LIUZHOU, China – Sunday, October 17, 2010 – The mini cats of Formula 4 finally made their long awaited debut in Lin Yi, China. Promoters of the UIM World F1 Series have introduced this class as a support act to F1 and each mini-cat is painted in the same colours as their big brothers. We had anticipated close racing but it soon became clear that equality was not immediately obvious. Another factor that would play a major part in the F4 Series was the weather as the second race in Lin Yi was red flagged when the two leading boats performed backward flips when they were caught by the strong winds that prevailed.
However the main reason why close competition has not yet happened is that the difference in experience of the drivers involved. The consistant leader in every race so far is Swede Oskar Samuelsson of Team Rainbow driving a Molgaard and he has been racing in this class for four years. Germany's 2009 F4 world champion Stefan Hagin has been plagued by mechanical problems but when the 60hp Mercury is running well, Hagin's Molgaard is a match for Team Rainbow. The third driver with experience David Pin Del of Team 800 Doctor has competed in F1000 which are similar to F4.
Molgaard have been building F4 cats for many years and this clearly shows in their level trim during a race. Pugh cats are very popular in the USA but the outfit Team Nautica's Matt Palfreyman is driving has many problems as he is unable to trim the boat. The Mad Croc, Qatar and Abu Dhabi cats are Baby BaBa's and these are the first mini-cats from this company and therefore are untried. However the overwhelming factor in equality is driving experience. Samuelson and Hagin have at least three years each of driving F4 whereas Team China's Xiong Ziwei, Sweden's Bimba Sjoholm of Team Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi's Rashed Al Tayer, Saleh Al Shamlan of Team Qatar, Kristoffer Fjelde of Singha and Mad Croc's Filip Roms are all newcomers to F4. It will take time for all of them to adapt to racing but times in the first heat in Liuzhou reveal the the top three were close with Samuelsson led the way ahead of Roms and Del Pin while 'lady driver' Bimba Sjoholm filled 4th place. Rashid Al Tayer, Al Shamlin, Fjelde, Palfreyman and Hagin rounded off the finishers. China's Xiong Ziwei flipped over on lap three resulting in yellow flags but as these boats do not have radio's, the drivers have to rely on hand signals from the shore or Osprey Rescue.
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