China, F4 team copies Ferrari livery. And the direction hides the car

A Ferrari “blacked out” in China, during the local F4 in Shanghai. Why would a director take such a drastic decision, applying a pixelated patch on the iconic red livery? The reason is simple: the car is a copy of the SF-24 used by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, but it does not belong to the Maranello team in any way. Furthermore, it does not even have ties with commercial partners close to the Italian team. The idea taken by the Champ Motorsport team has forced the Chinese Formula 4 to implement particular solutions to avoid possible legal action.

the problem

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The trouble began at the beginning of the season, during the month of April, on the same weekend that F1 was making a stop in China. Wang Yi had attracted everyone’s attention and not so much for his sporting merits. In fact, it was impossible not to notice much more than a strong resemblance between his car and the single-seater used by Ferrari in the F1 World Championship. Logos, sponsors and even the arrangement of the yellow and white lines: everything was identical to the SF-24. The slight changes made were not enough to convince the Chinese Formula 4. So the direction decided to obscure the strange copy of the Ferrari. For several seconds the Champ Motorsport car appeared almost completely obscured, hiding, when possible, most of the sponsors. Champ Motorsport then tried to change direction, slightly tweaking its livery. In the last rounds, in fact, it inserted some stickers on the sides, making the sponsors disappear and leaving the name of its team in evidence.