Kean Nakamura-Berta was crowned 2025 Italian Formula 4 Champion with PREMA Racing at Misano, in a busy weekend that saw him clinch the Driver Championship with two races still to go. The Japanese-Slovakian racer had a blistering start this year, with five consecutive wins, and continued to stay on top after that. Misano carried on that trend with a grand finale. After the early podiums of Round 7 that secured the title, in the rerun of Imola’s postponed Race 2, Nakamura-Berta claimed his ninth win of the year with an incredible last-lap move. He is the eighth driver to win the series under the team's banner. PREMA Racing had already secured its ninth Italian Formula 4 Team Championship back in the penultimate round at Barcelona.
The Rookie Championship was an all-PREMA affair that went down between Salim Hanna and Zhenrui Chi. The Colombian got the nod in the end, amassing 11 class victories. Thanks to his six overall podium finishes, including the one achieved in Race 3 at Misano, he highlighted his strong growth with 4th place in the overall classification. He was followed by Chi, who came out of the weekend with an overall podium and four points finishes.
Sebastian Wheldon fought hard for the runner-up spot in points and delivered a scintillating performance at Misano. In the same place that gave him his maiden Italian F4 win in this year's opener, the American showed exceptional pace. He scored two wins in his heat races and then sailed to victory in the Final to complete an outstanding hat-trick, which included pole position in his group and on the grid for the Final.
Oleksandr Bondarev made his way back to the podium in the Imola re-run. The Ukrainian also posted a P4 and a P6 in the heat races. On the other hand, Andrea Dupe continued to impress, improving in every race and achieving a double best finish of P6 in the heats after qualifying fourth in the second series. In the Final, he ended up P9 overall to get his third rookie podium of the year.
The team will be back on track in a couple of weeks for the E4 Championship finale at Monza.
#5 Andrea Dupe
"The pace was very good since FP and Qualifying. In Race 1, we were struggling for grip, but I was still in P4, although a mistake made me drop to P6. Once again, we had a good start in Race 2, and we improved the pace. I tried to stay on the outside and got pushed wide. It was a risk worth taking, even though I dropped back a bit, finishing in P6 again. In the Final, I had a mega start from P10 to P6, but I was passed by a couple of cars that were quite quick. I was quite stable on pace despite some understeer and managed to finish in P9. Overall, it was a bit of a tough season. I joined PREMA quite late, but after that, we improved race by race and showed great pace. I think there are positive things ahead for the future."
#27 Oleksandr Bondarev
"It was quite a strong weekend to finish the season. We were a little bit unlucky in qualifying, but we started from the top-8 in all the races, and we got a podium finish in the last one, coming back to the podium after a few tough rounds. I'm really thankful to the team for their amazing work all year. I can't wait for the E4 season finale at Monza."
#28 Zhenrui Chi
"Not a bad weekend to finish off the year. Practice started well, and we showed great pace. I didn't maximize a few places in qualifying, but I still had a decent result. I was struggling a bit with the start throughout the whole weekend. In Race 1, we finished P2, and I did everything I could, while in Race 2, I was pushed off while in P3, and in the Final race again, we had a tough start, but we were able to recover one spot."
#51 Kean Nakamura-Berta
"It's been an incredible year all-around. PREMA did an amazing job, and I think I did mine as well. We knew we were always going to be strong coming back here. We had some issues in qualifying, but we made them right in the races. I can't thank the team enough; winning this year just feels so great. Massive thanks to the team, especially Marc, my engineer, my mechanics Guido and Max, Gary and Dean from Infinity Sports Management, my parents, and my sister for supporting me off track as well."
#88 Salim Hanna
"It was a pretty good season. To be honest, at the start of the season, I didn't think I was going to be this competitive, but I worked really hard already in preseason testing and learned a lot. Every time I learned something. I'm really happy about that, but we had even more potential. We dropped many points in some rounds and made a few mistakes. I'm happy because in every round we went, we were in contention for the podium. I want to thank PREMA for this year."
#98 Sebastian Wheldon
"Really happy about the weekend. Winning all three races was good, especially since we had a difficult middle part of the season, and it was good to end it on a high note. I can't thank PREMA enough for all their support."