Enzo Trulli wins Formula 4 UAE title by one point

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In the round-up: Enzo Trulli, the 15 year old son of one-time F1 race winner Jarno Trulli, clinched the Formula 4 UAE championship title yesterday after his title rival tangled with another driver in the final race.

Trulli takes F4 UAE title

Trulli’s rival Dilano Van’t Hoff, who was also competing in his first single-seater championships since graduating from karts, led the series for much of the season. The title fight went down to the wire in the quadruple-header season finale at Dubai.

Cram driver Trulli was unable to start the second of those due to a suspension problem and went into the final race a point behind his rival. He started fifth, two places ahead of Van’t Hoff on the partially reversed grid, but fell behind his rival on the first lap.

The Safety Car was deployed due to an early incident, and after it came in on lap three Van’t Hoff tangled with Hamda Al Qubaisi and went wide. Trulli took the advantage and grabbed third place, which he held to the flag. Van’t Hoff kept up the pursuit and crossed the line just three-tenths of a second behind Trulli, who took the title by a single point, despite having won four races during the year to Van’t Hoff’s five.

Trulli, who said his father cried when he clinched the title, will continue racing in the Spanish F4 championship this year with Drivex.

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Comment of the day

This weekend’s debate asks whether F1 should change its event format by introducing sprint races:

For me some of the best action of the weekend is with two or three minutes to go in Q3 on Saturday, I’ve been looked at like I have a mental problem by my wife when someone puts in a fast lap, she always asks “ what’s so exciting about that? They’re not even racing”. Well, only hardcore F1 fans will get what I’m talking about.

Saturday sets up the excitement for Sunday especially if a Red Bull gets in between a Mercedes or a Ferrari grabs the pole. Saturday sprint races I genuinely feel will take away that feeling of looking forward to waking up at 4am or 5am to watch the grand prix and the thought of not knowing who has what pace. Saturday may be a quick shot of adrenaline but come Sunday that adrenaline will slowly wear off to the point of not setting the alarm clock to watch on Sunday.
Josh (@Canadianjosh)

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Main Image: Enzo Trulli via Intagram

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Enzo Trulli wins Formula 4 UAE title by one point”

  1. For me some of the best action of the weekend is with two or three minutes to go in Q3 on Saturday, I’ve been looked at like I have a mental problem by my wife when someone puts in a fast lap, she always asks “ what’s so exciting about that? They’re not even racing”. Well, only hardcore F1 fans will get what I’m talking about.

    Now I just don’t get that either. I feel like you “hardcore” fan lot are being played the fool, while saying sprint races are terrible and pandering to those with ADHD/short attention spans. But get so excited by those 2 minutes left at the end of a qualifying session with Crofty screaming about every single driver that crosses the line while if you’re lucky you get to see at best one sector of a drivers lap.

    I’ve always preferred Australian Supercars top 10 shootout where one after the other each driver gets to do a full lap on an empty track and you can see where every single tenth or thousandth of a second is earnt or lost for each and every driver in the top 10. If you ask me that’s what real hardcore fans of racing would want to see, their lines and their ability to get the most out of the car and make it stick where others can’t.

    Sure the purely competitive aspect gets ruined by a degree or two of track temp, or rain, every now and then. But no more so than the current format does with traffic, drafting, or even rain/temp changes also.

    I’ll just never understand the love for the current format, other than that adrenaline factor, which is borne more out of psychology than actual appreciation of the drivers’ talent.

    1. Just going to add, before someone comes along and says F1 did it and it was terrible. That’s right, F1 did it in a terrible way. Limiting single-lap to the top 10 removes a lot of that potential for bad weather etc to ruin things, and still gives plenty of on-track action so the whole of qualifying isn’t boring and you don’t need to sit through half an hour (let alone 2 sessions as F1 ran it) of watching back-runners go slow one at a time. Add to that qualifying with fuel was just ridiculous also and defeated the whole point of qualifying.

      The way F1 ran single-lap qualifying was like eating a top grade steak with a mouldy mushroom sauce and saying the steak was terrible and you’ll never eat steak again. It’s just depressing as a lover of good steak. I mean qualifying.

    2. The difference is the every other championship is a spec series where everyone has a realistic chance of being on pole.

      If we did that with F1 there would be no change at all.

    3. No true Scotsman, eh

    4. Yup. The director showing no action and loads of shouting by crofty cannot amount to entertainment.

  2. Many changes happened to F1 during the years, and there was always a chorus of “I’ll just stop watching F1 is it goes through”.

    Though I hated some of the changes, I always knew that I’d never stop watching F1: there’s just so many things I enjoy about it that it didn’t make sense.

    This sprint race may change that, unfortunately. Not out of spite, though: it’s just that the sprint race will correct all of the “out of place” qualifiers and order everyone by their race pace for the feature race. The feature race will me more of the same, but for longer, everyone in an orderly train.

    Qualifying isn’t definitive, the sprint race will be taken with cotton gloves as engines have to be saved and god forbids a contact, and the feature race will be the same as the sprint race but longer. No build up, no excitement, no nothing.

    The joy is simplify gone, all the parts of a GP weekend loose interest.

    1. Completely disagree with you! The start of qualifying race could jumble up the grid more, drivers will be pushing every lap like a like qualifying lap instead of tyre and fuel saving. Passing may well be harder in qualifying race. It will add an interesting new dimension to the out of date 300km Grand Prix where racing seems to only happen for a quarter of that distance

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        14th February 2021, 4:49

        Both your comments show why it needs to be tested. Either could be right and it’s hard to know whether it will just allow drivers who were out of position to correct their grid places with everyone saving their engines or if people will go for it and take risks. It’s certainly not good news for drivers who aren’t great at starts like Mr Bottas.

        In a season where we already know the winners of both titles before long before the 1st race, it seems a good opportunity to try something new and see how it works.

        I don’t think I like the idea of sprint races and I hate the idea of moving quali to the Friday when I can’t watch it but I’m equally excited to see something new in what has become a become a bit of a predictable and repetitive sport.

        1. Actually both comments show why it would be far better to get all the details sorted out before we’re even able to make an informed decision.

          If (for example) sprint races have to use the same PU’s in the same allocation (and can only use the same modes as the race) then there’s a fair chance there won’t be a huge amount of pushing. Same applies to tyre allocations – if they get special cheese tyres that won’t last the full race flat out.. etc etc

          I’d really like them for once to come up with a fully thought out plan instead of “hey this might appeal to new fans” ideas.

          1. There is no more informed a decision than a decision made after you have actual practical data.

            Testing this at a few races is the best way to get that information.

      2. That’s not true, is it? The incentive will be to drive the sprint race conservatively, to avoid damage that could affect you in the main race. Drivers are unlikely to fight hard for positions that just means starting slightly higher on the grid the following day, especially when you take factors like clean/dirty side of the grid into account. Anyone thinking drivers will be willing or able to push hard during the sprint race will be sorely disappointed.

        1. @red-andy They definitely wouldn’t drive conservatively for fuel or tyres, though.

          1. Because they don’t need any tyres or an engine in the main race (or the races that follow?)

          2. @jerejj The Pirelli tyres need to be managed for temperature if not for wear, so drivers won’t be able to push on them flat out even over shorter race distances. Drivers can overheat the tyres and lose performance even on a single lap qualifying. And if the sprint race is going to be say 20 laps, then that’s approximately one stint in a normal race, so drivers will still have to manage their tyres for wear to ensure they last the distance rather than going off at the end. Maybe even more so since there is less to gain by pushing for one place better on the grid, while still risking losing several grid places if the tyres hit the cliff.

          3. @keithedin 23 laps for Montreal, 18 Monza, and 24 Interlagos. People ordinarily attempt a one-stop in Monza, so 18 laps on a single set of tyres (especially the hardest compound option) shouldn’t really be a problem for wear or degradation.

        2. That’s an another interesting point @red-andy. Right now it’s hard to do (unless your second driver qualifies ahead and you do what Ferrari did at COTA in 2012) but what’s to stop a driver running in second in a sprint race purposely trying to allow the driver behind through so he can start on the clean side of the grid, at venues with a large grip delta. I’m not sure what the potential points situation would be with the proposed sprint races but this whole things seems to create more problems than any imagined ones it would solve.

          1. He said, stretching hard for the last imaginary travesty on the table.

          2. delphi Lol, love that.

        3. @red-andy I don’t think you can make that assumption. I think it is more likely that enough drivers won’t be pleased with their pre-quali placing such that they won’t go conservative on Saturday, and as soon as some won’t then those who do will get passed and shuffled down the grid. So they won’t either. As to orchestrating themselves at the top to not be on the dirty side of the grid? At how many tracks is this an issue? Do they manipulate themselves such with the quali we have now? They certainly can just as easily as in a sprint race. Is that really a thing other than rarely?

  3. I don’t quite agree with the COTD.

    An interesting article about Magnussen, though.

  4. Re Magnussen: I clearly saw that he was fed up with F1. He did the right choice.
    Re Enzo Trulli: By one point! Brilliant.

  5. The Magnussen interview was an interesting and quite uplifting read.

    Some years ago, Danish television ran a long special on Danish racing drivers of the ’90s. What Magnussen Jr. says in this interview is almost verbatim the same as his father said on that occasion. He told of leaving F1 disillusioned and doubting his choosing to become a race driver. Right until he was put in the Panoz LMP-1, and straight aways realized (quoted from hazy memory) This was what I loved. Racing. I was not an F1 driver – I was a racing driver.

  6. “I think I can still learn something from him”
    Yea, don’t forget gloves and steering wheel….and check the drink before race.

  7. If I do go out and win F2 this year, then that would be three championships in a row

    That’s confident talk from Piastri. I think he might have a rude awakening this year. His F3 campaign was hardly convincing. I can’t remember a champion with so few podiums (2 wins, 3x 2nd, 1x 3rd).
    Granted it was a competitive year: 9 different winners from 18 races and no one with more than 3 wins. I guess in year’s to come, people will only remember the final champion, and I hope for his sake that he does well. but if he underwhelms this year, it will only expose his mixed F3 campaign.

    1. @eurobrun I’m inclined to agree with you. Unlike the new wheels last year, the sophomore drivers won’t have to unlearn anything, and that will make them a bigger threat compared to rookies. I expect Shwartzman, Zhou, Lundgaard and Drugovich to be among the main protagonists this year, and if Carlin can maintain the same form they ended the year with, I see them being a threat with Ticktum and Daruvala as well. Piastri might get lucky that he’s getting to drive for a team that is competitive and can actually run two cars equally competitively, unlike ART, which makes it much trickier for Pourchaire.

  8. Agree with CoTD. I’m not against experimenting with the format a bit so am less of a ‘purist’ than some, but this proposal seems to be one that promises very little but can actively detract from both the regular qualifying and race sessions. It devalues qualifying since it only sets the grid for the sprint rather than the main race, and it will effectively give the teams a dry run of the race session which will telegraph exactly how all the cars will perform in the main race. It even gives them more of an opportunity to tune the cars better and overcome any unforeseen issues (such as 70th anniversary Merc tyre wear) which could make the main races even more predictable.

    I’m also less optimistic than some that the sprint race will be a flat out, all guns blazing action-fest as I think it’s more likely that with less to gain the teams will be even more conservative and just consolidate their original qualifying results to ensure they are still in the hunt for the main race. It’s quite possible that there will be very little change from the grid positions set on Friday, which would leave the sprint race feeling like a fairly pointless exercise.

    1. Agree, @keithedin.

      However, I am slightly curious to watch the cars on Saturday use the tyres from Friday’s Q2, then the same set of tyres to start the race on Sunday. Those new Pirellis must ultra-durable. ;-)

  9. Can’t go along with cotd. I think we all generally have a pretty good idea after practice and quali who has what pace, and then it is just a matter of watching the races to see the hundreds of potential scenarios unfold, for that is why they run races and why we watch and don’t hand out trophies on an assumption. To claim one will have seen all they need to see after a Saturday quali sprint, and need not bother watching the race then, seems ridiculous. Even moreso once the new gen cars are on track, teams more evenly advantaged financially.

    This makes me wonder if, as it is, @canadianjosh turns the TV off after the first few corners or laps if nothing spectacular has happened and we see their respective race pace confirmed.

  10. Will we see young Enzo in F1 one day?
    And does he have his dad’s talent for the impassible slow burning locomotive that can keep 12 cars or more held up for most of a Grand Prix?

  11. F4 UAE super competitive…

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