Next year, the F4 British Championship has announced the introduction of the Ford F4 Challenge Cup, with more details being revealed. Most notably, the first Cup winner of an overall race can collect a £5000 prize.
This prize money, will be added onto to the £1000 available at each round. In this, £500 will be rewarded to the winner of the final race of the weekend, with £250 going to the reverse grid victor. The remaining £250 will be given to the driver who completes the most overtakes in the first event.
All of the Challenge Cup drivers will score points that count towards the overall championship, with all entrants required to race at Knockhill and the season finale at Brands Hatch.
The inclusion of Knockhill may be intended to help reduce the deficit Scottish drivers will face when travelling across the calendar. In total this allows Cup drivers to claim up to £7,000 plus a £15,000 scholarship for the winner and the £5000 for an overall win.
Testing has also been heavily affected by the new regulations, with a ban on all types between 21 December 2016 and 31 January 2017. After this point, all classes will have unlimited testing opportunities until the opening weekend.
The Challenge Cup entrants, will then only be allowed to test at the permitted weekend test days (usually the Friday before the associated weekend,) on the rounds they are competing at. This means, if a driver only enters four weekends, they will get four Friday tests, with a full Challenge Cup competitor appearing on seven Friday’s.
In order to maintain fairness within the Championship, all other rules, including car regulations, remain the same between the two classes.
The new Challenger Cup is designed to help drivers with smaller budgets, as entry costs will be lower for these remain under £100’000 in total. Previously, British F4 revealed that the winner of the Cup will be given £15,000 towards a drive for 2018.
For the rest of the field, the official test days have also been announced;
2017 F4 British Championship Official Test Days
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