A Five Point F4 Fight Meets the Indian Racing League at Madras
The Indian Racing Festival brings F4 Indian Championship Round 3 and the Indian Racing League season opener to Madras International Circuit on 22 and 23 October. Aris Kyriakou arrived five points ahead of Luviwe Sambudla, while Chennai Turbo Riders begins its campaign on home ground.
ViPeople Motorsport DeskPublished 9 min read
Photograph: Free Press Journal / F4 India Round 1
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The Madras International Circuit gets two different championship stories in the same Indian Racing Festival weekend. F4 India arrives with a title fight separated by five points. The Indian Racing League begins a new season with six city based teams, including a Chennai side racing on home ground. The two day meeting on 22 and 23 October places the next generation of single seater drivers beside a franchise contest built around Indian and international names.
The standings before Chennai give the F4 story its shape. Aris Kyriakou of Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru leads with 93 points. Luviwe Sambudla of Goa Aces JA Racing follows on 88. Bhuvan Bonu is third with 51, then Mahlori Mabunda has 46 and Aaron Mehta 42. A race victory is worth 25 points, so the gap between the first two drivers can disappear in a single result. Neither arrives with room to settle into the weekend.
F4 India standings before the Madras round
Position
Driver
Points
1
Aris Kyriakou
93
2
Luviwe Sambudla
88
3
Bhuvan Bonu
51
4
Mahlori Mabunda
46
5
Aaron Mehta
42
The F4 Indian Championship podium after the second round at Kari. Aris Kyriakou carried a five point lead into the Chennai weekend.Photograph: Possible11 / F4 India Round 2
Consistency against the man who can win twice
Kyriakou’s advantage came from returning to the podium through all three races at Round 2 in Coimbatore. Sambudla had a more dramatic weekend. He won Race 1 from pole, retired from Race 2, then came back to win Race 3. That pattern is a small portrait of a championship. Consistency keeps a driver near the front, while a winning afternoon can change the points table in an instant.
Bonu’s position makes the fight more interesting. He won the second race in Coimbatore after starting from reverse grid pole, then carried a useful result into third place in the standings. Ntiyiso Mabunda also collected two podiums at the previous round. Swarnav Das and Chennai Turbo Riders driver Sai Aditya arrive with opportunities of their own. Aditya’s run from tenth on the grid to a strong Race 3 finish showed how much can change when a driver finds a clear path through the pack.
F4 gives the drivers a direct contest with little space to hide. The braking points arrive quickly, the cars respond sharply and the racing line is narrow enough to make every pass a judgement call. A reverse grid can rearrange the first metres of a race. A clean start can decide whether a contender spends the opening laps attacking or protecting position. The points table says five. The circuit asks every driver to earn that difference again.
The league brings the city into the paddock
Alongside F4, the Indian Racing League opens its 2026 season at Madras. Its six teams represent Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Goa and Delhi. Each team has four drivers, with women represented in every line up. The format puts Indian racers beside international competitors and gives the championship a team identity that spectators can follow from one event to the next.
The published Indian Racing League Round 1 driver line up for Goa Aces JA Racing, Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru and Hyderabad Blackbirds at Madras International Circuit.Photograph: Turn of Speed / Indian Racing League
Goa Aces JA Racing begins as the defending champion after winning the 2025 to 2026 title. Raoul Hyman and Fabienne Wohlwend lead its line up, with Ishaan Madesh and Veer Amar Sheth alongside them. Wohlwend’s feature race victory at the Goa Street Circuit in February remains one of the season’s defining results. The team returns with a target on its back and enough experience to know that a defence begins by scoring well in the first round.
For Chennai Turbo Riders, the same weekend has a home circuit quality. Shane Chandaria, Arya Singh, Tijil Rao and Neus Llin Cruz form its published line up. The local team arrives in front of supporters who know the circuit and can recognise the colours before the cars reach the braking zone. Home advantage is a feeling as much as a sporting measure. The drivers still have to turn it into a clean start, a measured first lap and points at the flag.
The Round 1 line ups for Speed Demons Delhi, Kolkata Royal Tigers and Chennai Turbo Riders. The Chennai team begins its campaign at its home circuit.Photograph: Turn of Speed / Indian Racing League
The rest of the field gives the opening round its wider character. Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru brings Emil Heyerdahl, Ruhaan Alva, Dhruvh Goswami and Jemma Moore. Hyderabad Blackbirds lines up Jon Lancaster, Aman Nagdev, Mohamed Ryan and Mia Caruso. Speed Demons Delhi fields Sachel Rotgé, Divy Nandan, Shahan Ali Mohsin and Mira Erda. Kolkata Royal Tigers has Alister Yoong, Sai Shiva Sankaran, Aditya Patnaik and Jem Hepworth. Each franchise arrives with a different mix of experience and a reason to make the first result count.
One circuit, two different ways to tell the story
The value of placing F4 and the IRL together is that they show two sides of the same racing ecosystem. F4 is a driver development championship with individual points and a title that can move sharply across a weekend. The IRL turns the grid into a city based team battle, with drivers contributing to a shared campaign. One follows a rising driver’s path through the standings. The other lets a city build a sporting identity around its team.
Madras International Circuit has seen Indian single seater racing develop across several seasons. The 2026 calendar also gives the festival two new destinations later in the year, including Buddh International Circuit and a finale on the Navi Mumbai Street Circuit. Chennai is an important step in that wider route. It brings the series back to a circuit with deep local memory before the championship travels into new territory.
The standings and line ups here are recorded before the Chennai results. That distinction matters because the weekend is still about to write its answer. Kyriakou and Sambudla have the clearest contest at the front of F4. Chennai Turbo Riders has a home crowd behind it. Goa Aces carries the champion’s responsibility. By the end of the final race, those pre race stories will have become something more useful: a new set of points, a new shape to the championship and a clearer sense of who has found their rhythm.
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