Between the poleman Giltaire and Foster, everything came down to the start, the moment chosen by the Canadian to surprise his rival. The winner of Feed Racing Volant won his first F4 race, while Andriolo, the local of the event, completed the podium.
The Easter Cup at Nogaro, the launch pad for the 2023 French F4 Championship, lived up to its promise. The large field of 26 young drivers proved to be very close. A few drivers stood out at the top of the hierarchy, but the very tight gaps at all levels of the field gave rise to numerous confrontations that were particularly interesting to watch. The FFSA Academy’s technical team and the race mechanics trained at the Le Mans federal centre ensured perfect monitoring of the Mygale single-seaters with Renault Turbo engines and Pirelli tyres.
“The system that the federation has put in place with the French F4 Championship is truly an excellent detection tool, which allows the talent of drivers to be revealed on a level playing field,” said Christophe Lollier, National Technical Director. “The recent performances of Théo Pourchaire, Ayumu Iwasa, Victor Martins and Isack Hadjar in Formula 2 only confirm this observation. In other championships, we can see that the expertise and experience of the teams have a major influence on a driver’s success. At the FFSA Academy, we do everything possible to ensure sporting fairness and treat all drivers in the same way. Today, we are reaping the benefits of this in-depth work carried out over the years. I was already impressed by the class of 2022, but I think that this season we have an even stronger group. It is noticeable that the repeaters have to deal with very promising newcomers. As for the analysis of the performances of each driver, it proves that we see about ten drivers capable of achieving their best lap within a range of two tenths in each race. This promises an exciting year in 2023.”
A third winner in three races
After Frenchman Evan Giltaire and Spaniard Pol Lopez, it was Canadian Kevin Foster who won Race 3 on Easter Monday. “I am 100% focused on my goal of winning the title at the end of the season,” said Foster. “I don’t come away from Nogaro as the Championship leader, but it was important to show that I was capable of winning at this first meeting. I’m really happy with my start, which allowed me to take the lead over Evan. The safety car quickly came back on track and it was the first time in my career that I had to manage a restart. This one went particularly well, I set the fastest lap a little later and managed to maintain a small gap to keep the lead until the end.”
“I slid a bit too much at the start and that probably cost me the win,” admitted Evan, “It’s a bit frustrating not to win when you start from pole position! But I’m happy to be the first leader of the 2023 French F4 Championship.”
Romain Andriolo: the local of the event on the podium
Ranked 5th and 6th in the first two races of the meeting, the Toulousian Andriolo was determined to climb on the podium of the Gers circuit situated a few dozen kilometres from his home. “My starts were not excellent in Nogaro and that penalised my hopes of a top three finish on Sunday,” Romain admitted. “In this last race, I was able to take advantage of the restart to overtake the 3rd driver, a little after the safety car had returned to the pits. The two frontrunners had already taken a lead and it was unfortunately too late to hope to catch them and take them on.”
In 4th place, Enzo Richer struggled to hold on to his position against Enzo Peugeot, who was often pressing in his wake. By finishing successively 3rd, 2nd and 5th on the Paul Armagnac circuit in Nogaro, Peugeot collected a good number of points. Installed in 3rd position in the provisional championship standings, not far from Giltaire and Foster, he has every intention of being one of the candidates for the title this season. 6th ahead of Spaniard Pol Lopez, Japan’s Hiyu Yamakoshi confirmed his consistency in the chasing pack.
Although Belgian driver Yani Stevenheydens had to retire in the second corner in the rush at the start, two drivers have been rising in power during this Easter weekend. American Garrett Berry came back in the wake of Lopez in 8th position ahead of Karel Schultz. Schultz was only 14th on the starting grid, but he kept a high pace during his magnificent progress. Germany’s Max Reis passed Italy’s Leonardo Megna in the early stages of the race, but a 10-second penalty dropped him back, leaving Megna to take the final top 10 spot.
The next round of the French F4 Championship will take place on the Magny-Cours circuit from 5th to 7th May.
> Race 3 standings
1 Kevin Foster (Canada) with 14 laps
2 Evan Giltaire (France) at 1.149
3 Romain Andriolo (France) at 8.263
4 Enzo Richer (France) at 8.912
5 Enzo Peugeot (France) at 9.243
6 Hiyu Yamakoshi (Japan) at 15.306
7 Pol Lopez (Spain) at 21.396
8 Garrett Berry (USA) at 21.958
9 Karel Schulz (France) at 22.520
10 Leonardo Megna (Italy) at 26.603
11 Adrien Closmenil (France) at 27.033
12 Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro (Colombia) at 27.454
13 Jason Leung (Canada) at 29.921
14 Edouard Borgna (France) at 30.410
15 Edgar Pierre (France) at 32.166
16 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait (Great Britain) at 32.652
17 Max Reis (Germany) at 32.946
18 Luca Savu (Romania) at 36.501
19 Louis Schlesser (France) at 37.915
20 Paul Alberto (France) at 38.260
21 Finn Wiebelhaus (Germany) at 47.433
22 Andrei Duna (Romania) at 59.416
23 Yaroslav Veselaho (Ukraine) at 1:08.591
24 Tom Kalender (Germany), retired on lap 3
25 Yani Stevenheydens (Belgium), withdrawal on lap 1
26 Frank Porte Ruiz (Andorra), abandoned on lap 1
FL: Foster in 1:28.384 (average speed 148.1 km/h)
> French F4 FIA Championship (provisional after Nogaro)
1 Giltaire (FRA) 54 pts, 2 Foster (CDN) 45 pts, 3 Peugeot (FRA) 37 pts, 4 Lopez (ESP) 30 pts, 5 Andriolo (FRA) 29 pts, 6 Richer (FRA) 24 pts, 7 Yamakoshi (JPN) 16 pts, 8 Stevenheydens (BEL) 11 pts, 9 Savu (ROU) 8 pts, 10 Reis (DEU) et Berry (USA) 4 pts, 12 Schultz (FRA) 2 pts, 13 Megna (ITA) 1 pt.
