to overtake Al Dhaheri in the final classification, winning his first F4 title.
The chosen cars to compete in the tournament continued to be the Tatuus F4-T421, equipped with 1.4l Abarth engines, which were in operation in previous years of the Formula Trophy.
F4 Middle East Championship
The other successor to F4 UAE, the F4 Middle East Championship, or simply MEC was also present, as the very first F4 championship to be held in 2025.
The championship emerged as an evolution of F4 UAE, with Middle Eastern motorsport federations seeking to ally themselves with the Automobile & Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates (ATCUAE), as a way of seeking F4 expansion throughout the region.
Therefore the championship went from its national aspect, with stages being held exclusively in the United Arab Emirates, to a micro-regional tournament with races also held in other countries of the Arabian Peninsula.
But the project, in this first season, didn’t live up to the expectations: the rounds in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, scheduled for the 2025 F4 MEC season, were cancelled due to logistic problems, and only the late addition of a round in Qatar prevented the championship to returning to its mono-national roots.
Therefore, of the five rounds of the tournament, four were held in the UAE – three at the Yas Marina circuit and one at the Dubai Autodrome while the only international event took place at the Losail International Circuit. Each stage consisted of three races, bringing the total number of events of the season to 15.
Even with this small change of course the first edition of the F4 MEC maintained the high level of entries that has been a constant in F4 tournaments in the Middle East.
Two names stood out from the pack: Kean Nakamura-Berta and Alex Powell. Kean, who was entered by Mumbai Falcons already had a history with Arabia, being runner-up in the F4 UAE in 2024, but taking home the title of Rookie of the Year in the same tournament. Throughout 2024, the driver competed in a few more tournaments in Europe, demonstrating consistency and collecting good results.
His main rival in the statistics was R-ace GP's Jamaican-American Alex Powell. The driver also participated in the 2024 F4 UAE, finishing in sixth place. But Powell demonstrated great resilience and competitiveness during the 2024 season, finishing fifth overall in the Italian F4 (and taking the Rookies’ title), and for Euro 4, in which he finished ninth.
However, as had happened in the Formula Trophy UAE, it would be an outsider who would come out on top in the tournament. The surprising Italian Emanuele Olivieri, Powell's partner at R-ace GP would have a devastating championship, storming the season with impressive performances.
The 16-year-old pilot, whose best previous result was a 17th place finish in the 2024 Italian F4 championship standings, had an almost perfect 2025 F4 MEC, finishing on the podium in 13 of the 15 races contested.
Although Powell closed in on Olivieri in the final stretch of the tournament, due to a good sequence of results in the second half of the season, the Jamaican-American was unable to even scare the Italian, who had no problems securing his first title in single-seater categories, with a 58-point advantage over Powell.
Rounding out the top three of the tournament was Kean Nakamura-Berta, who fought for second place in the tournament standings until the last race.
In the Rookies standings, the winner was the Colombian Salim Hanna. Considered the greatest promise of Colombian motorsport (and a protégé of ex-F1 driver J.P. Montoya), Salim had a very solid tournament, finishing sixth in the overall classification, with one podium.
Throughout the season, all drivers used Tatuus F4-T421 chassis, powered by 1.4-litre Abarth engines.
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