F4 2025 Season Recap: National European Championships – Italy and Spain

Imola, one of the temples of world motorsport, served as one of the homes to the Italian F4 in 2025 | Credit: ACI Sport

F4 Italian Championship

Considered the premier championship in world F4, the Italian series is one of the biggest showcases for emerging talents in motor racing. You don't have to look far to see this, given that of the 21 drivers who competed in at least one Formula One World Championship race in 2025, six graduated from the Italian tournament.

Once again structured around seven weekends, each consisting of three 30-minute races plus one lap, the tournament took on more national contours for the 2025 season. Following FIA guidelines in this regard, the Italian Automobile Federation (ACI) decided not to hold one of its previous international rounds, in this case Paul Ricard, replacing it with a second weekend at Misano. 

Thus, the calendar for the 2025 edition of Italian F4 was finalised in the following chronological order: Misano (I), Vallelunga, Monza, Mugello, Imola, Barcelona-Catalunya and, once again, Misano (II). This minor restructuring in no way affected the image of the championship, which for 2025, offered an interesting overview of some names to watch in the coming years. 

The first highlight was the Nippon-Slovak Kean Nakamura-Berta, who for some years now has been emerging as one of the most interesting names in the new generation of the sport. Since 2023 on the roster of the giant Prema Racing, the driver would add solid campaigns in 2024 and at the beginning of this year, with real expectations that Nakamura-Berta would finally win his first major F4 title in the Italian tournament. 

One name, above all others, stood out as the favorite for the Italian F4 in 2025: Kean Nakamura-Berta | Credit: ACI Sport

Representing the R-ace GP badge, Italian Emanuele Olivieri appeared to be the public’s favourite for the competition. However, it was not only the fans' favouritism that propelled the Italian to one of the names to watch in the competition, with his performance on the track also playing in his favour – the greatest example being Olivieri's almost flawless campaign in the 2025 F4 Middle East Championship.

Another interesting name to initially appear on the list of contenders was that of Brazilian Gabriel Gomez (US Racing). Winner of the 2025 Formula Winter Series, the driver also had a wealth of experience from competing in other F4 tournaments, which could be the difference in the fight for the Italian series title. 

Early on in the championship, however, it became clear that Nakamura-Berta would be the one to dictate the rules of the competition: with a devastating start, in which the driver won five of the first six races of the year, it seemed that right from the beginning the driver had raised the bar of competition a notch. 

Despite representing one of the initial threats to Nakamura-Berta, achieving two third places in the first stage of the year in Misano (I), Olivieri quickly lost the momentum, with inconsistent results dropping the driver to a modest 7th position at the end of the competition.

Gomez, on the other hand, would have a complicated season kick-off, but that would be left behind as the Brazilian grew up in the competition. 

With full grids, commonly exceeding 30 cars per race, the Italian F4 series remains the pinnacle of the discipline worldwide | Credit: ACI Sport

Problems for these favourites allowed the emergence of some ‘outsiders’. The main one was certainly Sebastian Wheldon - son of the former IndyCar legend Dan Wheldon. Joining the Prema squad alongside Nakamura-Berta, the American had an interesting Italian F4 season start, snatching no less than six podiums (including three victories) in his first nine starts in the competition. 

Consequently, Gomez, Wheldon and Nakamura-Berta would become the protagonists of Italian F4 in the second half of the 2025 season, with the trio battling for most of the victories in the remaining stages of the series. With more consistent performances, Nakamura-Berta had no major problems staying at the top, crowning himself as the 2025 Italian F4 champion. 

As for Wheldon and Gomez, both would fight until the last weekend of the season, at Misano (II), for second place in the overall standings. Despite a spectacular performance in the stage, winning three victories in the process, the second highest place on the season’s podium escaped Wheldon by a mere nine points, with Brazilian Gomez securing the position largely due to better consistency throughout the competition.

Prema had a clean sweep in the 2025 F4 Italian championship, taking home the team's, drivers' and rookie's titles | Credit: Prema Racing

In the Rookies classification, the winner was Colombian Salim Hanna (Prema Racing), fourth in the overall tournament standings behind the trio of Nakamura-Berta/Gomez/Wheldon; meanwhile, in the Women's Trophy (reintroduced by the ACI for the 2025 season), the winner was British driver Emily Cotty (R-ace GP).

Throughout the tournament, all drivers raced with Tatuus F4-T421 models, equipped with Abarth 414TF 1.4L engines.

F4 Spanish Championship

One of the most traditional tournaments of the F4 circus, the Spanish championship is also one of the most interesting to follow throughout the year. Whether for the spectacular views offered by the races held on the Iberian Peninsula or for the invariable unpredictability of the tournament, 2025 once again proved to be worthy of this remarkable competition on the world F4 calendar.

The series calendar was made public with seven stages, each containing three races - two with 30 minutes plus one lap, and a short one lasting 25 minutes plus one lap. The championship's first stop was MotorLand Aragón, followed by a stage at the Navarra Circuit. After these two stages, there was a double-header abroad, first with a weekend in Portimão, then another in Le Castellet. 

From the fifth stage onwards, there was a definitive return to Spanish soil, with races in Jerez de la Frontera, Circuito Ricardo Tormo and, closing the competition, Barcelona-Catalunya. 

Alongside Aragón and Barcelona, ​​Jerez is one of the few circuits to have been present in every edition of the Spanish F4 series since the tournament's inception in 2016 | Credit: F4 Spain

As in previous Spanish F4 seasons, both MP Motorsport and Campos Racing spared no efforts to basically continue their monopoly in the tournament, not only signing the “best” drivers in the competition, so to speak, but also distributing them among their works efforts and ‘satellite teams’ - in this case, Griffin Core by Campos Racing and KCL by MP Motorsport. 

Certainly, of all the teams, the one that looked the most solid at the beginning of the year was the one structured by Griffin Core, with a very interesting roster of drivers: Thomas Strauven (6th place in the 2024 Spanish F4 and winner of the 2025 Eurocup-4 Winter Series), Jan Przyrowski (2nd place in the 2025 Eurocup-4 Winter Series) and Matúš Ryba (9th in the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games).

Opposing the Campos satellite team, MP Motorsport lined up its most valuable talents in its main squad: led by René Lammers (3rd place in the 2025 Eurocup-4 Winter Series), the team also featured Ean Eyckmans (winner of the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy) and Juan Cota (4th in the Spanish F4 and winner of the FIA Motorsport Games Formula 4 Cup, both in 2024).

Son of former racing driver Jan Lammers, René lived up to the family name, achieving four victories throughout the Spanish F4 season | Credit: F4 Spain

Przyrowski would shoot to the front of the competition, winning two of the first three races of the year held in Aragón. But the Pole's joy would be short-lived, with Strauven taking control of the situation in the next round in Navarra, starting a spectacular campaign towards the title.

It was then up to the other competitors to fight for second place, a battle that proved to be much more evenly matched. In addition to Przyrowski, both Lammers and Eyckmans consistently hovered around this position throughout the tournament, so that the trio was separated by less than 35 points in the final stage of the competition. 

In the end, Eyckmans would prevail, securing second place overall in the standings 160 points behind champion Thomas Strauven. Rounding out the top three in the 2025 F4 Spain championship was Przyrowski, who beat fourth-placed Lammers by mere four points. 

In the other classifications within the championship, the results were as follows: Eyckmans had as a the consolation prize for his second place in the overall standings an easy victory in the Rookies class, followed by Noah Monteiro and Vivek Kanthan, both from Campos Racing.

In the Female Trophy, Emma Felbermayr (Rodin Motorsport) had no trouble overcoming her only serious opposition throughout the competition, provided by Brazilian driver Rafaela Ferrreira (Drivex).

Thomas Strauven became the newest member of the select group of F4 champions in 2025 | Credit: F4 Spain

In the team’s contest, Griffin Core by Campos gave its rivals no chance. Driven by excellent results from its drivers, the Spanish team finally broke MP Motorsport winning streak, regaining the crown of best team in the Iberian F4 tournament for the first time since 2022. 

For 2025, the Spanish F4 series organisers once again renewed its partnership with Italian manufacturer Tatuus for the supply of Tatuus F4-T421 chassis. All vehicles were equally powered by 1.4-litre Abarth 414TF engines.