This season Monoposto Racing Club will allow the Mygale M14-F4 chassis, most notable for its run in British F4 between 2015-2021, to participate in the series. Initially the car will race alongside the Monoposto F3 class cars, with an individual category to be further assessed over the course of the year pending relative performance.
Shortly after the launch of the latest halo-equipped Mygale M21-F4 which began racing around the world last year, we casually speculated in a mid-season social media post that the surplus of older M14-F4 cars now on the market would be ideally placed to form an ‘F3 Cup’ style budget series in the UK.
Through our work with Formula 4 Denmark we know that the venerable FIA approved car is a dependable workhorse, which has proven itself to be the ideal platform for both young drivers and engineers to develop their single seat skills. With so many cars still being campaigned around the world, it would seem an ideal opportunity to create a new lease of life for a chassis that is still perfectly functional yet no longer eligible to race in the UK national championship.
Well Monoposto have now done exactly that, with an amendment to their technical regulations meaning that Ford Ecoboost-powered M14 chassis will be allowed to run in the series for the first time this year. In their debut season the cars will run alongside the older F3 level machines, with a view to potentially having their own class from 2024 onwards as relative performance to to their competitors is monitored over the course of the season.
With costs to run in European national F4 series now frequently breaching the 350-400k barrier (and beyond), young drivers frequently find themselves priced out of what was originally conceived to be the formative rung on motorsports single seat ladder. While options like F1000 or the new BRSCC Formula Foundation electric concept offer an alternate route for aspiring single seat racers in the UK, this is the first time a relatively recent FIA-approved chassis with established global pedigree has been available to those who can’t afford the stratospheric costs of national level championships.
The ability to run such a contemporary feeder series car on a reasonable budget is therefore an exciting one, which we hope will grow over the course of the season as word spreads and more Mygale cars hit the second hand market. Initially only cars using the Ford Ecoboost power unit campaigned in recent years of the British series will be eligible, however this may change in the near future if and when the F4 machinery gets its own category within the established Monoposto classes.
There is also an additional opportunity for drivers to then make a linear progression into the series' Formula 3 class, which has grown steadily in recent years to incorporate a strong grid of post-2000 Dallara cars (and also benefits from a reg chance to include post-2007 models in 2023). Our on-track partners Fern GP race in the Mono F3 class and therefore offer the possibility of a driver stepping directly from Mygale F4 to Dallara F3 level machinery in their second season, making a measured progression with a power/grip advancement which in current machinery it would be otherwise unaffordable to do.
Running the cars in a multi-class series for the first time in the UK also offers unique benefits in developing race skills for the novice or younger driver stepping up from karting. Danish F4 successfully ran their Mygale M14 cars alongside a Formula Ford class (re-branded as Formula 5 locally), and drivers advocate the benefits of this in experience they acquired from adapting their race craft to the pace of different cars around them accordingly.
Since 1958, the Monoposto Racing Club has been providing cost-effective racing, and now, over 60 years later, is the largest single seater club in the UK; regularly putting out capacity grids. The aim of the Club is to organise a low cost single seat series, with a friendly atmosphere in the paddock, and respectful, competitive racing.
To control costs the Monoposto Championship has traditionally been for cars which are at least four years old. Depreciation is the most crippling cost in many categories of motor racing because the pace of development means that the very latest designs are essential for success. Monoposto Racing Club rules are specifically framed to prevent this from happening. Frequently, a car may be raced for several seasons or even several decades and show zero depreciation when sold. The inclusion of Mygale’s 2015-2021 Formula 4 car campaigned in national series all across the globe therefore marks one of the most recent inclusions to the series, with the exception of the Mono1000 and 1400 bike engine class which can run a more modern bespoke chassis.
We’re very excited about this new opportunity for young drivers to gain experience in a near-contemporary race car on the UKs top circuits, including the Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP layouts. Stay tuned here and on our social channels where we'll be bringing further news on the Formula 4 cars and their drivers as the season progresses.
Monoposto 2023 calendar
22/23 April - Snetterton 300
27/28 May - Silverstone GP
24/25 June - Donington Park National
8 July - Brands Hatch GP
19 August - Oulton Park International
16/17 September - Anglesey Coastal
7 October - Castle Combe*
5 November - Silverstone National*
* Non-championship/Tiedeman Trophy events
All photos by Jakob Ebrey Photography and used courtesy of Monoposto/MSVR
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