Season opener on birthday
The Italian Formula 4 Championship starts at the weekend with a delay of almost four months due to Corona. 17-year-old Winterthur Jasin Ferati is about to start a new, extremely important chapter in his motorsport career at Misano.
"It's finally starting this week. I can hardly wait to contest my very first races with the Jenzer Motorsport F4 in Misano,” admits Ferati, who has meticulously prepared for this milestone in his career with a tough training program. “The fact that the start of the championship coincides with my 17th birthday makes things even more piquant. Perhaps the best birthday present I can give myself is a good result and my first points.”
The man from Winterthur, who is supported by Racing Unleadshed, completed ten official test days in Imola, Misano, Mugello and Monza in the run-up to the championship with his new team. The experiences made were mostly positive. “I had a little trouble at first on the demanding Mugello slope, especially with my neck. On the second day, however, I was able to improve significantly and ended up in the top 10. In Imola, which I already knew from earlier tests, I was fast right away and always moved between positions 6 and 12. I was particularly pleased that there were only small things to improve,” he reveals.
"Misano was exciting because I came straight from a short vacation with my family in Croatia and after a restless night on the ferry I had to go straight to the route without familiarizing myself with it the day before – on foot as usual,” recalls Ferati. "I only arrived two minutes before the test, got in without studying the video and got everything out of the car right away. The 9th place in the first practice under these conditions made me really proud.”
Unfortunately, the final test in the legendary Monza Autodromo was not quite as successful. On the most famous circuit in the world, Ferati lacked speed. "It was bewitched. I made a lot of mistakes and couldn't improve even with new tyres. It wasn't until the final briefing at Jenzer in Lyss that we recognized the problem: Without a slipstream, a second is missing in Monza and I didn't look for it enough. I always came up too close to the car in front. Knowing the reason for an unsatisfactory result makes it easier to understand the performance and do better next time. For this reason I am in good spirits and highly motivated for the start of the season and the first real races.”
The format of the Italian championship, which is excellently staffed with more than 30 drivers from all over the world, promises a lot of excitement and gripping races. After the free practice sessions, the starting positions for races 1 and 2 will be determined in two qualifying sessions of only 15 minutes. In the five-minute break in between, no work is allowed on the car. The starting position for the third race is determined based on the second-best lap time in qualifying. This is therefore of fundamental importance. The distribution of points is the same as in Formula 1. However, only the 16 best results from 21 races are counted.
Program in Misano:
Thursday, July 30: 6:10 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.: Free Practice 1 (FP1)
Friday, July 31; 1:05 p.m. to 1:35 p.m.: FP 2; 6:50 p.m. to 7:05 p.m.: Qualifying 1; 7:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Qualifying 2.
Saturday 1st August: 2.30pm Race 1
Sunday, August 2nd; 9.50am: Race 2; 6:00 p.m.: Race 3 (all races are 30 minutes and one lap)
Live streaming and live timing
www.acisport.it/campionati/F4/
F4 Italia 2020 diary
July 31 – August 2 Misano
August 28-30 Imola I
September 11-13 Red Bull Ring Spielberg
October 2nd – 4th Mugello
16-18 October Monza
20-22 November Imola II
4-6 December Vallelunga