PREMA ends Italian F4 season on a high at Monza
PREMA Racing wrapped up the Italian Formula 4 season in style at Monza, coming back to the temple of speed after claiming the driver and team championships in the previous round at Barcelona, and continuing to perform at the highest level. The team delivered another exceptional weekend, lining up with a seven-strong field of drivers and with the rookie title still in the balance.
Freddie Slater accomplished his goal for the weekend to break the record for the most wins in a season, hitting the 15-mark with two victories in Race 1 and 2. The battle for the Rookie Championship went down to the wire between PREMA's own Alex Powell and Kean Nakamura-Berta. The Jamaican-American, a Mercedes-AMG F1 Team junior, was eventually able to seal the deal with a podium finish overall in Race 3.
The weekend was challenging, with changing conditions that went from wet to dry, and multiple safety car situations breaking the rhythm and reducing the chances to fight back in case of mishaps.
Finishing second among rookies and sixth overall in points, Nakamura-Berta posted impressive results again, showing remarkable consistency and potential. The Alpine Academy driver bounced back from a tricky qualifying 1 to secure a double overall podium.
Rashid Al Dhaheri, Tomass Stolcermanis, and Dion Gowda all posted points finishes throughout the weekend and showed considerable potential all around, despite the multiple variables that impacted the weekend.
Making his second career appearance in single-seaters, Oleksandr Bondarev battled for the top-10 positions as he continued to progress and climb his learning curve. Attrition impacted his results, but the step from his debut run in Spain was evident, laying good foundations for the future.
#14 - Rashid Al Dhaheri
"Not the easiest weekend to finish off the season, with changing conditions and some things going our way and others definitely not. It was again an interesting weekend, and we were able to learn even more. Let's focus on the next adventure!"
#17 - Oleksandr Bondarev
"Last race of the season done! I made a big step in qualifying performance because we were starting a lot further up the grid. Race 1 was strong and we almost got points, which we could have achieved with a few different bits of racecraft. Race 2 was good as well until an incident I couldn't really avoid while in Race 3 I had a good start but made a mistake. That was the downside of the weekend but we have good notes taken for the future!"
#27 - Freddie Slater
"What a season! I couldn't have asked for much more. Fifteen wins, and seven points off a perfect score with the drops. It couldn't have gone better. Obviously, I really wanted the win in the last race, but it was touch and go with the last safety car. Overall, it has been an incredible year with PREMA been fantastic to me, and I'm really excited to keep my journey going with the team."
#33 - Tomass Stolcermanis
"We started off with free practice and had qualifying on the same day, so there wasn't much time to adapt to the track and driving. Qualifying didn't go our way but then in Race 1, I got off the start pretty well. Unfortunately, I then got spun around by another driver, which made me finish in P15. We did quite well in the second race. We didn't make the right choice with the tyres, but that was also a mistake on my side, as the track was a bit too wet. Still, we finished P6 overall and first on dry tyres. The third race was quite positive until its middle stages, but then I lost position due to mistakes, falling down to P10. The weekend was promising, the pace is there, and I'm looking forward to the future with confidence."
#50 - Dion Gowda
"We got two top-ten finishes on track, which was quite good, and the top-10s in all three qualifyings are the positives to take away. Not the podiums we could have achieved as the potential that was clearly there, but overall it was an alright end to the season. I can't thank everyone in PREMA enough. The team has been absolutely amazing all season. I learned so much, and most importantly, I really enjoyed being with the whole team on and off the track."
#51 - Kean Nakamura-Berta
We didn't have the best qualy 1 session, which also set the grid for Race 3, but in Race 1 I think we did a really good job, going from P8 to the third place. I Race 2, starting from P2, we had minimal racing laps and finished in P2 despite I felt we could have done something better. Heading into the last race fighting for the rookie championship, Alex was starting a bit further ahead. I finished fourth, just one step behind, and while it was going to be tough to win it anyway, it was a bit of a tricky race with so many safety cars so I had no chance to fight for the podium. I want to thank the team for the great work all year!"
#80 - Alex Powell
"It was a tough weekend to start off with. We had a few issues early on but we were able to bounce back with a positive Race 3. Taking home the rookie championship is great. It came down to the wire in the last race, and it feels really good to have accomplished the job. It's been a learning year and I want to give a really big thanks to PREMA for their hard work. I feel I improved tremendously as a driver and that wouldn't been possible without the help of everyone on the team."