Formula 4 Comes to America

The Sports Car Club of America, in conjunction with the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States, announced the arrival of FIA Formula 4 competition in the U. S., with SCCA Pro Racing to organize and sanction a five-venue, 15-race professional series starting in 2016.

SCCA Pro Racing will partner with chassis manufacturer Crawford Composites, engine supplier Honda Performance Development and Pirelli Tire North America to develop the spec chassis/engine/tire package to be utilized in the new series, which will be homologated in accordance with Federation International de l’Automobile Formula 4 specification.

The series will utilize the new, American-built Crawford carbon-composite chassis and Honda K20 C1 2.0-liter engine, producing the FIA-mandated 158 horsepower.

Intended as the “first step out of karting” for young racers, additional FIA requirements for Formula 4 include consistent organizational standards, technical fairness, stability and cost containment, with a full season of F4 United States Championship competition anticipated to cost approximately $115,000 in 2016.

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Comments

kb58 Dork
9/21/15 2:15 p.m.

with a full season of F4 United States Championship competition anticipated to cost approximately $115,000 in 2016.

Must be nice...

Tyler H GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
9/21/15 2:44 p.m.

kb58 wrote:
with a full season of F4 United States Championship competition anticipated to cost approximately $115,000 in 2016.
Must be nice...

I've seen people show up at HPDEs that would spend that much or more for 15 races. I think the missing qualifier there is 'if you don't hit anything.'

kb58 Dork
9/21/15 2:48 p.m.

Tyler H wrote:
kb58 wrote:
with a full season of F4 United States Championship competition anticipated to cost approximately $115,000 in 2016.
Must be nice...
I've seen people show up at HPDEs that would spend that much or more for 15 races...'

Must be nice!

trigun7469 Dork
9/21/15 3:01 p.m.

"first step out of karting" and you spend $115,000....Yes I see the parking lot and the kart races and 3 spare chassis and engines, but 115K still seems like a big stretch.

drdisque Reader
9/21/15 3:10 p.m.

There's a true "first step out of karting" series coming soon that will fill the void left by Skip Barber National that won't cost no six figures. For what they're asking for F4, you can run a lean operation in USF2000 and run in front of big crowds on big time race weekends, on big time tracks and have a chance to win a ride in Pro Mazda. I don't see the ROI in this F4 series and that's why it will fail.

Type Q Dork
9/21/15 6:11 p.m.

Is the answer to a question no one asked?

chada75 New Reader
9/21/15 7:03 p.m.

In reply to Type Q:

Thats how most series start (and fail).

fasted58 UltimaDork
9/21/15 7:15 p.m.

Somehow I remembered (and hoped) this was about a 750cc MC Formula car class I saw years ago. Maybe they just called it that back then or I been mistaken as Googles don't have anything relevant now. Actually a economic 750cc MC Formula class would be the logical step up from carts instead of $100K+ buy ins.

mazdeuce PowerDork
9/21/15 8:02 p.m.

$100k for the year, but what does the car cost? What tires? Is there anyplace else to run, or are you pretty much limited to spending $100k on these races?

rob_lewis SuperDork
9/22/15 2:53 p.m.

I think it's good to get some FIA attention here in the US. I just hope that it becomes successful and a decent series. Perhaps it will lead us to more American drivers in F1. Only time will tell.

I can totally understand the comment of the next step from karts. With Verstappen, the FIA has already started locking down on young drivers getting into F1 without much open wheel experience and this will help to alleviate some of that. Furthermore, the costs aren't that bad for many of the drivers competing on the national karting level. $200k+ budgets to race karts are not uncommon anymore. Six figure motor budgets for karts are unfortunately more common right now. Plus, it's a prime opportunity for this to appear. The karting industry is very fragmented right now. There is no single championship series and, instead, a slew of independent promoters all trying to cater to a very small market. Many of your top tier drivers are getting frustrated by this fragmentation and are looking to move to cars much sooner than they normally would. 13 year olds in cars are becoming commonplace because most are realizing that they could be in car for the same price as racing karts on the national level....

Furthermore, karting in the US doesn't compare to overseas. In international karting events, American drivers are mid to back of the pack. It's a big deal for an American driver to score in the top ten. Not to say that a few haven't reached the podium, but all of them did it by karting in Europe a year or more to get there. NO driver has come straight from racing in the US to winning an international karting race.

With a US F4 series, perhaps, the American drivers can start racing on a similar package as the Europeans do and can start breaking into those series. We all know, save for Rossi just recently, that an American hasn't raced in F1 in a long time. A top American driver in F1 has been even longer.

Regarding price, from what I've read, the $115,000 budget includes the car, fuel, tires, practice and entry fees. Broken parts, extra practice and tuning will add to that cost. I would say that comparatively, it's still pretty reasonable in cost.

I've already heard of several karters looking into this for next year. I would not be surprised if over half of the initial field is comprised people straight out of karts. I haven't found the age restrictions yet, but if it's fairly open, I'd guess that at least a quarter of them will be under 16.

-Rob