MACCAGNANI DOMINATES AS SAWER SEALS CROWN

The final weekend in the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship at Sepang International Circuit gave us a new winner in the closing stages of the season, as Niccolo Maccagnani was able to sweep the entire weekend before him with two pole positions and three race victories. Elsewhere, Alex Sawer lived up to his promise and secured the title – becoming the Vietnamese FIA single seater champion in motorsport history.

Qualifying delivered an easy result for Pinnacle Motorsport’s new star as he grabbed two pole positions away from Alex Sawer, and then converted the first into a strong drive. A fortnight ago it had been a good effort to keep Sawer back until the Vietnamese driver reeled him in, but this time the Italian not only had the confidence but also the pace to pull away from his opponent and grab his first victory in only his fourth car race.

The battles came from elsewhere as Seth Gilmore followed the two men home in third position in a fairly solitary race, whilst the battle came from Inigo Anton and Ayrton Asdathorn as the two men scrapped away throughout with the Thai star only managed to grab the fourth position he’d been seeking in the closing stages. Imran Putera was able to hold off the onslaught of new boy Rafael Vaessen whilst the brilliant race battle between BlackArts teammates Ben Nguyen and Joshua Berry would be settled when the Singaporean spun at the final turn just after passing Nguyen. He would come home behind Thomas Yu Lee after a narrow escape to pick up the fight again in race two.

The reverse grid put Inigo Anton on pole position alongside Asdathorn, and after a spirited start from Maccagnani the Italian jumped into fourth ahead of Sawer, whilst the Filipino set off into the lead. After a bit of hard work, Gilmore was able to pass Asdathorn with Maccagnani and Sawer not taking too long to join them. A few laps later and Gilmore succumbed to the speed and dexterity of Maccagnani and so kept his pace constant ahead of Sawer.

Thomas Yu Lee had a trying race, first spinning at Turn 3 on the opening lap and then doing so shortly after at the hairpin of Turn 9, bringing out the safety car as he retired. With the field bunched up it was tough for Anton to hold on to the lead, especially as he was struggling with a fever and a bout of flu. He did his best but when Maccagnani made his move at the final turn he ran wide and dropped to fourth behind Gilmore and Sawer too.

Maccagnani completed the task with a smooth cruise to victory ahead of the EvansGP pair whilst Anton recovered to finish fourth ahead of Asdathorn, whilst Vaessen came home ahead of the hard charging Putera – impressive from the Malaysia who had to start the race from the pitlane. Berry made up for his race one faux pas by reaching the flag ahead of team-mate Nguyen. Sadly this would be the last race of the year for new rookie champion Inigo Anton as his condition detoriated enough to put him in the care of the medical centre team and he withdrew from the last race of the year.

Pinnacle Motorsport were set for a clean sweep from the outset as Maccagnani stormed into an easy lead and never looked back. The hot circuit meant that tyre management became the ultimate task in the final encounter, something that Maccagnani has already demonstrated he can perform more than adequately. Sawer tried his best to stay with him but eventually had to consolidate second position. Gilmore finished in third position after another quiet race as the only man in the entire championship to score points in every single race.

Rafael Vaessen gave us some drama in the third race as he tried every trick in the book to get ahead of Ayrton Asdathorn, but the Thai driver’s experience gave him the edge over the Singaporean and they were able to complete the top five. Joshua Berry turned his fortunes around and continued his ever improving journey as the leading BlackArts driver across the line, dealing with the pressure brought to him by his stablemate Ben Bguyen who in turn recovered valiantly from a start-line error. Imran Putera struggled with what appeared to be a car issue as he held on at the flag from a recovering Thomas Yu Lee who had clutch problems of his own on the starting grid.

Alex Sawer and Inigo Anton are now the overall and rookie champions of 2025, but all eyes are on Niccolo Maccagnani after a strong clean sweep of poles and victories. This could be the start of something special for the Italian, and we may have to remember where we were when the new Ferrari junior driver first burst onto the scene. As for the teams in the F4 South East Asia paddock, 2026 is already just a few short months away.