Halfway round for the ADAC Formel 4 at Zandvoort and the F4 British Championship at the Croft Circuit

June 27, 2022 by Abarth

• Andrea Kimi Antonelli defends the lead in the German series at the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort against 'the hosts' of Van Amersfoort Racing.

•Alex Dunne is looking for a mid-season stretch at the Croft Circuit in the British F4, which has already seen seven different winners in the first 12 races.

•Season debut in ADAC F4 for Dutchman Maya Weug on her home circuit.

The arrival of summer marks the halfway point of the season for the ADAC Formel 4 and the F4 British Championship, which sees more and more Tatuus F4 T-021 on track, powered by the 180 hp Abarth T-Jet 1.4 engine which, in this first part of the season, has confirmed to be at the top in reliability and performance. On the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort, which will host Formula 1 in two months' time, the ADAC F4 takes to the track for its third round of the season out of the six scheduled on the German series calendar which, after the stage in the Netherlands, will return to Germany for the season finale with the races at Nürburgring (5-7 August), Lausitzring (19-21 August) and Nürburgring again (14-16 October). Fifth round, on the other hand, for the F4 British Championship, which has 30 races on its calendar, divided into 10 rounds. After the Croft Circuit round, the British series will take a month's break to return at the end of July with the Knockhill round (30-31 July) before a fiery August with races at Snetterton (13-14 August) and Thruxton (27-28 August) and the season finale at Silverstone (24-25 September) and Brands Hatch (8-9 October).

In the ADAC F4 Championship the man to beat is Andrea Kimi Antonelli (ITA - Prema Racing), who has won five races out of the six held so far between Spa-Francorchamps and Hockenheim. Chasing the driver from Bologna is Ferrari Driver Academy's Brazilian Rafael Camara (BRA - Prema Racing), leader of the Italian series. Zandvoort will be an important event for the Van Amersfoort Racing team, which will bring five cars to the track for its home race with Arias Deukmedjian (USA - Van Amersfoort Racing), Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. (BRA - Van Amersfoort Racing), Brando Badoer (ITA - Van Amersfoort Racing), Martinius Stenshorne (NOR - Van Amersfoort Racing) and Jules Castro (BEL - Van Amersfoort Racing). Maya Weug (NDL - Iron Dames) will also make her season debut in her home race. After a good start to the season in the Italian series, she will also be defending the Ferrari Driver Academy colours in front of a friendly crowd. Two free practice sessions are scheduled for Friday 24 June, followed on Saturday at 8.15 am by qualifying which will determine the starting grid for race 1, scheduled for Saturday at 3.35 pm and race 2, which will start on Sunday at 9.20 am. The grid will be reversed in the first eight positions with respect to the finishing order of race 2, for the last race of the weekend, which will see the green light at 4.30 pm on Sunday 26 June.

If in the German series Andrea Kimi Antonelli has won 5 out of 6 races, in the F4 British Championship there are already 7 drivers who have climbed onto the top step of the podium in the first 4 rounds of the season. Six times, however, the winner has been Alex Dunne (IRL - Hitech GP), who leads the standings with a 68-point advantage over Oliver Gray (GBR - Carlin), followed by rookie leader Ugo Ugochukwu (USA - Carlin) just three points behind. Among the top seven drivers in the standings only Gray has not yet managed to take a victory, but has shown great consistency in his results. Behind the leading trio are Aiden Neate (GBR - Phinsys by Argenti), Louis Sharp (NZL - Carlin), Daniel Guinchard (GBR - Phinsys by Argenti), second among the rookies, and Georgi Dimitrov (BUL - JHR Developments). The programme on the 3,423-metre Croft Circuit will see the drivers take to the track for two free practice sessions on Friday. Saturday morning at 10.25am qualifying will decide the grid for race 1, which will start at 1.45pm, followed at 5.15pm by race 2 where the grid will see the top 10 drivers from qualifying lined up in reverse order. Race 3 is scheduled for Sunday at 1.50 PM.