Motorsport requires full commitment. Cars built for the track shed conveniences installed for road use and become purpose-built scalpels. Designers and engineers optimize bodywork shapes to manage and utilize airflow. Handling wizards blend damper and suspension geometry in just the right ways to carve through corners. The science of combining tire selection, construction, and pressures strives to maximize the four small patches of rubber that connect the car to the road. An open-wheel race car has no purpose other than speed.
Commitment extends to the driver of an open-wheel race car as well. Early braking into a corner costs time. Coasting through a corner also adds time. The driver is the variable that determines how much of the car’s capabilities are engaged and where the car’s limits truly are.
Speed Journal Principal Jeff Francis has logged thousands of laps in sportscars, sedans, and vintage racers. In 2022, he spent a day with the Racing in Italy team driving a Formula 4 car at the Tazio Nuvolari Circuit south of Milan. Click here for the full story. The experience was memorable and, in February 2023, Francis re-united with the Racing in Italy team for more Formula 4 track time at the Cremona Circuit in Italy.
Formula 4 is a stepping stone for drivers looking to find a path to professional open-wheel racing. Sebastian Vettel may be the best-known alumni but he is not the only one. Team Principal and Chief Instructor Oren Shibi leads the Racing in Italy operation. He raced open-wheel himself before establishing a team in 2011 for his young son Mei to race karts. The business grew and now the team races in Formula 3 and Formula 4 championships with Mei as a driving coach and instructor.
The Cremona Circuit is adjacent to the Emilia-Romagna region which is known as Motor Valley – Italy’s racing and automotive heartland. Familiar names such as Dallara, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati, Pagani and dozens of specialty suppliers call this region home. The 2.3-mile (3.7 km) Cremona Circuit runs counterclockwise and features a compelling mix of 13 corners and a 0.6 mile (1km) straight with little elevation change. The circuit is a testing ground for racing teams seeking high speeds when Imola and Monza are not available. Regular open track days make it a familiar venue for those in Motor Valley.
The February day was chilly but the blue skies and sunshine were pleasant. The track day format alternated sessions between formula cars and GT/sports cars. Open wheel cars rely on tires getting warm enough to get into an operating window, so a cold morning was not ideal. The track opted to cancel the first formula session and let the GT cars run twice.
The crew introduced Francis to his mount and got him settled in the tight cockpit. The F4 racer was manufactured by Mygale in 2017 and powered by a naturally aspirated Renault 4-cylinder engine. The chassis was previously raced by Japanese driver Juju Noda in the Danish F4 championship. She won a race and scored several podiums en route to a 6th place championship finish.
Space was tight inside the driver’s compartment. The structure of the car intruded below the left knee which requires contortionist movements to reach the clutch pedal without overlapping the left foot onto the brake pedal. Ideally, the clutch was used only for starting and stopping. The reclined seat position put the driver’s feet ahead as opposed to below in a GT/sportscar.
The pedals were buried deep within the narrow nose, far beyond what a driver could see. The layout was optimized for speed, not comfort and the driver must learn to adapt. Left foot braking was the ideal due to pedal placement and the time that would otherwise be lost moving the same foot back and forth for accelerator and brake.
The first of five sessions had simple objectives: re-acclimate to an F4 car, get acquainted with this F4 chassis, and begin learning the track. Temperatures were still cold, so the team put Francis on treaded tires rather than full racing slicks. The paddle shift system made shifting easy and quick. Paddles mounted behind the wheel meant no need to take a hand off and move a shift lever and linkage.
With no windshield or bodywork, the sightlines to the front tires were clear. A formula car requires precise lines through the corners and a sense of nearby traffic, so clear visibility and good mirrors were key. Orientation laps passed uneventfully with little traffic to manage. Francis was able to comfortably get back into the swing of wrangling a formula car around a track. With that baseline set, the quest for improvement began.
Quick laptimes come from two sources. First is the racing line. The most efficient way around the track requires knowing how to place the car through a corner and make the most use of the available surface to maintain momentum. Second is the ability to use the accelerator and brake pedals to trace the racing line as quickly as possible.
Advance homework paid off as Francis quickly found the racing line and began working with the team to find opportunities to improve. Open-wheel cars with sculpted bodywork and wings at the front and rear require enough pace to make the aerodynamics work. The faster the car goes, the more the aero works and faster the car goes. Telemetry is a powerful resource. The Racing in Italy team has deep experience with these cars and this track and knows what to look for and where a driver can go faster with different inputs and timing.
The data told the tale – there was speed to be found by braking points into the corners and managing the brakes through the corners. Francis returned to the track for another session just after noon.
As the day progressed, incremental and steady progress rewarded the labor. Mei noticed spots on the telemetry where Francis modulated the gas pedal – pushing and then backing off. Mei also noticed places where the car coasted through the corner with no gas or brake applied, giving up precious seconds of lap time. Francis absorbed the coaching and returned to the track for an opportunity to put the lessons into practice. Oren held a timing board on the pit straight to give immediate feedback. Gradual drops in lap times fueled the motivation to keep pushing and shaving tenths of seconds.
By mid-afternoon, temperatures warmed the track. The team swapped rubber to Pirelli racing slicks and sent Francis out again. The difference was immediate in the slowest corners where the grip from the racing slicks allowed the car to carry more speed. Top speeds at the end of straightaways edged slightly higher with slicks but the biggest time improvements were in the slowest corners.
The sequence up and down through third, fourth and fifth gears gave the raspy engine an angry soundtrack. The noise and vibrations cut through the body and shook the brain. Lateral G forces exerted a constant strain on the neck. Francis typically ran hard for about 20 minutes before pulling in to pit lane. Only a handful of cars shared the track during open-wheel lapping sessions, so managing traffic did not distract from the job at hand.
As Francis refined his racing lines and technique, the de-briefs became more granular. Mei and Oren broke down each corner in detail. It took more and more work to find smaller and smaller improvements. Rewards were measured in smaller clicks of the stopwatch. The telemetry identified potential in the braking areas by showing that Francis was not applying enough pressure to get optimum performance. The brakes had no power assistance which requires the driver to provide the pressure. Racing brakes are not delicate – fast drivers stay off the brakes until the last moment and then lean on them hard when the time comes. The car carries more speed into the corner before using the full potential of the brakes to manage the weight transfer and slow the car just enough to make the corner.
As the sun began to drop further in the late afternoon sky, the team sent Francis out for another run. With his head filled with knowledge, a day full of experience, and ears still ringing a bit from the vibrations and engine note, the pursuit of speed continued.
After start/finish, the first corner was a 90-degree left hander. A short bit of straight track looking directly into the sun lead to Curva del Lago, a sharp left corner that required heavy braking. All was going as expected for six minutes of running until Francis completed a lap, sliced through the first corner, and headed towards the Curva del Lago.
Francis lifted his left foot just a touch in anticipation of the braking zone. In applying the brake, however, the right side of his left foot came down on the left edge of the throttle pedal. Both the brake and throttle were mashed within the narrow pedal box. The car pushed wide and the magnetic force of the gravel was irresistible. With no anti-lock brakes, the Pirelli P Zero tires locked briefly before reaching the edge of the pavement. Francis had a front row seat to the action but did not know why the car failed to slow.
He kept the wheel straight while skipping across the gravel rather than yanking the wheel and risking a roll by getting sideways and digging the tires into the gravel. Staying on the brake pedal (and mistakenly the throttle) sent the car into the concrete wall wrapped with tire bundles, shredding the underside of the floor along the way. The sharp slender nose of the formula car separated the tires as though they were not there. In a split-second slow-motion sequence just before impact, the tires heaved and water sitting in the tires splashed high into the air. The sticky racing slicks scattered individual pieces of gravel across the nose and cockpit as they rolled and skipped across the surface.
Then everything went still. The entire episode only took four seconds.
The front left wheel folded inward with broken suspension. The nose cone with aerodynamic wings and endplates crumpled against the tires and concrete wall. The carbon fiber nosecone did its job, buckling and absorbing some of the impact but a single nose cone can only do so much with a fixed concrete barrier. Francis pulled himself out of the cockpit and received attention from the trackside ambulance medics that quickly arrived on the scene. Soon, Francis was released to his race team in the pits. Track workers extracted the car from the wall and gravel, hoisted it on a truck, and returned it to the team in pit lane.
A driver in a crash of a full-bodied sports car or GT car is protected by massive crumple zones and a roll cage. In an open wheel racecar, a carbon fiber nose and body, suspension bits, safety belts and a helmet are all that stands between the driver and a concrete wall.
Without full commitment, there is no chance to make the most of the opportunity. Without taking a risk when margins of error are small, there is no opportunity for progress. Without learning, there is no way to build and see what is possible. Racing is about optimizing the equipment, the conditions, the track, and the coaching to find speed. It is different than a driving experience or a canyon or coastal run in a sports car.
The required commitment magnifies the slim margins of error. The Speed Journal is all about finding compelling driving experiences of all types around the globe, but the Cremona Circuit Formula 4 outing served as a reminder that misfortune always lurks along the path of progress. Not all days at the race track end with a trophy and bottle of champagne.
The Speed Journal would like to thank Oren and Mei Shibi and the Racing in Italy team for their hospitality and guidance. Thanks are also due to the trackside track and medical teams at the Cremona Circuit.
