Ella Lloyd showcased top-10-worthy pace in her F4 Trophy UAE debut at Dubai Autodrome, battling for top-ten positions for most of Race 1, but her weekend was ultimately plagued by incidents and bad luck.
Ella Lloyd endured a challenging start to her F4 journey in the UAE at the opening round of the Formula Trophy UAE series, the newly launched competition which precedes the start of the regular F4 Middle East Championship, previously known as F4 UAE.
Lloyd, freshly signed to the McLaren Development Program and soon to represent the papaya team in F1 Academy, is coming off a remarkable debut season in the British F4 Championship, where she scored three podiums and 13 top-ten finishes in her first year of single-seater competitions.
With only a handful of starts in the Formula Winter Series, Lloyd highly impressed in the highly competitive British championship and received the chance to enter the Singapore round of F1 Academy as a wildcard. In her first appearance, the Welsh racer scored points in both races.
Having been signed to McLaren for 2025, Lloyd is currently preparing for her next campaign and was announced as part of the Xcel Motorsport field for the F4 Trophy series in the UAE.
In a grid of over 20 cars featuring many up-and-coming F4 talents, Lloyd tackled the first round at the Dubai Autodrome, showing encouraging pace to battle in the top ten but faced a very unlucky weekend as contacts in all races hampered her final results.
Lloyd made good improvements in the test days preceding the event, where she progressively found time and ran steadily in the top 15, setting times in the 2:03 range on Thursday. On Friday, more testing went underway, with drivers being afforded several testing sessions before the official practices.
Lloyd was eleventh fastest on Friday morning, breaking into the 2:02 barrier with times continuing to drop. She then recorded a 2:03.247 on Saturday morning in the official practice, which placed her 17th ahead of the qualifying sessions a few hours later.
In Q1, Lloyd recorded a 2:02.989, placing her P14 and showing some improvement as she closed the gap to the top ten. The second 15-minute qualifying session followed, where Ella improved again on each lap and set a 2:02.967. This placed her P15, just 0.014 seconds behind the car ahead, with closely packed gaps across the grid. Rashid Al Dhaheri claimed pole position in both sessions, driving for the Mumbai Falcons Prema-operated team.
Starting from P14, Lloyd had a remarkable start, moving into 10th place after a blistering opening lap. The pack was led by Gustav Jonsson after Rashid Al Dhaheri lost out to the Swede at the start. Lloyd drove away from the cars behind in the first few laps and began to hunt down August Raber.
The race was neutralized on lap 2 due to Fu Yuhao’s retirement, and at the green flag on lap 4, Lloyd had a good restart, holding her position. However, she came under pressure from Nooris Gafoor, who gained positions after Seth Gilmore dropped down the order.
Ahead of her, Raber passed F4 rookie Salim Hanna, leaving Lloyd to focus on defense as Nicolas Stati also climbed the order and began putting pressure on her. Lloyd maintained consistent low 2:04 lap times, drifting slightly away from the group ahead but leading a train of four cars battling for the top ten.
On lap 10, Stati set his personal best of 2:03.4 and eventually passed Lloyd, demoting her to P11. She then had to fend off Gafoor and Larini, fighting hard with her trademark determination. Unfortunately, contact with Larini at Turn 13 ended her race two laps early.
Larini attempted a move on the inside, went off, and made contact with Lloyd; the collision was deemed a racing incident. Despite the early exit, Lloyd showcased a promising first half of the race, battling within the top ten.
The second race took place on Sunday morning, with Lloyd starting from P19 due to the finishing order of Race 1. In the reverse-grid format, the front row featured Nicolas Stati and Salim Hanna.
At the start, the leaders dropped to fourth and fifth as Kabir Anurag and James Piszcyk moved into the top two. However, a safety car was triggered immediately due to a Turn 1 collision involving Lloyd, Adam Al Azhari, and Meng Cheng, who understeered into both drivers. Al Azhari pitted with damage, while Lloyd was forced to retire. Cheng was handed a pit-lane start for Race 3 as a penalty for causing the crash.
The third and final race of the weekend thus provided an opportunity for redemption. Lloyd started from P15 following her Q2 qualifying performance and aimed to climb back into the top ten.
At lights out, she held her position and quickly moved into P13 after passing Zhenrui Chi and August Raber on the first lap. However, contact during the opening stages forced her to pit for repairs. This dropped her to the back of the field, and she began a recovery drive, hoping for a safety car to catch the pack.
While running alone, Lloyd found speed and clocked laps in the 2:03.8 range — which would have been competitive enough to contend for the top ten. Despite being over a second faster than the cars at the back, she faced a 25-second deficit to the pack.
Ahead, Rashid Al Dhaheri recovered from a tough start to reclaim the lead from James Piszcyk and Jonsson on lap 9. Lloyd steadily closed the gap to Yuzhe Wang, reducing the margin from 18 seconds to under 8 seconds over the final laps. Unfortunately, time ran out, and Lloyd finished P19.
Despite the result, Lloyd’s best lap of 2:03.407 was the eighth fastest overall, demonstrating her potential. Her race pace, particularly in Race 3, was faster than several drivers in the top ten, highlighting her ability to compete at the sharp end of the field. While the weekend was marred by incidents, Lloyd showed flashes of promise, especially in Race 1 and her drive in clear air in Race 3.
The Formula Trophy series now moves to its flagship round supporting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next weekend, before concluding at the Yas Marina Circuit during the Gulf 12 Hours on December 13-14.
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