New Euro 4 championship to complement Italian Formula 4 season
Italian Formula 4 promoters will launch the new Euro 4 Championship later this year to provide further racing experience for junior drivers.
The “Euro 4 Championship” will be run by ACI Sport and WSK promotions in parallel with the existing Italian series in the second half of 2023.
Drivers will use the same configuration at the Italian series, with the Tatuus T-421 powered by a Autotecnica Motori-supplied Abarth engine and running on Pirelli tyres. Race weekends will run over three races, with a qualifying session for each of the first two, and the second-best time set by each driver used for the third.
The series will run over three rounds from July to October, with the format to complement the seven-round Italian F4 calendar. It will open with round one 8-9 July at Mugello, with round two 16-17 September at Monza before heading to Barcelona on 21-22 October for the series finale, worth double points.
The Euro 4 series is believed to be the first of several “autumn” series being planned for the latter half of the year, to expand racing opportunities for junior drivers and complete the racing year for drivers who are contracted to teams for a minimum of 10 rounds.
Current “winter” series running in the early months of the calendar year have surged in popularity over the past year, with huge grids in the Formula Regional Middle East and Formula 4 United Arab Emirates categories. Meanwhile, the New Zealand-based Toyota Racing Series received the boost of Formula Regional status to coincide with the country opening its borders after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Formula Regional Middle East promoter Davide De Gobbi revealed to RACEWEEK earlier this year that he is considering an autumn-based series from 2024.
"The one window available is the end of the year, but then we need to convince drivers not to do a winter test season, and to move somewhere else."
"It would be easy to have, one series in January, February [will start the regular season] in Europe, and then maybe in autumn, we will be somewhere else."
The Euro 4 series will launch in July at Mugello, with entries to be confirmed by series promoters.
2023 Italian F4 Championship and Euro 4 Calendar
Italian F4 Round 1 - Imola, Italy - 22-23 April
Italian F4 Round 2 - Misano, Italy - 6-7 May
Italian F4 Round 3 - Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium - 26-28 May
Italian F4 Round 4 - Monza, Italy - 23-25 June
Euro 4 Round 1 - Mugello, Italy - 8-9 July
Italian F4 Round 5 - Paul Ricard, France - 21-23 July
Euro 4 Round 2 - Monza, Italy - 16-17 September
Italian F4 Round 6 - Mugello, Italy - 29 September - 1 October
Italian F4 Round 7 - Vallelunga, Italy, - 13-15 October
Euro 4 Round 3 - Barcelona, Spain - 21-22 October
