Martin Molnár’s weekend at the eighth round of the 2024 British Formula 4 Championship didn’t unfold as expected, but the Hungarian driver fought his way back onto the podium.
“It wasn’t a good weekend,” summed up the Virtuosi Racing driver after the Donington Park round – and his assessment wasn’t far off. Coming into the weekend second in the standings and trailing the leader by 40.5 points, he dropped to third overall, now 52.5 points adrift.
Yet the weekend started well: in Saturday morning’s qualifying session, he extracted the maximum from his package, securing P3 on the grid for both Race 1 and Race 3 – ahead of both his main rivals, championship leader Fionn McLaughlin and third-placed James Piszcyk at the time.
In Race 1, representing the Hungarian Motorsport Academy (HMA), Molnár battled for the win throughout the race but eventually finished P3 as his tyres dropped off in the closing stages. McLaughlin managed to pass him with a bold move that also required cooperation from Martin.
In Sunday’s reverse-grid Race 2, the Virtuosi driver lined up P10 and was involved in a hectic race. It looked like he might finish in the top 10 ahead of McLaughlin, who had tangled with another driver. But Molnár also came into contact with a rival, which forced him to pit for a front wing change – he eventually finished P20.
In the final race, Molnár was once again in the fight for the win. He launched well off the line, moving up to P2 and chasing Race 1 winner Tommy Harfield. However, in his attempts to close the gap, he repeatedly exceeded track limits, resulting in a 5-second time penalty. Then, with 7 minutes to go, he collided with the race leader during an overtaking attempt. Harfield dropped to the midfield, while Molnár was passed by two cars but managed to reclaim second place with a strong move. Still, he ran wide again, earning another 5-second penalty. Although he crossed the line in P2, he was demoted to P9 in the final classification.
“I made several mistakes in Race 2 and damaged my front wing, and in Race 3 I picked up a 5-second penalty for track limits while fighting for the lead,” Molnár explained. “The team told me over the radio to try and take the lead and pull a gap. I gave it everything, but we collided, and I got another 5-second penalty – and later one more for the incident. So this race was full of penalties. Many drivers went off track more often than I did without getting penalized, but we weren’t among the lucky ones this time. Recent races haven’t gone our way, and we need to analyze why – this isn’t the first weekend like this.”
Molnár has also been handed a 5-place grid drop for the first race of the next round.
“In the heat of the championship fight, Martin made several errors driven by over-eagerness. We need to draw the right conclusions and learn from them quickly because right now we take one step forward and two steps back,” said Tamás Pál Kiss, sporting director of Motorsport Talent Management (MOTAM). “We need to stop accumulating mistakes – there are far too many. The only positive from the weekend is the P3 in Race 1, which made up for the missed podium in Scotland. But for the remainder of the season, serious changes in preparation are required.”
The penultimate round of the British F4 Championship will take place at Silverstone on September 20–21.