The sixth and penultimate round of the French F4 Championship took place at the Nîmes-Lédenon circuit from 21st to 24th September 2023. The FFSA Academy, which manages the 26 single-seaters entered in this highly competitive event, had not organised any tests prior to the meeting. “I only learned the track on Thursday during private testing,” explains Frank Porte Ruiz. “It’s very technical and difficult when you come here for the first time. The repeaters clearly had an advantage, but I put in a lot of effort over the four days to make progress.”
The 17-year-old from Andorra is competing in his very first season in a single-seater and is surprising everyone with his ability to adapt, as well as his increasing speed at each meeting, as he showed during the Qualifying session at Lédenon. “I had a good feeling with the car. My times went down quickly, but just as I was improving, two successive red flags forced us into the pits. Fortunately, we were able to restart and I managed to set a good lap just before the end of the session, just 6 tenths off pole position. I was hoping to get into the top 10, but the gaps were very small, with 23 drivers within a second of each other. So I had to start P16 in each of the three races, which wasn’t ideal for scoring points.”
After an excellent start in Race 1, the driver from Andorra found himself at the centre of an incident. “Two drivers came together in front of me. I went to the outside to avoid them, but another driver hit me. The car was damaged and I lost some performance. Despite that, I managed to get to the finish and finish P14.”
In Race 2, Frank managed to move up from 16th to 13th in just one lap. “My aim was to improve my position even further, I felt I had the ability to do so. Unfortunately, the opposite happened, with a pass not going well. As a result, I was demoted to P19, which was very frustrating.”
Frank Porte Ruiz, who has always been very skilful at the start, pulled off another superb manoeuvre at lights out to take P11 at the start of Race 3. Unfortunately, his meeting was to end in another disappointment. “Once again, there was contact between two cars in front of me. I was able to avoid the incident, but another driver was caught out and climbed over the back of my car. It was damaged in the impact and I had to retire. It’s a shame, because at that point I was ready to mount an attack on the driver who crossed the finish line in 7th position. I think I was really capable of bringing home a good result from this race.”
“The Championship will come to an end in October at Le Castellet on Paul Ricard and I really intend to demonstrate the progress I’ve made throughout the year. I remain confident for the future!”
Info Kartcom / Photo © KSP – Guillaume Veuve