Up-and-coming F1 Academy driver Emma Felbermayr made her single-seater debut in Jerez at the inaugural E4 Spanish Winter Championship event, securing a remarkable 13th-place finish in the final race of the weekend.
Austrian racer Emma Felbermayr made her single-seater debut in Jerez at the inaugural Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship event, securing a remarkable 13th-place finish in the final race of the weekend. She climbed 11 positions from her starting spot, capping off a highly encouraging first race weekend in Formula 4.
The 18-year-old had already secured her first top-20 finish in the second race, demonstrating impressive pace and racecraft in a highly competitive field.
Felbermayr transitions to single-seaters in 2025 after a successful karting career; a third-generation racer, she comes from a family with a rich motorsport heritage—both her father and grandfather have in fact competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Starting karting at the age of seven, she progressed through national and international competitions, competing in elite series such as WSK, the World Cup, and the European Championship in the KZ category.
In December 2024, Felbermayr was announced as the next KICK Sauber F1 Team representative in the 2025 F1 Academy Championship, where she will contest her first full season in cars. She will also take on a dual program in Spanish F4 with Rodin Motorsport.
To prepare for these challenges, Felbermayr joined the newly launched E4 Spanish Winter Championship with Rodin Motorsport, aiming to gain valuable racing experience. The highly competitive 30-car grid provided in fact the perfect opportunity to test herself against some of the best young drivers in F4 in Europe.
Having recently tested F4 machinery as part of her preparation, Felbermayr arrived in Jerez eager to get up to speed. She showed promising pace in pre-event testing, setting a best time of 1:44.555, just 1.4 seconds off the overall fastest lap on Friday.
However, her first-ever F4 qualifying session proved challenging. An incident for the Austrian brought out a red flag with four minutes to go, preventing her from setting a representative lap time. Her 2:04.004 lap was deleted as a result of causing the red flag, forcing her to start from the back of the grid.
Starting 29th in a highly competitive 33-car field, Felbermayr faced a tough challenge in her first-ever single-seater race. The race saw an eventful start, with several cars encountering issues before the formation lap.
After a delayed start and a safety car restart on lap two, Felbermayr immediately gained four places, moving up to P25.
She then lost a few positions, dropping to P30 by lap four, but fought back, engaging in a back-and-forth battle with Aiva Anagnostiadis before reclaiming the position. Once in clean air, her lap times improved significantly, running 1:44.5s—a pace quicker than the cars ahead.
A late safety car bunched up the field, and Felbermayr made an excellent restart, gaining four more positions to finish P24. A red flag ended the race prematurely, with results taken from the previous lap, classifying her in 28th place in her F4 debut.
In the second race, a 20-minute sprint, Felbermayr started 25th and made a strong start, gaining positions early. She moved up to P24 on lap one and gained another spot when El Feghali pitted with damage.
Her pace continued to improve, and by lap three, she overtook Santiago Baztarrica for P22, running consistently in the 1:45.1 range. She then closed in on Santino Panetta, eventually overtaking him to enter the top 20.
Felbermayr chased Stepan Suslov in the closing laps, crossing the line just three-tenths behind to secure her first top-20 finish in only her second-ever F4 race—an impressive achievement for the young racer, who showed continuous signs of improvement.
Qualifying for the final race on Sunday saw a dramatic improvement: Felbermayr set a 1:45.0 lap in the closing moments, placing her P21 in a very competitive session. However, a three-place grid penalty for a contact in the second race dropped her to P24 for the start.
The final race featured multiple delayed starts and formation laps due to incidents in the warm up laps. At last, after four attempts, the lights went out: Felbermayr avoided early chaos, moving up to P21 before a safety car was deployed for an accident at turn 1 for fellow F1 Academy driver Lia Block.
On the restart, she immediately gained two more places to break into the top 20. Another safety car followed, after Santino Panetta and Niklas Schaufler collided. Once Francisco Monarca pitted with damage, she moved up to P18.
With just seven minutes remaining, Felbermayr stayed composed, battling Baztarrica while fending off pressure from Jean Paul Karras. She capitalized on Filippo Fiorentino’s off-track moment to move into P17 and maintained a solid gap to the cars behind.
In the closing laps, she seized another opportunity when Alfio Spina made a mistake, jumping to P15. Post-race penalties promoted her even further to an outstanding P13—finishing fifth among the rookies in just her third F4 start.
Emma Felbermayr’s first-ever F4 weekend showcased good racecraft, ability to adapt quickly, as well as clean driving. By gaining eleven places in the final race, she proved she maturity amidst the chaotic action, managing the race like a seasoned driver.
Her top-15 finish and rookie top-five result in only her first event are clearly an encouraging start to her single seater career, establishing herself as a driver to watch.
The second weekend of the 2025 Spanish Winter Championship is scheduled for 21-12 February in Portimao, Portugal.
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