Humbling start for Rodrigues in F4 UAE, more to come

Macau’s teen racer, Tiago Rodrigues, debuted over the weekend at the 2024 Formula 4 (F4) UAE Championship.

The reigning champion at China’s F4 Championship has had a humbling start to the season at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit scoring 20th, 14th and 16th position finishes in the weekend’s three races.

The F4 UAE, dubbed the “F4 World Championship,” is potentially one of the most competitive championships of this class. A wide range of drivers and teams flock to the race to test their skills.

Commenting on the race, Rodrigues said, “[It was a] bittersweet weekend in general. I had to make up for my mistakes in qualifying and we gained a handful of positions every single race, which put me in the middle of the field.”

“Considering the limited experience compared to everyone in front and [many that finished] behind, I would say I came pretty close to fully maximising my results. Now shifting focus for next weekend so that we can improve,” he added.

Rodrigues told the Times in a recent interview before the championship that he was drawn to this championship precisely for its high degree of competitiveness, which provides different experiences and learning possibilities that are difficult to get in a less competitive series such as the China F4 Championship.

The first of five almost consecutive weekends saw the championship kick off with plenty of track action and three different winners.

Saturday’s Race 1 saw rookie Kean Nakamura-Berta win, while Nikita Bedrin won Race 2 Sunday, in an inverted grid race from Race 1 results.

In the last race of the weekend (Race 3), Freddie Slater won in a very interesting and action-packed race that unfortunately finished behind the Safety Car due to a crash with only about two laps to go.

Slater is one of the many racers participating in this championship after having raced in the last Macau Grand Prix.

Other examples of racers who took part in the 2023 edition of the local GP and are racing at the F4 UAE are Rashid Al Dhaheri (Prema Racing), Jack Beeton (AGI Sport), Enzo Yeh (R-ace GP), Kai Daryanani (Pinnacle Motorsport), Raphael Narac (R-ace GP), and one of Rodrigues teammates at XCEL Motorsport, Hong Kong’s Liu Kai Shun.

The championship continues this weekend with Round 2 (Jan. 19-21), with another three races on the same circuit, but this time in the F1 layout.

Last weekend’s three races were performed in the so-called corkscrew circuit, one of the less usual layout possibilities of the Yas Marina.