British F4: New Team for Silverstone as Jewiss and Simmons Lock Horns

Coming into the penultimate F4 British Championship round of the year, all eyes turn to the title fight, with Double R Racing’s star Kiern Jewiss leading the standings on 353 points.

The Brit went on a crusade during the first half of the year, picking up five victories and seven further podiums before Snetterton. Since the mid-season break though, results have not gone his way, recording just two podiums over the last three rounds. His closest rival Ayrton Simmons now sits 31 points adrift as the drivers gear up for Silverstone.

While Jewiss cannot claim to have the spectacular breakout season that previous champion Jamie Caroline experienced, the Ginetta Junior rookie champ only has 11 points less than the Carlin star at this stage last year. A new points record could still be on the table.

Many could argue though that Jewiss does not need to stress at this end of the year.

While Simmons is certainly closer than former-TRS Arden teammate Oscar Piastri was in his failed attempt to overthrow Caroline, the JHR Developments driver has equally found his results hard to come by.

A win last time out will certain reignite his flare, but it came at a rain-soaked Knockhill during a weekend he’d struggled to even challenge the top five on raw pace.

Jewiss on the other hand, although hasn’t tasted the winner champagne (fizzy water in F4) since June, he has regularly been inside the top five, managing to keep Simmons at bay over the last 2 rounds.

After a brief excerpt into British F3 a few weeks ago, Simmons seems more determined than ever to close the gap to his rival and unlike Caroline the year before, Jewiss cannot afford to risk a retirement.

Simmons of course has to also watch out from behind. Having spent the middle of the season fighting with teammate and fellow rookie Jack Doohan, Norwegian Dennis Hauger will hope to end the season on a high, now 39 points behind the experienced racer.

Hauger and Doohan have dominated the rookie cup this year, winning all but two of the races from the last three meetings. Going into Silverstone it’s Hauger who’s retaken the lead, sitting just six points ahead. While Paavo Tonteri is still mathematically in the hunt, it’s almost certainly going to be a run to the line come the final race of the year.

Elsewhere, Silverstone and British F4 welcome in a new driver and team.

Having been recently testing with the rest of the F4 field on the National circuit, Christian Lester joins the grid for the newly formed Rosso Verde/Scorpio Racing squad.

Lester, son of former GT racer Hector has made appearances in Ford Fiesta’s prior to this as he assesses his options for 2019.

He won’t be the only change from last weekend though, with Lucca Allen returning to the Fortec Motorsport team, bringing the total number of entries back up to fourteen. No longer be joining him though will be fellow Fortec driver Hampus Ericsson, as the Swede moves to BRDC British F3 for their final two rounds.

Meanwhile it would be the third Fortec driver; Johnathan Hoggard who again led the charge in testing. After being one of the star men from Knockhill, the 16-year-old will know that he has a good opportunity to end the season as most winningest driver.