2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship

The 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship was the seventh season of the Formula 4 UAE Championship, a motor racing series for the United Arab Emirates regulated according to FIA Formula 4 regulations, and organised and promoted by the Emirates Motorsport Organization (EMSO) and Top Speed.

2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship

Drivers' Champion: James Wharton
Teams' Champion: Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
Rookies' Champion: Tuukka Taponen

Previous

2022

Next

2024

Parent series:
Formula Regional Middle East Championship

The regular season commenced on 13 January at the Dubai Autodrome and concluded on 19 February at the Yas Marina Circuit.^[1]

Teams and drivers

Team No. Drivers Class Rounds Xcel Motorsport 2 Noah Lisle[2] All 21 Victoria Blokhina[N 1][3] TR 24 Sebastian Murray[3] R TR 33 Georgy Zhuravskiy[N 1][2] R All 54 Alexander Bolduev[N 1][2] R All 71 Federico Rifai[3] R TR, All R-ace GP 3 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr.[2] All 12 Alexander Abkhazava[N 1][2] R All 14 Raphaël Narac[2] R 2–5 20 Zachary David[2] R All Hitech Grand Prix[N 2] Hitech Pulse-Eight[N 2] 4 James Piszcyk[4] TR, All 5 William Macintyre[5] R TR, All 6 Kanato Le[a][6] R TR, All 7 Alex Dunne[3] TR Arvid Lindblad[2] R All Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited 8 Tuukka Taponen[2] R All 10 Muhammad Ibrahim[2] R 1–2, 5 13 James Wharton[2] All 28 Rishon Rajeev[2] 3–4 PHM Racing 9 Valentin Kluss[7] All 26 Jakob Bergmeister[8] R 1–3 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi[9] 4–5 31 Akshay Bohra[b][10] R All 75 Noah Strømsted[11] All Carlin[N 3] Rodin Carlin[N 3] 11 Louis Sharp[3] TR 41 Fernando Barrichello[12] 1, 4–5 43 Costa Toparis[3] TR 55 Dion Gowda[c] R All R2Race Cavicel[13][14] 15 Léna Bühler[15] All 78 Victoria Blokhina[N 1][16] All Yas Heat Racing Academy[17] 17 Keanu Al Azhari[17] R All 28 TR 27 Matteo Quintarelli[17] R TR 93 All 87 Hamda Al Qubaisi[18] All Saintéloc Racing 18 Luciano Morano[15] All 30 Theodor Jensen[19] All 44 Théophile Naël[19] All Prema Racing 19 Bianca Bustamante[20] All 39 Ugo Ugochukwu[21] All 47 Nicola Lacorte[22] R All MP Motorsport 60 Emely de Heus[23] 1–3 Ismoilkhuja Akhmedkhodjaev 4–5 61 Valerio Rinicella[23] All 62 Kirill Smal[N 1] 1 Pedro Clerot[24] 4–5 Pinnacle VAR[25][26] 66 Hiyu Yamakoshi[d][26] R 2–3 88 Kai Daryanani[e][26] R All 94 Brando Badoer[26] 1, 4–5 95 Jack Beeton[26] R All Cram Motorsport 72 Sebastian Murray[27] R 1 91 2–5 73 Flavio Olivieri[27] R All

Icon Legend R Rookie

• Maffi Racing and Renauer Motorsport were scheduled to enter the championship, but did not appear in any rounds.^[28][29]
• Jerónimo Berrío was scheduled to compete for MP Motorsport, but did not appear in any rounds.^[30]

Race calendar

The schedule consisted of 15 races over 5 rounds. Prior to start of the season, a non-championship Trophy Round was held in support of the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.^[1] On 10 November 2022, the round 2 at Dubai Autodrome was moved to Kuwait Motor Town.^[17]

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team	Supporting
2022
TR	R1	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	19 November	Alex Dunne	Louis Sharp	Louis Sharp	Carlin	Formula One World Championship
	R2		20 November		Louis Sharp	Louis Sharp	Carlin
2023
1	R1	Dubai Autodrome, Dubai	13 January	Ugo Ugochukwu	Tuukka Taponen	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema Racing	Middle East Trophy Formula Regional Middle East Championship Renault Clio Cup Middle East
	R2		14 January		Ugo Ugochukwu	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema Racing
	R3			Arvid Lindblad	Arvid Lindblad	Arvid Lindblad	Hitech Grand Prix
2	R1	Kuwait Motor Town, Ali Sabah Al Salem	27 January	Valerio Rinicella	Ugo Ugochukwu	James Wharton	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited	Formula Regional Middle East Championship
	R2		28 January		James Wharton	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema Racing
	R3			James Wharton	Théophile Naël	Zachary David	R-ace GP
3	R1	Kuwait Motor Town, Ali Sabah Al Salem	31 January	Ugo Ugochukwu	James Wharton	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema Racing	Formula Regional Middle East Championship
	R2		1 February		Tuukka Taponen	Tuukka Taponen	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
	R3			James Wharton	Ugo Ugochukwu	James Wharton	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
4	R1	Dubai Autodrome, Dubai	11 February	Tuukka Taponen	Jesse Carrasquedo Jr.	Tuukka Taponen	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited	Asian Le Mans Series Formula Regional Middle East Championship
	R2		12 February		Brando Badoer	Tuukka Taponen[f]	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
	R3			Tuukka Taponen	James Wharton	Tuukka Taponen	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
5	R1	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	18 February	James Wharton	James Wharton	James Wharton	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited	Asian Le Mans Series Formula Regional Middle East Championship
	R2				James Wharton	James Wharton	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited
	R3		19 February	James Wharton	Ugo Ugochukwu	Ugo Ugochukwu	Prema Racing

Championship standings

Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in each race.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Drivers' Championship

Pos Driver YMC TR DUB1 KMT1 KMT2 DUB2 YMC Pts R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 1 James Wharton 3 17 4 1 2 13 2 2 1 2 2 3 1 1 Ret 232 2 Tuukka Taponen 9 2 2 6 3 Ret 3 1 34† 1 1 1 2 2 Ret 212 3 Ugo Ugochukwu 1 1 3 3 1 18 1 4 35† 9 Ret 10 11 3 1 185 4 Valerio Rinicella 2 6 35 2 4 2 4 3 2 6 6 5 33† 6 2 171 5 Arvid Lindblad 8 3 1 5 33 7 Ret 16 5 Ret 19 4 3 5 Ret 107 6 Brando Badoer 5 5 6 3 13 8 4 Ret 5 69 7 Keanu Al Azhari 3 3 11 23 29 12 8 10 6 8 14 Ret 22 2 10 4 3 63 8 Zachary David 33 8 10 33 5 1 Ret 26 3 8 11 33 Ret 24 Ret 59 9 Noah Strømsted 36 7 30 8 6 15 5 12 37† Ret 3 23 5 30 9 55 10 Valentin Kluss 4 9 19 9 7 4 7 5 18 Ret Ret 15 35† 14 13 50 11 Théophile Naël 7 Ret 7 4 15 8 10 9 32 26 28 6 28† 9 6 49 12 Federico Rifai 6 5 37 11 Ret 32 10 5 16 11 4 13 4 17 6 13 20 43 13 Pedro Clerot 12 5 12 9 7 4 30 14 William Macintyre 10 4 32 32 13 13 9 23 29 6 13 4 31 14 7 11 11 28 15 James Piszcyk 7 7 16 19 8 15 18 17 15 14 6 5 14 9 25 Ret 10 25 16 Kirill Smal 6 4 9 22 17 Kanato Le 5 2 13 16 14 7 Ret 9 8 22 17 7 8 11 12 15 29 22 18 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. 10 Ret 5 14 16 6 26 30 Ret Ret 10 30 31† 12 18 20 19 Noah Lisle 29 12 17 10 13 3 31 33† 12 15 35† 19 13 23 14 16 20 Hamda Al Qubaisi 15 20 12 30 11 20 32 7 20 14 34 22 23 26 7 12 21 Akshay Bohra 12 13 22 31 12 14 12 35† 10 28 18 7 15 8 12 11 22 Hiyu Yamakoshi 17 Ret 34 9 Ret 7 8 23 Jack Beeton 20 18 31 16 20 21 25 27 31 18 7 Ret Ret 19 19 6 24 Nicola Lacorte Ret 15 11 18 23 16 11 18 11 10 12 16 29† Ret 8 5 25 Dion Gowda 14 10 20 Ret 22 12 13 15 8 11 33 13 16 20 26 5 26 Muhammad Ibrahim 19 14 16 11 14 11 8 29 16 4 27 Bianca Bustamante 26 28 Ret 20 25 Ret 33 10 15 17 9 21 Ret 28 Ret 3 28 Alexander Abkhazava 17 27 15 Ret 19 19 21 Ret 9 30 20 18 32† Ret 21 2 29 Alexander Bolduev 24 25 Ret Ret 29 33 34 17 22 29 Ret Ret 26 10 32 1 30 Sebastian Murray 8 9 35 35 26 21 26 32 27 13 26 21 24 24 30† Ret 25 0 31 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi 22 17 34 14 16 Ret 0 32 Raphaël Narac 29 17 30 14 19 29 31† 25 25 34† 27 17 0 33 Léna Bühler 21 34 23 Ret Ret Ret 24 31 16 16 15 32 27 17 15 0 34 Matteo Quintarelli 9 11 18 22 27 24 21 22 18 25 33 19 16 20 21 18 22 0 35 Rishon Rajeev 17 29 19 Ret 27 26 0 36 Kai Daryanani 25 21 28 25 28 24 Ret Ret 24 20 26 29 17 Ret Ret 0 37 Theodor Jensen 23 24 32 19 Ret 28 19 23 36† Ret Ret Ret 18 21 27 0 38 Flavio Olivieri Ret 26 18 22 24 27 23 20 21 Ret 21 28 Ret Ret 31 0 39 Georgy Zhuravskiy 31 33 34 Ret 31 29 28 34† 28 27 Ret 31 19 25 30 0 40 Jakob Bergmeister 34 Ret 24 23 Ret NC 20 24 23 0 41 Ismoilkhuja Akhmedkhodjaev 24 32 37† 20 32 23 0 42 Fernando Barrichello 22 31 21 32 30 36† 24 31 Ret 0 43 Emely de Heus 27 29 Ret 26 30 31 Ret 21 25 0 44 Victoria Blokhina 11 6 30 30 25 28 27 26 30 28 27 25 23 27 22 22 28 0 45 Luciano Morano 28 36† 33 27 32 25 22 32 30 23 29 35 NC Ret 24 0 Trophy Round-only drivers – Louis Sharp 1 1 – – Alex Dunne 2 10 – – Costa Toparis 4 8 – Pos Driver YMC TR R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 Pts DUB1 KMT1 KMT2 DUB2 YMC

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † — Did not finish, but classified

Rookies' Championship

Pos Driver YMC TR DUB1 KMT1 KMT2 DUB2 YMC Pts R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 1 Tuukka Taponen 2 1 2 2 1 Ret 1 1 21† 1 1 1 1 1 Ret 279 2 Arvid Lindblad 1 2 1 1 19 3 Ret 7 3 Ret 9 3 2 3 Ret 179 3 Keanu Al Azhari 1 2 3 13 16 5 3 5 2 3 10 Ret 12 2 6 2 1 153 4 Federico Rifai 3 4 18 5 Ret 17 5 2 9 4 2 7 2 9 3 7 8 121 5 Zachary David 15 3 3 18 2 1 Ret 15 1 4 5 17 Ret 12 Ret 120 6 William Macintyre 6 3 14 17 5 6 4 13 17 2 9 2 16 7 4 6 3 109 7 Kanato Le 2 1 5 9 6 3 Ret 4 3 12 11 3 4 5 7 8 13 109 8 Akshay Bohra 4 6 11 16 6 8 6 18† 7 13 8 4 8 4 4 90 9 Nicola Lacorte Ret 8 4 9 13 9 5 9 8 5 6 8 14† Ret 2 76 10 Dion Gowda 6 4 10 Ret 12 7 7 6 5 6 17 6 9 11 12 69 11 Muhammad Ibrahim 9 7 8 4 7 6 5 15 5 58 12 Jack Beeton 10 10 17 7 10 11 14 16 19 8 3 Ret Ret 10 7 35 13 Hiyu Yamakoshi 8 Ret 20 4 Ret 4 28 14 Alexander Abkhazava 7 16 7 Ret 9 10 12 Ret 6 15 10 10 16† Ret 9 27 15 Raphaël Narac 15 8 17 8 10 18 16† 14 13 17† 14 6 17 16 Matteo Quintarelli 5 6 8 12 14 13 11 12 10 14 20 9 7 11 12 9 10 16 17 Alexander Bolduev 11 14 Ret Ret 17 Ret 18 8 13 14 Ret Ret 13 5 16 14 18 Sebastian Murray 4 5 17 19 13 10 15 18 15 5 16 11 13 12 15† Ret 11 11 19 Flavio Olivieri Ret 15 9 11 14 15 13 11 12 Ret 11 14 Ret Ret 15 2 20 Kai Daryanani 12 11 15 14 16 14 Ret Ret 15 10 15 15 10 Ret Ret 2 21 Jakob Bergmeister 16 Ret 12 12 Ret NC 11 13 14 0 22 Georgy Zhuravskiy 13 18 18 Ret 18 16 16 17† 17 12 Ret 16 11 13 14 0 Pos Driver YMC TR R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 Pts DUB1 KMT1 KMT2 DUB2 YMC

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † — Did not finish, but classified

Teams' Championship

Ahead of each event, the teams nominate two drivers that accumulate teams' points.

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mumbai Falcons Racing Limited	444
2	MP Motorsport	223
3	Prema Racing	190
4	Hitech Grand Prix	135
5	PHM Racing	109
6	Pinnacle VAR	83
7	R-ace GP	79
8	Yas Heat Racing Academy	75
9	Xcel Motorsport	59
10	Saintéloc Racing	49
11	Hitech Pulse-Eight	47
12	Rodin Carlin	5
13	Cram Motorsport	0
14	R2Race Cavicel	0

Notes

1. Bolduev and Smal are Russian, but they compete as neutral competitors as Russian national emblems were banned by the FIA due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Blokhina and Zhuravskiy, also Russians, competed under an Italian and a Kyrgyz licence respectively for the same reason. Abkhazava, a Georgian-Russian, competes under a Latvian licence.
2. Cars No. 5 and 7 entered as Hitech Grand Prix and cars No. 4 and 6 entered as Hitech Pulse-Eight.
3. Entered as Carlin in the Trophy Round and in round 1. Entered as Rodin Carlin from round 2 onwards.

1. Le is a Japanese driver competing under a British licence.
2. Bohra is an American-Indian driver competing under a British licence.
3. Gowda is an Indian driver competing under a British licence.
4. Yamakoshi is a Japanese driver competing under a Philippine licence.
5. Daryanani is an Indian driver competing under a British licence.
6. Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. originally won the race, but was given a 5 second penalty for crossing the pit entry line.

References

1. "F4 UAE announces 2023 provisional calendar and F1 non-championship support race". automobilsport.com. 4 August 2022. Archived from the original on 25 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
2. "First entries announced for 2023 Formula 4 UAE Championship Certified by FIA". F4 UAE Championship Certified by FIA. 29 December 2022.
3. "Abu Dhabi Grand Prix F4 UAE Trophy Race line-up announced". F4 UAE Championship Certified by FIA. 14 November 2022.
4. "James Piszcyk joins Hitech in the 2023 ROKiT British Formula 4 and FIA Formula 4 UAE Championship". Hitech GP. 4 November 2022.
5. "Will Macintyre confirmed for the 2023 ROKiT British F4 and FIA F4 UAE Championship". Hitech GP. 4 November 2022.
6. "Hitech confirm Kanato Le for the 2023 ROKiT British F4 and FIA F4 UAE Championship". Hitech GP. 7 November 2022.
7. Wood, Ida (8 December 2022). "PHM Racing announces Valentin Kluss for F4 UAE". Formula Scout.
8. Wood, Ida (10 December 2022). "F4 debut for third generation of Bergmeister family". Formula Scout.
9. "For the last two rounds of the F4UAE in Dubai and Yes Marina, Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi takes over the seat of Jakob Bergmeister". Twitter. PHM Racing. 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
10. Wood, Ida (9 December 2022). "Akshay Bohra chooses F4 UAE for first full season in car racing". Formula Scout.
11. Wood, Ida (9 December 2022). "Stromsted adds F4 UAE campaign to 2023 plans". Formula Scout.
12. Wood, Ida (6 January 2023). "Barrichello completes Xcel Motorsport's F4 UAE line-up". Formula Scout.
13. "F4". My Site. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
14. Wood, Ida (9 August 2022). "F4 UAE attracts another new team as Emirati squad R2RACE joins". Formula Scout. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
15. Wood, Ida (15 December 2022). "Lena Buhler steps down to F4 for UAE campaign with debuting R2Race". Formula Scout.
16. Wood, Ida (12 December 2022). "Former F1 driver Sergey Sirotkin sends two of his students to Spanish F4". Formula Scout.
17. Wood, Ida (10 November 2022). "FRegional Middle East series created via rebrand and tweaked calendar". Formula Scout. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
18. "Hamda Al Qubaisi returns to F4 UAE". Racers - Behind The Helmet. 5 January 2023.
19. Wood, Ida (14 December 2022). "Cram Motorsport and Sainteloc Racing reveal F4 UAE line-ups". Formula Scout.
20. "PREMA, Mumbai Falcons set for 2023 start with full ranks". Prema Team. 9 January 2023.
21. "Ugochukwu set for full-time 2023 Formula 4 programme with PREMA". Prema Team. 7 December 2022.
22. "Lacorte joins PREMA for 2023 Formula 4 programme". Prema Team. 9 December 2022.
23. Wood, Ida (8 January 2023). "MP Motorsport adds de Heus and Rinicella to F4 UAE round one line-up". Formula Scout.
24. De Peder, Alex (28 January 2023). "F4 – O piloto Pedro Clerot fará 2 etapas da F4 dos Emirados Árabes Unidos com a MP Motorsport". Velocidade no Sangue (in Brazilian Portuguese).
25. "Pinnacle Motorsport, Van Amersfoort Racing join forces for FRMEC and F4 UAE in 2023". us15.campaign-archive.com. 5 January 2023.
26. "VAR enters FRMEC and F4 UAE series with Pinnacle Motorsport". Van Amersfoort Racing. 5 January 2023.
27. "Cram Motorsport to field Olivieri and Murray in 2023 Formula 4 UAE". Cram Motorsport. 13 December 2022.
28. "FORMULA 4". maffiracing. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
29. "Ein Märchen aus 1001er Nacht für Renauer Motorsport". FormelAustria. 25 July 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
30. "Jerónimo Berrío moves to Spanish F4 with MP Motorsport". MP Motorsport. 4 December 2022.

External links

• Official website