Richardson Racing has confirmed that it will make a return to the F4 British Championship certified by FIA, powered by Ford EcoBoost for the 2021 season.
The Corby-based team will run a multi-car programme in the series as it returns to single-seater competition after a year’s sabbatical, with rising star Georgi Dimitrov the first driver to be confirmed for the new campaign.
The 15-year-old British-Bulgarian racer - from Newmarket in Suffolk - joined Richardson Racing at the start of 2020 as he took the first step into car racing following a successful career in karting; which included victory in the X30 Mini class of the 2017 Kartmasters British Grand Prix.
Running in the highly-competitive Ginetta Junior Championship, Georgi made light of his rookie status from the outset as he secured a brace of wins on the opening weekend of the campaign at Donington Park.
The talented teenager has gone on to add further victories at Knockhill and Silverstone as the season has gone on, with an impressive record of 13 top ten finishes in 19 starts helping him to secure a top four championship finish ahead of the season finale this weekend at Brands Hatch.
Having shown his talents on track this year, Georgi will become the latest driver to make the move from the Ginetta series into British F4 for the next phase of his racing career.
As a team, Richardson Racing originally competed in British F4 from 2015 to 2017 before taking a year out in order to expand its hugely successful junior racing programme.
Returning to the series in 2019, the team immediately showed its potential with victory in the opening race of the season at Brands Hatch and would go on to take a further eight podium finishes - including a further win at Thruxton - as it secured a top six championship finish.
Although not racing in the series this season, the team has carried out a number of tests with various drivers who were keen to sample the race-winning F4 machine, with further announcements ahead of 2021 to follow in due course.
Georgi’s own testing programme will get underway in the near future, with his focus to this point having been fully on his existing Ginetta programme.
Georgi Dimitrov said:
"My goal has always been to race in single-seaters so I'm really excited by this opportunity, and it is great to be able to stay with the team after a strong first season together. I feel like I have been able to prove myself this year in the Ginetta and it has been a good place to start my car racing career, and British F4 is the next step.
"If you look at the top three in the championship this season, they all raced in Ginetta Juniors beforehand, and a lot of other drivers have followed the same route and gone on to do well. My aim is to follow people like that and try to work my way up the motorsport ladder.
"I don't want to get too carried away about what to expect because I am still learning, and I'll take the same approach that I took this season and see what happens. I'll work hard with the team during the winter so that we can try and make sure we are as strong as possible when we get to the first round, and hopefully we can fight for some strong results."
Gwyn Richardson, team principal, said:
"We’re absolutely delighted to be able to confirm that we will return to British F4 next season, and that Georgi is the first driver to sign up for the programme. When he joined us at the start of the year to race in the Ginetta, we knew he was a talented driver from karting, but he has really exceeded our expectations.
"He hit the ground running from the very start of the season and has developed a lot over the course of the year, so we are confident that he will be able to make an impression in British F4 in 2021 and challenge for some strong results.
"We’re talking to a number of other drivers about joining Georgi in British F4 next season, with our goal being to put together a three-car programme for our return to single-seaters."
