With preparations well underway for the fourth installment of the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship – certified by FIA, the young drivers took to the Sepang International Circuit in a full day’s test session with their race cars on Wednesday.

The full day test session was designed to help the young drivers familiarise themselves and acclimatise to the 5.54km long Sepang circuit. The highly technical circuit features 15 corners with a mix of sweeping, fast and tight corners in addition to its trademark two long straights.

Amongst the drivers taking part in the collective test session were local hopefuls, Isyraf Danish (MAS, Car #19), Eric Louis (MAS, Car #23) and Adam Khalid (MAS, Car #5). Whilst the majority of the field is already familiar with the Sepang track, this is the first time for Oman’s Khalid Al-Wahaibi (OMN, Car #8) as well as for debutant David Tatinclaux of France (FRA, Car #56).

Driver comments:

Khalid Al-Wahaibi (OMN, Car #8) “Compared to Sentul (Indonesia) and Clark (Philippines), I really like the Sepang Circuit. It has a lot of fast, flowing corners, where it flows from one corner to the next. Every corner almost has a straight after and you need to maintain a good pace on the exits, otherwise you can lose a lot of time. I really like the characteristics of the track and my favourite corners have to be the sweeping, flat-out Turns 5 and 6.”

Adam Khalid (MAS, Car #5) “There are a number of areas I need to catch up on, especially against the other drivers, who have had more track time than I have. So, today’s test is very important to me, as I need to work on my technique, braking areas and my overall pace. All in all, I am quite happy with the progress today especially in preparation for the qualifying and races from Thursday.”

Isyraf Danish (MAS, Car #19) “It has been a really tough day today as there were a few issues we needed to work on today. But, it did improve throughout the day and I am quite happy with the pace. I got the chance to work on improving my driving style as well as work on the areas with the coaches on where I can gain time.”

Eric Louis (MAS, Car #23) “The test has been quite good today, although I had some issues in the morning. Overall though, I am happy with the pace although I think I can definitely improve on that a bit more especially comparing my pace with Danial (Frost, SIN, Car #66), who has been the quickest. I think I can definitely match him on new tyres.”

David Tatinclaux (FRA, Car #56) “It has been a really nice day of testing for me. I am definitely getting more used to the car and am really happy with the progress. I do need to get my pace up especially against the other drivers, but my approach is to take it slowly, step by step. As it is my first time here, I like the Sepang track with a really nice mix of highspeed corners and long straights.”

The F4/SEA Event 4 race proceedings will commence on Thursday, December 8, with practice and qualifying, followed by the first race of six scheduled for the weekend. Four of the races will be contested on Friday, December 9 with the remaining race scheduled for Saturday, December 10.

Another Star Driver award trophy will again be up for grabs for the most successful driver from the weekend, as the young drivers will again be vying to out-score their compatriots over the course of the six scheduled races that will be contested over the weekend. With the overall event champion scored on a reverse to the F4/SEA championship points, drivers aim to score the lowest points to be in the running for the coveted trophy on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the top 10 drivers earn FIA F4 championship points, which are aligned to follow the F1 points scoring system with the top seven championship drivers eligible to also earn valuable FIA Super License points at the end of the season.

The FIA single-operated F4/SEA championship – certified by FIA is one of 12 worldwide championships in the FIA’s F4 global format. F4/SEA is uniquely designed to help harness and develop Asia’s young motorsports talent through a cost-effective programme. The F4/SEA is the first step on the FIA’s streamlined ladder to developing professional careers in the sport.