The highly rated Hugh Barter is expecting to win the French F4 Championship under any circumstances during his second campaign in the ultra competitive series.
The`French F4 season kicks off at Nogaro this weekend with three races on the 2.259 mile circuit.
Barter will balance French F4 and Spanish F4 in 2022 to maximise the available track time this season. However due to Spa and Valencia featuring on both calendar’s he won’t be able to score points at those tracks in the French championship making his quest for the title more difficult.
The 16-year-old said: “My expectations to win the French Championship no matter what of course it’s going to be quite a big struggle considering that I won’t be able to score points for Spa or Valencia because I would’ve already done a round in the Spanish [championship] which doesn’t allow me to score points for the French championship.
“It’ll be extremely hard but we’ll still put maximum effort in no matter what and see if we can come away with the win in the championship.”
He is feeling much more confident this year after taking a victory at Nogaro in 2021 despite the cars and drivers being different to 12 months ago: “I definitely feel a lot more confident than what I did last year in round one of course the win from last year definitely helps the confidence.
“But this year the cars are different and there’s different competition but I feel confident for the whole season so I look forward to it.”
Barter admitted that there is added pressure to perform as he is embarking on his second season in the French F4 championship but he is relishing the opportunity to deliver in 2022. The Australian said: “There’s definitely some more pressure being my second year in the F4.
“But in saying that we can only go one place better and it’s the best place to be in so it’s a good motivation to try and improve and there’s more expectation, there’s more confidence there’s more everything coming into this season so I look forward to it.”
He is aiming high for the opening round looking to top the championship standings after the conclusion of the weekend at Circuit De Nogaro.
“My expectation for Nogaro is to come out of the round leading the championship I think that’s the ultimate goal especially missing the two rounds [Spa and Valencia] like I said before.
“The track is quite nice I actually like it quite a fair bit so from testing and last year I think Turn 1, 2 and 3 are all banked corners so it’s a nice little, small track.
“The racing can be quite difficult since there’s not too many but either way you know it’s a good track. It’s a good little French track.”
