Aurelia Nobels showcased good pace and racecraft on her Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship debut at Jerez, recovering from difficult qualifying to gain 16 positions in the final race to score a top-15, bouncing back from a difficult Saturday when she was crashed out of an equally encouraging first race.
Aurelia Nobels began her 2025 season with a superb recovery drive on her Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship debut at Jerez. After qualifying 22nd, the ART Grand Prix driver had charged up to 16th in race one before contact from a competitor saw her race end prematurely.
Aurelia was classified in 17th, however substantial damage to the car forced her to miss race two. The Brazilian driver then showed great determination to finish 15th in race three after starting 31st on the grid.
In preparation for her second season in F1 Academy, Nobels began her 2025 campaign by participating in Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship. Alongside F1 Academy teammate Lia Block, the duo were entered by ART Grand Prix and therefore the competitive action was ideal preparation for their full season campaigns.
Nobels enjoyed an encouraging debut year in F1 Academy with the Brazilian racer ending the campaign 12th in the overall standings. Finishing inside the points on six occasions, Aurelia’s strongest event came at Zandvoort in The Netherlands where she achieved her best result of fifth.
Despite one previous appearance in the F4 Spanish Championship, Nobels had never competed at Jerez prior to the weekend and therefore utilising the two test sessions on Friday was of primary importance. At the end of session one, Nobels’ fastest time of a 1:45.251 placed her 27th quickest, while her 46 laps completed were the most of any driver.
In the second session, Aurelia improved by three-quarters of a second and this saw her end the day in 24th position, just three tenths of a second from a top-15 position.
After showing promising pace throughout Friday’s dry running, Saturday morning saw a change in conditions with a cool and damp track. Despite little experience at Jerez, Nobels improved steadily during the course of the session and set the 22nd fastest time, while showing extremely competitive pace through sector one.
Track conditions had dried for the first race of the weekend, however the start was delayed following an off-track moment for Alexander Jacoby. This led to the race getting underway behind the safety car with Nobels targeting forward progress from 22nd position. On the first racing lap. Aurelia moved ahead of debutant Stepan Suslov, before overtaking Philippe Armand Karras to move inside the top-20.
The ART Grand Prix driver was showing excellent speed in the early stages of the race and after passing multiple French F4 race winner Yani Stevenheydens, Nobels was into 19th position. On lap six, Aurelia was faster than the next five drivers ahead and despite Jerez traditionally being a difficult circuit at which to overtake on, Nobels was making good progress. Overtaking Technicar racer Sacha Van’t Pad Bosch on lap nine, Aurelia’s confidence was growing and one lap later she moved into 17th position.
An incident involving Gino Trappa then led to the safety car being deployed with the race restarting for two laps. Aurelia made a superb restart and passed Kyuho Lee for 16th, before contact between Nobels, Lee and Van’t Pad Bosch saw all three drivers sustain substantial damage. As a result, the race was red flagged and the resulted counted back one lap with Nobels classified in 17th position.
Unfortunately, the ART Grand Prix machine received substantial damage in the incident and with a very quick turnaround until race two, Nobels was unable to start the 20-minute sprint race. Superb work from the team enabled Aurelia’s car to be repaired for the second qualifying session which took place on Sunday morning.
Conditions were cool, but dry and Nobels spent the first few laps of qualifying getting her tyres up to temperature. After completing three preparation laps, Aurelia brought out the red flag and was unable to take any further part in the session. Without a representative time on the board, the Brazilian driver faced a challenging task in the final race at Jerez.
Nobels lined up 31st on the grid and was looking to make significant progress, however the start of the race was delayed multiple times. After two cars spun on different formation laps, together with others stalling on the grid, the race was shortened to 24 minutes when the green flag was shown.
Nonetheless, Aurelia made an excellent start and ended lap one in 23rd position after successfully negotiating a number of incidents.
The safety car was quickly deployed after Lia Block and Christopher El Feghali required recovery following separate incidents. When the race resumed, green flag conditions remained for less than one lap as Niklas Schaufler and Santino Panetta were stuck in the gravel.
Nobels was now inside the top-20 as the race got back underway and was soon into 19th after Filippo Fiorentino went off-track.
Aurelia was then locked in a tight battle with a recovering Gino Trappa and the Argentinian driver found a way ahead on lap nine.
As Trappa also passed Jean Paul Karras, a smart move from Nobels saw her follow the Drivex racer through and reclaim 19th spot. On the final lap, Aurelia benefited from an incident involving Alfio Spina and Wiktor Dobrzanski to take the checkered flag in a credible 17th position. Her final position was improved to 15th following post-race penalties assessed to both Hudson Schwartz and Santiago Baztaricca.
It was an excellent recovery drive from Nobels in the final race of the weekend as she displayed her racecraft to gain 16 positions from her starting spot. Her pace in race one was equally encouraging as the Brazilian driver was set to contend for a top-15 result before late-race contact.
The ART Grand Prix racer will be looking to make further progress in round two of the Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship which takes place at Portimao on the weekend of 22nd/23rd February.