2016 French F4 Championship Explained

The 2016 French F4 Championship season was the 24th season of the series for 1600cc Formula Renault machinery, and the sixth season to run under the guise of the French F4 Championship. The series began on 1 April at Le Castellet and ended on 6 November at Montmeló, after six rounds and twenty-four races.^[1]

Driver lineup

Driver Class Rounds 1 Marvin Klein^[2] All 2 Hugo Chevalier All 3 All 4 Javier Cobián All 5 Pierre-Alexandre Jean All 6 Kami Laliberté^[3] 2 Victor Martins^[4] 5 Adrien Renaudin^[5] 6 7 Alex Karkosik All 8 José Sierra 2–6 11 Tristan Charpentier All 12 Enzo Samon 1–4 13 Aaron di Comberti 1 16 Gilles Magnus All 20 Yifei Ye All 21 Jean-Baptiste Mela All 24 Pierre-Paul Baradat 1, 3–4, 6 27 Théo Coicaud All 51 Michael Benyahia All 87 Arthur Rougier All

Icon Status Drivers that compete for the International Championship Drivers that compete for the Junior Championship Guest drivers that are ineligible to score points

Driver Changes

Graduating from French F4

• Giuliano Alesi, son of former F1 driver Jean Alesi, was signed by the Ferrari Driver Academy and promoted to GP3 with Trident.^[6]
• Sacha Fenestraz and Gabriel Aubrey were promoted to the Formula Renault 2.0 championship with Tech 1 Racing.
• Simo Laaksonen will compete in Germany's ADAC F4 after running French F4 and SMP F4 campaigns in 2015.
• Alternatively Nerses Isaakyan, Nikita Troitskiy and Aleksey Korneev will move to Formula Renault 2.0 for 2016 after partial French F4 seasons.
• Axel Matus returned to his home country to participate in the inaugural NACAM F4 championship.
• Louis Gachot, son of former F1 driver Bertrand Gachot, switched to ADAC F4 for 2016.^[7]

Race calendar and results

A six-round calendar was published in December 2015.^[8] This was however revised in January 2016, with now four races per round being held, as opposed to the triple-header rounds that were run on previous years.^[1]

Race format

• Race 1 grid will be set by second fastest qualifying lap.
• Race 2 will be an inversion of the top 10 from race 1.
• Race 3 grid will be set by fastest qualifying lap.
• Race 4 will be set by the finishing order of race 3.^[9]

Round		Circuit	Date	nowrap	Pole Position	nowrap	Fastest Lap	nowrap	Winning Driver	nowrap		nowrap
1	R1	Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet	2 April	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Javier Cobián
	R2				Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Jean-Baptiste Mela
	R3		3 April	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Théo Coicaud
	R4				Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Javier Cobián
2	R1	Circuit de Pau, Pau	14 May	Yifei Ye	Javier Cobián	Javier Cobián	Michael Benyahia	Javier Cobián
	R2				Hugo Chevalier	Théo Coicaud	Pierre-Alexandre Jean	Théo Coicaud
	R3		15 May	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
	R4				Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
3	R1	Circuit de Lédenon, Lédenon	4 June	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
	R2				Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
	R3		5 June	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Jean-Baptiste Mela
	R4				Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
4	R1	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours	9 July		Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Javier Cobián
	R2			Javier Cobián	nowrap	Pierre-Alexandre Jean	nowrap	Pierre-Alexandre Jean	Gilles Magnus
	R3	10 July	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Javier Cobián
	R4			Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
5	R1	Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans	10 September	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus
	R2			Tristan Charpentier	Marvin Klein	nowrap	Casper Røes Andersen	Marvin Klein
	R3		11 September	Yifei Ye	Gilles Magnus	Gilles Magnus	Tristan Charpentier	Gilles Magnus
	R4				nowrap	Casper Røes Andersen	Tristan Charpentier	Tristan Charpentier	Gilles Magnus
6	R1	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló	5 November	nowrap	Javier Cobián	Arthur Rougier	Javier Cobián	Hugo Chevalier	Javier Cobián
	R2		6 November		Yifei Ye	Michael Benyahia	Michael Benyahia	nowrap	Jean-Baptiste Mela
	R3			nowrap	Javier Cobián	Arthur Rougier	Arthur Rougier	Tristan Charpentier	Arthur Rougier

Championship standings

Points system

Points are awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1	1	1

French F4 Championship

Pos Driver LEC PAU LÉD MAG LMS CAT Points 1 Yifei Ye 1 1 1 1 3 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7 1 1 1 15 Ret 11 4 12 15 420 2 Gilles Magnus 16 6 6 7 5 2 2 3 2 4 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 8 1 2 278 3 Michael Benyahia 3 3 11 15 2 Ret Ret 12 5 2 5 4 4 11 4 4 7 3 6 5 8 1 5 218 4 Javier Cobián 4 13 Ret 4 1 Ret Ret 9 6 9 7 15 2 3 2 3 10 7 7 8 1 6 2 211 5 Tristan Charpentier 5 9 3 3 8 Ret 5 7 9 3 14 7 13 9 7 7 3 4 2 1 5 5 4 204 6 Hugo Chevalier 2 2 2 2 6 8 10 Ret 6 9 5 8 5 5 5 15 11 8 6 2 4 14 188 7 Théo Coicaud 7 Ret 5 16 Ret 1 7 4 14 7 6 Ret 5 6 14 8 5 5 4 4 15 7 3 173 8 Pierre-Alexandre Jean 10 10 4 5 4 3 3 5 12 Ret 4 2 7 1 15 15 14 14 Ret 12 6 14 9 162 9 Jean-Baptiste Mela 9 4 9 8 10 Ret 9 10 3 8 2 8 6 4 6 9 11 12 10 EX 7 3 7 129 10 Arthur Rougier 11 7 8 6 7 6 4 6 8 10 13 11 11 8 13 12 8 6 Ret Ret 3 15 1 119 11 6 Ret 12 10 12 5 13 14 16 12 12 9 12 12 10 6 9 2 5 7 10 2 10 93 12 Marvin Klein 12 8 10 14 Ret Ret 12 8 15 11 10 13 9 14 9 10 6 1 11 13 13 9 11 55 13 José Sierra 11 Ret 14 11 11 5 8 6 15 15 12 13 12 9 9 10 12 8 8 40 14 Enzo Samon 8 5 7 9 Ret Ret 8 Ret 7 Ret DNS 10 Ret DNS DNS DNS 35 15 Alex Karkosik 13 14 13 11 13 7 11 13 10 14 11 12 10 10 8 11 13 13 12 9 9 13 6 29 16 Pierre-Paul Baradat 14 11 14 12 13 13 Ret 14 14 13 11 13 14 10 12 1 17 Aaron di Comberti 15 12 15 13 0 18 Adrien Renaudin 11 11 13 0 Guest drivers ineligible for championship points Kami Laliberté 9 Ret 6 2 0 Victor Martins 4 10 3 3 0 Pos Driver LEC PAU LÉD MAG LMS CAT Points

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

External links

• The official website of the French F4 Championship

Notes and References

1. News: 2016 calendar. Auto Sport Academy. French F4 Championship. 12 January 2016. 3 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20170407054450/http://www.autosportacademy.com/userfiles/calendrier2016_GR(1).pdf. 7 April 2017. dead.
2. News: 16 pilotes à l’assaut du Castellet. Fédération Française du Sport Automobile. 30 March 2016. 1 April 2016. French. 16 drivers on the attack of Le Castellet. https://web.archive.org/web/20170211235352/http://www.ffsa.org/Lists/Actualit%C3%A9s/16-pilotes-%C3%A0-l%E2%80%99assaut-du-Castellet-!.aspx. 2017-02-11. dead.
3. News: Le Championnat de France F4 à la rencontre d’une légende. Fédération Française du Sport Automobile. 10 May 2016. 13 May 2016. French. French F4 Championship to meet legend. https://web.archive.org/web/20160604114012/http://www.ffsa.org/Lists/Actualit%C3%A9s/Le-Championnat-de-France-F4-%C3%A0-la-rencontre-d%E2%80%99une-l%C3%A9gende.aspx. 2016-06-04. dead.
4. News: Meilleur temps pour Yifei Ye au Mans. Fédération Française du Sport Automobile. 10 September 2016. 10 September 2016. French. https://web.archive.org/web/20160916163035/http://www.ffsa.org/Lists/Actualit%C3%A9s/F4--Meilleur-temps-pour-Yifei-Ye-au-Mans.aspx. 2016-09-16. dead.
5. Web site: PROVISIONAL ENTRY LIST. 3 November 2016. Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 3 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161104021512/http://www.circuitcat.com/documentos/carreras/INSPROF4v10211.pdf. 2016-11-04. dead.
6. Web site: Leclerc gets Ferrari and Haas development role. Motorsport.com. 2016-04-19. 2018-06-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20180630105640/https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/leclerc-gets-ferrari-and-haas-development-role-676625/?s=1. dead.
7. Web site: Gachot joins HTP Junior Team in ADAC F4 switch PaddockScout. www.paddockscout.com. 2016-04-19.
8. News: 2016 provisional calendar. Auto Sport Academy. French F4 Championship. 26 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151227014556/http://www.autosportacademy.com/userfiles/calendarnew.pdf. 27 December 2015. dead.
9. Web site: AUTOSPORT ACADEMY. www.autosportacademy.com. 2016-04-19.