Barcelona-Catalunya - The sixth round of the 2024 Italian F.4 Championship, the penultimate event of the season, has concluded in Barcelona. The Spanish weekend was decisive for the fate of the Italian F.4 Championship, with the final closure of the drivers’ standings and Freddie Slater’s dominant triumph. The Englishman was crowned Champion after Race 2, and by the end of the weekend, he boasted a total of 327 points and 13 victories, equaling the series record previously set by Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Slater is the 7th driver from Prema Racing to be crowned Champion in the highly competitive Italian Championship; the other six were Lance Stroll in the inaugural 2014 season, Ralf Aron in 2015, Marcus Armstrong in 2017, Enzo Fittipaldi in 2018, Gabriele Minì in 2020, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2022. After Race 2, Prema Racing also secured its 8th team title in the Italian series, claiming the honor for the third consecutive year (2014–2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022–2024).
The race that brought the weekend to a close marked the first win for Jack Beeton, the Australian driver from US Racing who has been one of the season’s revelations. Beeton, after standing on the second step of the podium seven times this year—most recently in Race 1 at Barcelona—finally celebrated from the top spot. The victory is certainly a redemption for a Sunday that hadn’t started in the best way, with the Australian stalling on the grid from P2 in Race 2. It was a weekend where he showed exceptional pace, already demonstrated in strong qualifying sessions, and ended with a win achieved with about a 4-second lead over his teammate and fellow countryman, Gianmarco Pradel. Both passed the race’s pole sitter, Champion Freddie Slater, who appeared to suffer a power drop in the second half of the race. Beeton made a brilliant inside pass in Turn 1, and shortly after, Slater was also overtaken by Gianmarco Pradel, who skillfully moved up from P6. The third driver to pass Slater was Kean Nakamura-Berta. The British-Japanese Alpine Academy driver for Prema Racing finished third on the podium, winning the Rookie race and keeping the intra-team battle alive with his teammate Alex Powell. The Rookie standings are the only ones left open at this point and will be decided in the season finale at Monza on the last weekend of October.
Freddie Slater couldn’t break the Championship record, finishing the final race in fourth, but he’ll have three more opportunities at the Temple of Speed in Monza. Fifth position and second step of the Rookie podium went to Tomass Stolcermanis, once again delivering a fiercely fought race, making his way through Van Amersfoort Racing drivers Hiyu Yamakoshi and Gustav Jonsson, who finished behind him in sixth and seventh, respectively. Eighth place in Race 3 went to Mercedes junior Alex Powell, completing the Rookie podium and maintaining a solid lead in the class standings. Ninth place went to Davide Larini, the Italian driver for PHM AIX Racing, followed at the checkered flag by Jenzer Motorsport’s Swiss driver Enea Frey. The weekend ended in a retirement for Akshay Bohra, the Indian-American driver from US Racing, who, after finishing third on the podium in Race 2, started the weekend’s final race from P3 and had moved up to second, passing Beeton at the start. However, while battling for the win, the driver experienced what appeared to be an electrical issue with the car and was forced to slow down, eventually retiring from the race.
Jack Beeton: "It feels really fantastic to finally win after being P2 seven times and stalling in this morning’s race, where I also started from P2. I’m really happy to have finally gotten my first win, and I hope to get more—this feeling is really special. I want to feel this moment a bit more. It was the second time I’ve led after a safety car restart. At Mugello, I was leading in front of Slater, and I messed it up, almost getting overtaken, and then I was overtaken two laps later. I was really happy to get the jump from my teammate, to keep the lead this time, and pull away. I pushed as hard as I could to build the gap after the restart, and I was really happy to cross the line first. That was a big sigh of relief!”
Gianmarco Pradel: “It was fantastic to end on a high! P6 to P2 is great, gaining a few positions. To be honest, coming into race, I was just clear. I didn’t really expect too much. To be walking away with this result, it’s huge. I just have to thank my Team, US Racing, my mechanic Miguel, my engineer Felix, and Ander the second mechanic. Thanks boys, and also Gerhard, for running the whole operation. It’s been a journey, it’s been a while since I have been up here, but I’m ready to continue, and hopefully bring this momentum to Monza.”
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “The race was really fun. Very different from the usual Formula 4 races—it had a bit more action, more overtakes. A bit more chaos than expected, but in the end, it worked out in our favor. We finished in P3, one place better than in Race 2. I had a good start. From there, I just tried to go forward, while still looking after everything to make sure to get to the end of the race quite nicely. A safety car came out, just towards the end of the race, I knew there were only few laps left, and that was the only chance I could try to attack for second. I tried my best, it’s difficult here in the dirty air, there are many high-speed corners. You just have to hope that driver in front makes a mistake, and you get there at the perfect timing. In the end it was overall a pretty good weekend.”
The next event will be the final round of the Championship at Monza on the weekend of October 27. However, before that, the final round of the Euro 4 Championship will also take place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza next weekend, from October 4–6.