Andrew Richardson enjoyed an unexpected return to action as the F4 British Championship Certified by FIA – powered by Ford headed to Silverstone for the penultimate meeting of the 2016 season.Andrew, who has spent this season engineering the car being run by the Corby-based Richardson Racing team, was given the opportunity to return to competitive action at the eleventh hour but faced a huge challenge having never previously driven the team’s F4 machine.In fact, the Silverstone weekend marked his first competitive outing in a single-seater since a one-off Formula Ford outing at Oulton Park back in 2014; a gap of more than two years.Despite his only time at the wheel of the car being restricted to two test sessions on Friday, Andrew produced an encouraging performance in a damp qualifying session to post a best time little more than a second away from pole position, putting him 18th on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.Staying out of trouble in race one, Andrew brought his car to the finish in 18th spot and then went one better in race two, where he also brought his lap time down to better a number of his rivals in the rear end of the midfield.Electing to use the final race of the weekend to trial a number of set-up changes in preparation for the season finale at Brands Hatch next month, Andrew ended the meeting with a 19th place finish in race three; his chances not being aided by a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits at turn one.“Having spent nearly two seasons engineering the car, it was interesting to have the chance to actually get behind the wheel and race it myself,” he said. “Given that I hadn’t driven the F4 car before Friday testing, I had no real expectations in terms of results and just wanted to go out there and enjoy myself, so to get as close to the pace as I did in the second race is something I’m really happy with considering everyone else on the grid has been racing the car all year.“It didn’t take long to get comfortable behind the wheel but the F4 car certainly needs you to take a different approach compared to the cars I’ve driven in the past. You really need to be smooth in how you drive, and it’s all about carrying the momentum through the corners to maximise the lap time.“With two solid races under my belt, we elected to use race three to try out a few different things on the car to see how it reacted and it proved to be a worthwhile exercise. Although it wasn’t the right way to go, it is something that we would otherwise have had to try out when we got to Brands Hatch so it’s good to get the work done early here.“Getting a fresh insight into things has been really interesting and if the opportunity arose, it would be good to have another outing in the car to see what progress I can make.”