Calgary teenager Alex Berg wins first F4 race in England

Calgary born-and-raised Alex Berg (in red), 17, celebrates after winning his first F4 race in England this weekend. (Photo: X@FortecMotorsports)

A 17-year-old Calgarian won his first British Formula 4 race Sunday.

Alex Berg endured two starts and a safety car restart but in the end, he came out ahead of second-place Mika Abrahams.

Berg got off to a fast start, but a multi-car accident before even one lap had been completed resulted in the drivers being told to do it all over again.

On the second start, Berg again jumped ahead of the field.

Berg’s win was the first of the year for Fortec Motorsports, a British racing team.

Family tradition

Berg’s father Allen was a world-class driver himself, who competed on the F1 circuit in 1986. Allen won the Formula Tasman Championship in F3 and qualified for nine F1 starts that year in the 1986 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Allen was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2020.

Alex’s biography says he currently lives in Buford, Georgia, but is temporarily residing in Daventry, U.K., for the 2024 racing season.

Berg won a 2023 Team Canada Scholarship, and represented Canada at the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.

He says on his bio that his goal is to be a professional racing driver, and he’s off to a fast start.

As far as getting that first win goes, Berg said on the Fortec Motorsports website that it wasn’t ideal, but it was still a win.

“Race three was a little bit of a compromise because we didn’t have a real start and we didn’t have a real finish either,” he said. “I got put in an awkward spot and maybe misjudged some speeds on the restart. It’s just really nice to call myself a British F4 race winner and the first Canadian to do so.”

F1A Formula 4 is an open-wheel racing car category for junior drivers. It was created in 2014 to give young drivers around the world an affordable way to make the transition from karting to single-seat racing.