British F4: Nina Gademan showcases strong pace in Zandvoort, almost cracks the top-10

Nina Gademan showcased strong race pace at her home track in Zandvoort during the sixth round of the British Formula 4 Championship, navigating through challenging conditions and race incidents to equal a season-best 12th place in race 2 and proving her potential in the largest grid of the season to date.

Photo credits: JEP

Nina Gademan showed great pace at her home track in Zandvoort, which played host to the sixth round of the British Formula 4 Championship.

Throughout the weekend, the Dutchwoman had top ten-worthy pace and while she couldn't quite capitalize on her speed in a red flag-disrupted qualifying, she battled her way up the order in all races, delivering strong performances particularly in the second race where she climbed to P12, almost cracking the top ten overall.

Having also gained positions in race 1, Gademan was on course to another strong charging drive in race 3, but she was involved in a five-car collision to no fault of her own, ending her weekend prematurely with her first DNF of the season. Her 12th place, however, equalled her personal best of the season and added two more points to her tally after another solid round for the F4 rookie.

The Zandvoort weekend marked the championship's first race meeting outside the UK and featured a groundbreaking record of eight female racing drivers on the grid, an all-time high for British F4 and any FIA-sanctioned F4 championship globally. The Dutch round also saw a season-high of 27 entries.

In such a highly competitive environment - arguably one of the highest level in F4 competitions in Europe - Gademan proved to belong to the top-half of the field with two very promising practice sessions on Thursday, where the home racer was 14th fastest in FP1, clocking a 1:38.504, before she further improved with a 1:37.941 in the second session that placed her #3 Fortec Motorsport's Tatuus T421 in 12th position.

Her strong pace in dry conditions was a good foundation for qualifying, however conditions radically changed on Friday, when drivers found themselves trying to find a clean lap amidst traffic in heavy rain in qualifying.

A first red flag was deployed after a few minutes, then a second one halted the session as the action resumed. Gademan posted a 1:50.869 which was enough for 14th on the grid of race 3, but her second-best lap placed her 18th on the grid with a 1:51.835 that would force her to make up more positions in the opening race of the weekend.

“In practice we were P14 and P12 out of 27 drivers so that’s good progress on such a hard track, but we had a tough qualifying as it was raining, so it was about having no traffic to get one lap in", Gademan explained. "I did that, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been, and I didn’t get a second quick lap because of the red flags."

In the first contest, the largest grid in British F4 to date faced again extremely wet and challenging conditions. Despite the poor visibility, all drivers made it through the first turn, although soon later Lloyd had a trip to the gravel, and Scoular spun after being hit by Berg, but fortunately was avoided by the rest of the pack.

Deagan Fairclough took the lead from pole position, followed by Molnar, Ninovic, and Dodds. Ninovic soon passed Molnar for second place, but Fairclough took advantage of the clean visibility at the front to drive away from the rest of the field.

Nina Gademan, starting from 18th, initially fell to P21 but began to navigate the chaos with a steady hand: by the second lap, she had already passed Chloe Chong, moving up to P20. As the race progressed, she continued to climb the order, avoiding mistakes and capitalizing on others' misfortunes. When Sherwood pitted with issues, Gademan advanced to 17th.

Faster than the cars immediately ahead of her, Gademan hunted down and tried to find a way past Harrison. She would gain another position in the closing stages, ultimately crossing the finish line in 16th. It was a solid run in extremely difficult weather conditions, demonstrating her ability in the midfield battles: the Fortec Motorsport driver brought home a solid result despite having the pace to finish higher up.

"Race one was difficult in the back as you couldn’t see anything in the spray" - Nina commented. "People were crashing in front of me, so I had to avoid that, and I finished behind a big group of cars where nothing much happened."

Photo credits: JEP

The second race was scheduled for Saturday afternoon and was to be held on a drying track, but the formation lap brought new challenges: as the cars started the lap, a rain shower forced some teams to rethink their tyre strategy. When Matus Ryba's car grinded to a halt on the final corner of the formation lap, the start was delayed, giving some drivers the chance to switch to wet tyres.

After a second formation lap, the starting lights went off, then on again, causing chaos. Most drivers started then slowed down again, leading to confusion and multiple collisions. Nina Gademan was one of the drivers caught in the ensuing chaos, with her car pushed towards the pitwall. The incident resulted in a red flag after seven cars crashed. Due to the starting light technical issue, the race was rescheduled to Sunday morning.

The race resumed under significantly different conditions: sunny and a dry track. Starting from 14th, Gademan lost a couple of positions on the first lap but remained undeterred.

She quickly began a recovery drive, passing Harrison to move up to P15. As the race continued, she took advantage of the contact between Campbell-Pilling and Seewooruthun, gaining two more positions.

With 10 minutes remaining, Gademan was in P13 and closing in on Maxwell Dodds. She engaged in a hard-fought battle, demonstrating her racecraft and determination. A mistake by Ernesto Rivera allowed Gademan to seize P12, putting her within striking distance of the top ten.

At the front, Ninovic pulled away to take the win, while Abbi Pulling defended her position masterfully to secure second place ahead of championship leader Deagan Fairclough.

Gademan, couldn't quite find a gap to demote Dodds, but she nevertheless equalled her best result of the season - previously scored at Snetterton - and finishing as the top Fortec driver and fourth among the rookies. With two positions gained from the start, Nina earned two valuable championship points, which brought her tally up to 17.

“Race two was supposed to be on Saturday but there was a big crash at the start, and I was involved as I couldn’t avoid the car ahead", Nina said. "It was rescheduled for Sunday, we went from P14 to P12, and I had some battles and learned a lot which I took to race three."

The final race of the weekend took place on Sunday afternoon, again in dry conditions. Gademan started from P13, but the opening lap saw her drop to P19 after being pushed off line. Fairclough led from pole, followed by Seewooruthun and Molnar, while Ninovic was making a strong charge up the order.

Undeterred by her initial setback, Gademan began another charge through the field. By lap 3, she had passed James Higgins for P17 and was engaged in a fierce battle with Kieffer.

The race however was interrupted on lap 4 by a major crash when Lloyd, Campbell-Pilling, and Rivera went three-wide into a turn, causing Campbell-Pilling to rejoin the track in the path of Robinson and Scoular. This triggered a significant collision, leading to a red flag.

Gademan, just behind the incident, tried to avoid the crash but was unfortunately caught in the melee, resulting in her first DNF of the season to no fault of her own. Despite this, her performance throughout the weekend showcased her strong race pace and overtaking skills, indicating she was on course for another solid recovery drive.

"We started P14 but I was pushed wide on lap one and lost four or five places", the Dutch racer recalled. "I got three back in the next two laps, which was positive, and then people crashed at T7, I was right behind someone, and couldn’t see anything."

"I hit a spinning car, and hurt my hand on the steering wheel, so I didn’t finish. Overall, it was a positive weekend as we made a step forward from the last few races.”

Nina Gademan's home race at Zandvoort was an overall positive one: despite the challenges in qualifying and tricky race conditions, she demonstrated her ability to compete in a highly competitive field, gaining valuable experience and again scoring points.

Her efforts in race 2, where she matched her season's best result of P12, highlighted her potential.

As the season heads to Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend of August 9-11, Gademan will look to build on her positive momentum and aim for her first top ten finish.