Rintaro Sato makes his debut in the French F4 Championship
Circuit de NogaroRintaro Sato, who competes in the French F4 Championship, took part in the first race at Nogaro and gained valuable experience in tough conditions.
In 2024, Rintaro Sato graduated at the top of his class from the Honda Racing School Suzuka, earning a scholarship. He gained race experience in the FIA F4 Japanese Championship before joining Honda’s development program, the Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP), in 2025. This season, he is competing in the French F4 Championship, which features 30 drivers from 10 countries. Organized by the prestigious FFSA Academy, the series has produced numerous top drivers, including Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar. Japanese drivers Ayumu Iwasa and Taito Kato also won the championship titles in 2020 and 2024 respectively.
The 2025 French F4 Championship consists of six rounds, beginning at Nogaro and concluding at Le Mans. Each event features three races, with grids set based on a unique format: Race 1 by the drivers’ best qualifying times, Race 2 by reversing the top 10 qualifiers, and Race 3 by second-best times from qualifying.
The opening round took place at Nogaro from 18th to 21st April, featuring free practice sessions, qualifying, and three races. Despite rapidly changing weather conditions making life difficult for the rookie, he showed encouraging pace — ranking P5, P6, and P3 in Friday’s free practice sessions on a dry track, and maintaining P5 in Saturday’s final practice in the rain. Things seemed to be moving in a positive direction. However, heavy traffic and multiple red flags during Qualifying prevented him from setting a competitive lap time, and he was classified 19th out of 30 drivers.
Starting from the back in all three races, Sato was involved in incidents and unfortunately retired from each race. Although the results were disappointing, the weekend provided valuable experience for his development.
"It's clear that by starting from 19th place in all three races, my chances of a good result were immediately impacted," reflected Sato. "On top of that, luck was clearly not on my side, with three consecutive race incidents forcing me to retire each time. It's a real shame, because I had the opportunity to get off to some excellent starts and make some convincing comebacks. I intend to fight in the leading group from the next race."
The second round of the 2025 French F4 Championship is scheduled to take place at Dijon-Prenois from 9th to 11th May, followed by Spa-Francorchamps in June, Magny-Cours in August, Nîmes-Lédenon, and the final round at Le Mans in September.
The opening round of the French F4 Championship at Nogaro turned into a tough weekend from the very start. Free practice on the 18th was held in the rain, and although I focused on getting used to the wet conditions, the grip level was extremely low. Many cars went off the track, and the session was quickly red-flagged, which limited the number of laps I could complete. Even so, I was able to get a solid feeling from the limited laps we had.
Qualifying also took place in the rain, and it was all about making the most of the few chances we had. However, multiple red flags interrupted the session again, severely limiting the opportunities to attack. With 30 cars lined up on the pit lane, securing a clear lap was extremely difficult. On my final attempt, I managed to set the third-fastest time, but just before crossing the line, a yellow flag came out, and my lap was deleted. As a result, I was classified 19th, which was a very disappointing outcome.In Race 1, I made a good start and climbed up to 12th, but unfortunately, I had to retire after contact during a safety car period. In Race 2, visibility was extremely poor, and right after accelerating, I was unable to avoid a pile-up ahead and ended up colliding with another car. Race 3 was held in dry conditions. Starting from 19th on the grid, I managed to fight through the pack and reached 11th at one point. However, while battling for a spot in the top 10, I was hit from behind and forced to retire again.Given how strong our pace was in both free practice and qualifying, it’s extremely frustrating to have retired from all three races. This weekend made me realize that falling back in qualifying was the root cause of everything that followed. I’ve identified a lot of areas to improve, and I’m determined to learn from this experience and bounce back strongly in the next round.
The opening round of the French F4 Championship at Nogaro turned into a tough weekend from the very start. Free practice on the 18th was held in the rain, and although I focused on getting used to the wet conditions, the grip level was extremely low. Many cars went off the track, and the session was quickly red-flagged, which limited the number of laps I could complete. Even so, I was able to get a solid feeling from the limited laps we had.
Qualifying also took place in the rain, and it was all about making the most of the few chances we had. However, multiple red flags interrupted the session again, severely limiting the opportunities to attack. With 30 cars lined up on the pit lane, securing a clear lap was extremely difficult. On my final attempt, I managed to set the third-fastest time, but just before crossing the line, a yellow flag came out, and my lap was deleted. As a result, I was classified 19th, which was a very disappointing outcome.In Race 1, I made a good start and climbed up to 12th, but unfortunately, I had to retire after contact during a safety car period. In Race 2, visibility was extremely poor, and right after accelerating, I was unable to avoid a pile-up ahead and ended up colliding with another car. Race 3 was held in dry conditions. Starting from 19th on the grid, I managed to fight through the pack and reached 11th at one point. However, while battling for a spot in the top 10, I was hit from behind and forced to retire again.Given how strong our pace was in both free practice and qualifying, it’s extremely frustrating to have retired from all three races. This weekend made me realize that falling back in qualifying was the root cause of everything that followed. I’ve identified a lot of areas to improve, and I’m determined to learn from this experience and bounce back strongly in the next round.
