Reduced-cost alternative to Formula 4 for Great Britain

UK motorsport promoter Motorsport Vision has announced plans for a reduced-cost alternative to FIA Formula 4.

The group, which also manages GB3 (formerly known as British Formula 3), says the new series will run on the same British GT race program as the GB3 calendar.

The proposed championship will use the Tatuus F4-T014 chassis, which has been used in Spanish, Italian, and German F4 series.

The move comes as the parallel British FIA Formula 4 series is brought under control of Motorsport UK.

The F4 Series had been run by RacingLine and Ford Performance since 2015, with both groups withdrawing their support for 2022.

A Tatuus chassis will also be used by British Formula 4, with engines to be supplied by Abarth.

For competitors in GB4, engines will be provided by Mountune, working with Tatuus and Autotecnica Motori.

The GB4 car will feature a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine, producing 160bhp.

A 21-race GB4 championship is planned across seven race events.

Events will be live-streamed as per existing GB3 broadcast arrangements.

The GB4 winner will receive a £50,000 sponsorship towards a GB3 seat, with the full prize pool to be announced.

"GB4 is a tremendously exciting new championship that will provide aspiring F1 drivers with modest budgets an opportunity to develop and prove their talent, and progress onwards in single-seater racing," said MSV Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer.

"GB4 is also coming at just the right time."

"The availability of the current well proven Tatuus-Abarth F4 car, coupled with MSV’s highly respected ability to run excellent junior single-seater series, means an affordable first step will exist for drivers to emulate George Russell’s outstanding progress to the top, after he first came to single-seater prominence by winning our inaugural BRDC F4 championship in 2014.”