F4 | Unlucky weekend for Joao Vieira at Imola

Weekend to forget quickly for Joao Vieira who greets the third event of the Italian Formula 4 Championship powered by Abarth with just a point.

With 31 cars at the start, we are back to the original format, with three races for week-end instead of the qualifying rounds for reaching the Final. In two qualifying rounds, the driver at Antonelli Motorsport didn’t manage to go beyond nineteenth and sixteenth positions. Therefore, the aim was to get back on the top during Saturday and Sunday, exploiting the long straights of Imola and the particular feeling connecting the Brazilian driver to the Santerno. Unfortunately, numerous red flags and safety-cars, called onto the track for some accidents and for the rain, have drastically reduced the time of the recover, limiting the struggle in a single handful of laps.

“There is really few to say and to add. In qualifying, I didn’t make any mistakes, but I found myself in the second half of the group. I paid too much on the straights in terms of power.  During the race, on a wet track, I raced fast, but due to safety-cars and red flags, I did not have the chance to complete my recover. A real pity. Now I am waiting for Mugello where it would be great coming back to the format with rounds,” a disappointed Joao Vieira explains.

“It was definitively an unlucky weekend. We came here with important projects and we leave the circuit with none point. Surely, qualifying have been disappointing, but we would had the chance recover during the race. This has been impossible because in all three races, we raced less than 10 true laps of race. The red flags and the safety-cars have limited the action on track. We should come back to the first seasonal format with qualifying rounds to limit the impetuosity of young drivers, beyond to reprimand them. Otherwise, even in the next appointments we will live a similar scenario“,  Giovanni Minardi explains.