Spanish F4: Season’s best result for Emma Felbermayr at Circuit de Barcelona

Emma Felbermayr wrapped-up her rookie season in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship by achieving a season’s best result of P13 at Circuit de Barcelona, make substantial progress from her grid position in race 1.

Photo credits: Dutch Photo Agency

Emma Felbermayr wrapped-up her rookie season in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship by achieving a season’s best result of 13^th at Circuit de Barcelona. After the first qualifying session of the weekend was cancelled, a number of drivers played an alterative strategy in race one and this allowed the Rodin Motorsport driver to make substantial progress from her grid position.

Although a technical issue ruled Felbermayr out of the second race, the Austrian racer completed her season with a 30^th place result in race three.

Circuit de Barcelona played host to the final round of the 2025 Spanish Formula 4 Championship with Felbermayr aiming to bank further experience in a competitive field of young racers. Participating in a dual campaign alongside her F1 Academy program, Felbermayr has benefited from the additional track time to develop her racecraft throughout the season.

Felbermayr’s campaign has seen her participate in all but one round of the season to date with the Austrian racer developing her relationship with Rodin Motorsport. Competing with the same team in F1 Academy and the Spanish Formula 4 Championship, Felbermayr has used this continuity to make substantial progress across her first full campaign of circuit racing.

Felbermayr’s consistency has been a particular highlight of her year with the Austrian driver failing to finish just one of the 15 races prior to Circuit de Barcelona. Achieving a best result of 15^th at Portimao, Felbermayr has secured seven top-20 finishes in a season which has seen her regularly move up the order from her grid position. Her race starts have been impressive considering her inexperience and this has enabled her to challenge more experienced rivals on a regular basis.

The first on-track action of the weekend began on Wednesday with three official test sessions for the young drivers. Felbermayr improved with each session and she ended the day in 21^st position with a best lap of a 1:43.646 which was less than a second away from the fastest time set by Jan Przyrowski.

Testing continued on Thursday with a single session for the drivers to further improve their car setup. Felbermayr completed a further 15 laps as she set the 30^th fastest time. The final test session took place on Friday with some of the fastest laps set across the event to date. Felbermayr came within a quarter of a second of her quickest time from Wednesday as the Austrian racer was classified in 30^th position on a 1:43.805.

The final session prior to qualifying was free practice on Saturday morning and with cooler conditions at Circuit de Barcelona, the times improved once more. Felbermayr’s quickest time of a 1:43.322 was her fastest of the meeting and placed her in 21^st position overall, just half a second away from the top-6.

Qualifying was set to take place later on Saturday morning, however due to a technical issue with the electronic track limit equipment, the session was cancelled. As a result, the grid positions for race one were instead based upon the results from free practice earlier in the day.

Photo credits: Fotocar13

For race one of the weekend, Felbermayr lined up from 21^st on the grid and the Austrian racer was looking to fight for one her best results of the season. As the lights went out for the first thirty-minute race, Felbermayr made a great start and initially moved inside the top-20. During the remainder of the first lap, the Austrian racer was shuffled back to 24^th position as Felbermayr now looked to settle into a rhythm.

The Rodin Motorsport driver was soon making up for lost positions as she overtook Santino Panetta on lap two, while Reno Francot pulled into the pits. Although Panetta re-passed Felbermayr, Emma was doing a nice job to protect her position from Stepan Suslov with the DXR driver keen to move forward.

A personal best time of a 1:44.369 on lap six allowed Felbermayr to open up a small margin behind while the group of drivers including Suslov, Aleksandar Bogunovic and Kaiden Higgins ran side-by-side.

As the race approached halfway, a series of unusual pit stops took place throughout the field as around one-third of the drivers fitted new tyres. This was because the grid positions for race two were to be based upon the fastest laps set in race one. It was not just the drivers outside the points scoring positions who visited the pits with a number of those inside the top-10 giving up track position in search of a strong starting position for Sunday’s first contest.

Felbermayr remained on circuit and as a result, she made significant progress up the order. By lap nine, the Austrian racer was into 16^th position and after Kiril Kutskov and debutant Rocco Coronel also fitted new tyres, Felbermayr was inside the top-15. MP Motorsport driver Niklas Schaufler was the last driver to play this alternative strategy and following a stop for Felbermayr’s compatriot, she was up to 13^th position.

Higgins was now right behind the Rodin Motorsport driver, however Felbermayr’s pace was strong as the tyres passed their peak. Therefore, she was able to match the pace of those inside the top-10 while holding down a career-high position in the series. Taking the chequered flag in 13^th position, Felbermayr secured a season’s best result in the Spanish Formula 4 Championship at Circuit de Barcelona.

Photo credits: Dutch Photo Agency

Sunday’s action began with the second qualifying session which took place early in the morning. Overnight rain led to damp track conditions and this proved a challenge for a number of the drivers. As a result, the session featured a number of red flags and therefore it was difficult to extract peak performance from the wet tyre. At the end of qualifying, Felbermayr had set the 31^st fastest time and was therefore targeting progress through the field in the two races later that day.

Race two of the weekend took place later on Sunday morning with conditions now dry and sunny. Due to a number of drivers pitting for new tyres in race one, Felbermayr’s quickest lap time was 33^rd fastest with the Rodin Motorsport set to line up from the 17^th row of the grid. However, a technical issue prevented the Austrian driver from starting the race with the team hard at work to resolve the problem ahead of the final contest of the season.

Conditions remained dry for the season finale and Felbermayr took her place on the grid in 31^st position courtesy of her result in the second qualifying session. As the race got underway, the positions were closely contested approaching turn one with the drivers running four-wide. Felbermayr quickly moved inside the top-30, before being shuffled back to 32^nd position.

The Rodin Motorsport driver fought back during the second half of lap one as she used her racecraft to move back into 28^th spot as the second tour got underway. A close battle then emerged with Aleix Pinera and the Spanish racer moved ahead with a clean pass into turn one. Just up ahead, contact involving Philippe Armand Karras and Noah Monteiro saw both cars beached in the gravel on the exit of the second turn and this resulted in the safety car being deployed.

Felbermayr ran in 27^th position under the safety car as the positions within the midfield remained closely contested at the restart. After protecting her position from Rogerio Grotta, Felbermayr began to mount a challenge on Pinera once more. Overtaking was proving challenging, however Felbermayr was running consistent times until Christopher El Feghali closed in. After an earlier incident, the Lebanese driver was looking to regain positions and he passed Felbermayr on lap nine.

An incident then took place between Felbermayr and Alexander Jacoby and this saw both drivers leave the circuit and rejoin at the rear of the field. Now in 32^nd position, Felbermayr was showing good speed in a small pocket of clean air as she set back-to-back personal best times on laps 11 and 12. Felbermayr’s pace was on-par with those inside the top-15 to underline her speed despite her track position deficit.

As the battles intensified ahead, Felbermayr was able to gain a number of positions in the closing stages. On lap 13, she passed both Santiago Baztarrica and Kiril Kutskov before Miguel Costa became beached in the gravel two laps later. Due to Costa’s car requiring recovery, the safety car was deployed and the race ended at a reduced speed. Felbermayr therefore took the chequered flag in 29^th position, before falling to 30^th once a post-race penalty was applied.

Although it was a frustrating day of racing on Sunday, Felbermayr secured a personal best result in the series during race one. A strong drive from the Austrian racer was rewarded with a 13^th place finish as Emma continues her development during her rookie campaign. Felbermayr’s 2025 season will come to a close next weekend when the F1 Academy season concludes on the streets of Las Vegas.