Carrie Schreiner completes F4 UAE season in Dubai

While the F4 UAE season finale at Dubai was a challenging weekend for Carrie Schreiner, the German continued to collect valuable mileage and experience; in one of the toughest F4 championships in the world, she fought through some difficulties but her starts and recoveries were often the highlights in most rounds. Carrie now turns her focus to her second season in F1 Academy.

Photo credits: F4 UAE

After five rounds of intense racing, the eighth season of the F4 UAE championship was wrapped up at Dubai Autodrome, crowning its champion and providing its usual exciting action up until the final corner. The series has established itself as one of the world's top championships for junior drivers during the winter season, as young talents gather in the Emirates to prepare for their main programs.

Four female drivers have entered at least one race this year: Doriane Pin - who made history last weekend at Abu Dhabi and took a victory, a pole position and a fastest lap - Carrie Schreiner, Tina Hausmann and Aurelia Nobels. Considering the non-championship Trophy Round, Amna Al Qubaisi, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Jessica Edgar and Laura Villars brought the total up to eight.

It was a busy couple of weeks for some of drivers that aim to use the track time and high-level competition of F4 UAE to prepare for their F1 Academy campaign: from a first Barcelona collective test to a Formula Winter Series round, then a London visit to the F1 headquarters where they attended the first F1A Driver Development Day. While Bianca Bustamante and Lia Block returned to Spain for Formula Winter Series, Carrie Schreiner headed back to the Emirates and put more mileage under her belt at the F4 UAE finale.

Schreiner had herself contested the Formula Winter Series opener at Jerez last week - and emerged as the top performing female driver. A week later, she was back at AGI Sport and effectively had to learn the Dubai Autodrome, having missed the third round of the championship as well as the test scheduled at the 5.390 km circuit.

With Pin leaving the series to focus on simulator training, Schreiner was the only woman on the starting grid at Dubai. Despite some technical issues throughout the weekend, the Sauber junior made progress in the official practice and, while she eventually endured an overall challenging weekend, there were still positives to take.

She set the 31st and 30th fastest times in the two 15-minute qualifying sessions held on Saturday morning - clocking her best lap of the weekend up until that point in 2:02.818.

Kean-Nakamura Berta, Rashid Al Dhaheri and Alex Powell locked the top three spots of the grid in both sessions; the other championship contenders - Freddie Slater and Keanu Al Azhari - would have to make their way up from P13 and P5 respectively in race 1.

Race 1

Schreiner had a solid start and attacked the cars ahead at turn 1 - then avoided Kai Daryanani's Pinnacle Motorsport's machine who tangled with Restrepo and spun just ahead of the German driver. Carrie would gain more places from Stati and Stack over the first lap, slotting into P26 after one of her trademark first laps where she picked up 5 places.

Mumbai Falcon's Nakamura-Berta had managed to hold on to first place, but Al Dhaheri kept up the pressure - while Caranta had dropped from the second row to ninth. Championship contenders Al Azhari and Slater fought wheel to wheel - and the Emirati went wide through turn one on lap 2, but rejoined in tenth.

Schreiner moved up one position when Gabriel Stilp fell down the order and eventually pitted - but bad luck struck, as the Sauber Academy driver was involved in contact with Stati and had to pit, while the safety car was deployed for debris.

The neutralization gave her the chance to catch back the pack - but she would have to start again from 29th. At the green flag, Al Dhaheri was under pressure from Powell - and positions changed hands just behind them, with Slater, Deligny, Fairclough and Caranta battling for sixth.

Carrie was able to make up places on Seewooruthun and Rodella who had come together, then passed Fu Yuhao on lap 8, before a second safety car was deployed for debris on the main straight. In the final 5 minutes of racing, Schreiner chased and attacked Nicolas Stati - but was displaced by Seewooruthun on lap 12.

Kean Nakamura-Berta took a lights-to-flag victory in race 1, preceding Rashid Al Dhaheri and Alex Powell after a tense first contest of the weekend. Freddie Slater recovered to fifth, crucially ahead of Keanu Al Azhari who couldn't do better than tenth.

An unfortunate race 1 ended with P28 for Carrie Schreiner, who had nevertheless shown once again great recovering skills in the first laps.

Photo credits: F4 UAE

Race 2

Following a couple of post-race penalties, the reverse grid pole position was assigned to Luka Sammalisto, who would share the first row with Enzo Deligny. There was heartbreak for Enzo Yeh, who was supposed to be starting from seventh but his car remained stationary on the formation lap and couldn't take the start. Carrie Schreiner lined up in P28 and had a solid start to gain one position. Ahead, Enzo Deligny fired into the lead, ahead of Stolcermanis and Fairclough, as Sammalisto dropped to fourth - and almost banged wheels with the charging Al Azhari, who had to recover positions to stay in the championship hunt.

Schreiner battled with Stack and Daryanani - and ended up losing out to Seewooruthun on the second lap. One lap later, though, she managed to pick up two places on Rodella and Stack - and posted her fastest lap and her best sectors, as she kept a close distance to the cars ahead. A contact for Gabriel Stilp saw the Hitech driver dropping down the order - and Carrie moved up to P26. On lap 7, she was faster than the six cars ahead but couldn't hold off Stati and had to settle for P27.

Deligny and Solcermanis pulled away - with the Red Bull junior driver always holding a one second gap. But behind them a brilliant battle for third saw Keanu Al Azhari and Deagan Fairclough swapping places all the way through the final corner of the last lap - when Freddie Slater - who had found his way past Sammalisto - made an opportunistic move to snatch fourth across the line, demoting Al Azhari to fifth.

Carrie Schreiner took the chequered flag in P28.

Race 3

The final race at Dubai Autodrome would assign the 2024 F4 UAE title with three drivers in contention: Kean Nakamura-Berta, Keanu Al Azhari and Freddie Slater. And it would be the home hero to need a charge through the field from tenth, while his rivals lined up on pole and fourth.

Alex Powell's car stalled on the grid and was avoided by everyone, as Rashid Al Dhaheri took over the lead from Nakamura-Berta and Slater. From P30, Schreiner had another great start, but there was no luck for the German this weekend: a contact on lap one that involved also Stati and Fairclough forced her to pit at the end of the first lap.

A big accident for Tomass Solcermanis brought out the red flag on lap 2. Schreiner's car had also come to a halt on track and was towed back to the pits during the interruption. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to retake the start.

At the restart, the top three remained unchanged - with the title virtually in the hands of Slater. Al Azhari made up positions up to ninth and was on a mission to catch the front runners to keep his title chances alive. The Emirati completed another bold move on Beeton - but he would need fourth to be crowned champion.

Ahead, the battle was just as heated, with Nakamura-Berta pushing for the victory that would send the title his way - but Al Dhaheri closed the door and took the chequered flag to win his second race of the season. Third across the finish line, Freddie Slater was crowned F4 UAE champion by just four points, with Keanu Al Azhari unable to finish higher than eighth.

While it was a difficult weekend marred by incidents and technical issues for Carrie Schreiner, the German continued to collect valuable mileage and experience; she contested one of the toughest F4 championships in the world among some of the most promising single seater junior drivers and showed great fighting spirit. Her starts always were the highlights - often gaining five or six positions in one lap - and the Sauber Academy driver will now transfer the positives into her F1 Academy programme, set to get underway in Saudi Arabia with pre-season testing scheduled next week.

Photo credits: F4 UAE