Gabriel Gomez on his debut year in Formula 4: "I think we've improved a lot since the start of the season"

 

Last weekend I attended the opening round of the 2024 Euro 4 season at the Mugello Circuit and had the chance to have a short interview with current Spanish F4 driver and current European Karting Championship runner-up, Brazil's Gabriel Gomez.

In his only round of Euro 4, Gomez had a best result of 12th in the second race and finished inside the top 20 in the other two races.

SA: How did the opportunity to race in Euro 4 come to be?

GG: "It was a last-minute opportunity, [PHM AIX Racing] called me because one of their drivers got hurt and so they needed a driver to do Euro 4 at Mugello so they called me."

SA: How are you getting along with the team?

GG: "Very good, it's a team that really helps drivers in general and I'm very happy to be here with them but I've had limited time to understand the track, compared to other drivers who have tested and even raced here earlier in the year, meanwhile I came here just for this round, doing only 2 practice sessions and a qualifying session, so it was pretty hard to find something during qualifying, you basically have two laps to set a lap time, so it was really hard but our race pace was good and we gained a lot during the races."

Gomez spent most of 2024 racing in the Spanish F4 championship for newcomers TC Racing, where he currently sits 25th in the standings, as the only full-timer without points, with a best result of P11 in the third race at Le Castellet.

SA: You mainly race in the Spanish F4 championship, which uses the same car but with different tires, what's the difference between Hankook and Pirelli?

GG: A lot of things are different [between the two championships], the brakes are different, it's also different to drive as we don't have the same grip that the Pirelli tires give, and in qualifying you set your best time on your eighth lap [on Hankook tires], while here you set it on your first or second lap. It's a shame I got used to it a bit late but I quite like it.

SA: What are your objectives for the last half of this year?

GG: "I think we've improved a lot since the start of the season", said Gomez. "We didn't have the best of starts, a bit away from our goals, but I think we've made improvements during this year and we have constantly been near the points in the last couple of rounds, that isn't bad considering the level of competition in Spanish F4 but I aim to constantly be up there near the top 10 as that's our main objective."

SA: Where could we see you next year?

GG: I honestly don't know, I would really like to continue doing junior formulas but we'll see.

Header image credit: ACI Sport