The 2025 season of the Italian F.4 Championship officially kicks off at the ACI Racing Weekend in Misano. The day serving as the prelude to the first round began this morning with collective testing at the Misano World Circuit. A first two-hour session took place in the morning, with around 40 single-seaters on track.
For teams and drivers, it was the first chance to tackle the technical Romagna circuit, which features a mix of twisty sections and high-speed stretches, with corners that offer significant banking. For the 12 teams present, this was a valuable opportunity to begin working on setups ahead of the race weekend.
Setting the pace in the first session was Maksimilian Popov: the Van Amersfoort Racing driver, representing Grenada, clocked the fastest lap in 1:35.400, kicking off his second year in the series in strong form. Just behind was Italy’s Emanuele Olivieri, R-ace GP, reigning F4 Middle East champion, trailing by 0.155. Third was Jamaican-American Alex Powell, also racing for R-ace GP, just 0.
211 off the top time.
Lap times were tightly matched among the chasing pack: fourth fastest was Brazil’s Gabriel Gomez, US Racing, 0.225 behind, followed by American Sebastian Wheldon, Prema Racing, who had led the early part of the session before finishing fifth with a 0.255 gap. Sixth was Japan’s Kean Nakamura-Berta, 0.341 behind Popov, followed by his teammate from Latvia, Tomass Stolcermanis, who was 0.445 off the top. Both race for Prema Racing, as does Colombia’s Salim Hanna, who placed eighth with a gap of 0.494.
Completing the top 10 were Switzerland’s Enea Frey, representing Jenzer Motorsport, in ninth with a 0.528 gap, and the US Racing duo of Finland’s Luka Sammalisto and Czech driver Jan Koller, who both set identical best times, 0.535 behind the leader.
Thursday, May 1st continues in the afternoon with a second two-hour collective test session, starting at 14:15. Tomorrow marks the beginning of the first official challenges of the 2025 season.
Race weekend schedule
Friday, May 2 will begin with free practice sessions (8:30–9:10 and 13:25–14:05), followed by qualifying, split into two series:
Series 1 from 17:30 to 17:50
Series 2 from 18:00 to 18:20
Based on qualifying times, drivers will be split into three groups (A, B, and C).
Race schedule:
Saturday, May 3:
Race 1 (Group B vs Group C) at 11:15
Race 2 (Group A vs Group B) at 17:10
Sunday, May 4:
Race 3 (Group A vs Group C) at 10:55
Final race with the top 36 drivers at 19:30
All races will last 25 minutes + 1 lap and will count toward the championship standings.
Where to watch the event
All four races of the Italian F4 Championship will be broadcast live, with Italian commentary, on ACI Sport TV (channel 228 on Sky and 52 on Tivùsat), as well as streamed on www.acisport.tv and the ACI Sport TV Facebook page.
They will also be available with English commentary via live streaming on the Italian F4 Championship’s YouTube and Facebook pages, and across the international network of partner broadcasters.
For those wishing to experience the excitement in person, admission to the Misano World Circuit is free, including open access to the paddock.