Eight teams, sixteen seats, and a points table that'll probably look different by the time you finish reading this. Here's the 2026 F4 Indian Championship grid, with the standings as they stood after the opening round at Kari.
New to the series? Start with the complete guide and come back.
The eight teams
City franchises, same naming convention the Indian Racing League uses, which is how the whole thing presents as one product under the Indian Racing Festival banner.
| Team | Drivers | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Chennai Turbo Riders | Sai Aditya | India |
| Anay Doshi | Kenya | |
| Goa Aces JA Racing | Luviwe Sambudla | South Africa |
| Aryan Narola | USA | |
| Ahmedabad Apex Racers | Mathias Forland | Norway |
| TBA | ||
| Hyderabad Blackbirds | Bhuvan Bonu | India |
| Shravan Shanmugavel | United Kingdom | |
| Kolkata Royal Tigers | Aaron Mehta | Singapore |
| Swarnav Das | India | |
| Godspeed Kochi | Mahlori Mabunda | South Africa |
| TBA | ||
| Speed Demons Delhi | Krishay Gutte | India |
| Ntiyiso Mabunda | South Africa | |
| Kichcha's Kings Bengaluru | Enzo Rujugiro | South Africa |
| Aris Kyriakou | Australia |
Fourteen confirmed, two seats open when we published this.
Now read that nationality column again. Four Indians. Four South Africans. Kenya, Norway, Singapore, the UK, the USA, Australia. For a national championship that's a remarkable spread, and it's the single most interesting thing about the grid. We've dug into why in why the Indian F4 grid is full of foreign drivers.
Who to watch
Aris Kyriakou turned up at round one and took three podiums from three races. He leads, and right now he's the benchmark everyone else is measured against.
Luviwe Sambudla won the opening race of the season. South Africans have form here, Aqil Alibhai having taken the 2024 title, and Sambudla is the one carrying that in 2026.
Aaron Mehta sits third and has been the most reliable points-scorer on the grid so far.
Then there's the domestic question, which is the one that actually matters to most people reading this. Bhuvan Bonu, Sai Aditya, Krishay Gutte and Swarnav Das carry the Indian interest, and in three completed seasons no Indian driver has won this championship.
Standings after round one
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aris Kyriakou | Kichcha's Kings Bengaluru | 51 |
| 2 | Luviwe Sambudla | Goa Aces JA Racing | 38 |
| 3 | Aaron Mehta | Kolkata Royal Tigers | 32 |
Fifty-one points from three podiums tells you how the format rewards turning up every time. Three races per round, full points in each, so a driver who's consistently third builds a lead faster than someone who wins once and then parks it in the gravel.
Points follow FIA Formula 4 regulations: 25 for a win, with reduced points (10 for the win) if weather or a red flag shortens a race.
Six rounds. Kari Motor Speedway took both the opener on 12 and 13 September and round two on the 19th and 20th. It finishes in December at the new Navi Mumbai Street Circuit.
The Indian Racing League runs alongside on its own four-round schedule from 24 October at the Madras International Circuit, and both titles get settled at Navi Mumbai. Dates and broadcast detail are in the festival calendar.
Mygale M21-F4 chassis, Alpine engine, JK Tyre rubber, identical down the grid. That's the point of Formula 4. If someone's quick here, it isn't the car. How that machinery stacks up against the categories above it is in F4 vs F3 vs F2 vs F1.
Past champions, and what each of them did next, are listed in every F4 Indian champion.
