The single-seater story of Yani Stevenheydens

2024 French F4 runner-up Yani Stevenheydens made his GT racing debut last weekend in the GT4 European Series. At the Jarama round of the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship, his final single-seater campaign for the foreseeable future, I spoke to the Belgian driver to learn more about his journey.

Stevenheydens’ eighth birthday party was at a karting track, one that he always drove past when his parents took him to swimming events.

“Ever since then, it’s like the racing feeling has taken over,” he said. “From the first moment I stepped in [the kart], I really enjoyed it and I wanted to do nothing else than that all the time.”

After starting in indoor rental karting, Stevenheydens competed in the 60 Mini category of multiple WSK Promotion championships in Italy. The following years saw him compete in X30 Junior and Senior category karting, which ultimately culminated in him finishing runner-up in the X30 Senior IAME Warriors Final at Le Mans in October 2022.

The following year saw Stevenheydens embark on his first season of French F4 after just three days of testing. On his way to seventh in the standings, he took reverse-grid wins at Lédenon and Paul Ricard and three further P3 finishes, two of which came at Pau.

“After the first race, we [said] ‘okay, we need another year and a well-prepared year,’” he said. “So going into 2024, I was really confident. I knew the car, I had a good feeling with it, I had experience with the car, so we were confident we could do something well.”

Stevenheydens took both pole positions in the Nogaro season-opener and won the first race of the weekend. He went on to take three more wins, including two at the championship’s so-far only visit to the Nürburgring, eight further podiums and five more pole positions. His final pole of the year came ahead of race one of the final round at Paul Ricard.

In that race, Stevenheydens initially took his fourth win of the season by inheriting victory from title rival Taito Kato, who was given a three-second penalty for cutting the track at the first corner. In race two that afternoon, Stevenheydens finished behind Kato and then lost more points to him later that evening when the stewards rescinded his earlier penalty and reinstated his win.

Stevenheydens finished P3 in the final race of the season on Sunday morning ahead of Kato in P10, securing him the French F4 title. That was until he was handed a 10-second penalty in the afternoon for colliding with the Japanese driver at Turn 1, which dropped him to P11 and handed Kato the championship.

That evening, the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium – one of Stevenheydens’ main backers – filed an appeal against the overturning of Kato’s race one penalty, which was eventually accepted on November 11th. Simultaneously, however, an appeal from Kato’s side against the original penalty was also accepted, which resulted in the penalty being removed entirely as it was ruled he justifiably cut the track to avoid contact.

Stevenheydens during the season finale at Paul Ricard | Credit: KSP Reportages

“We should’ve won it quite easily,” he said. “[There were] a few mistakes on my part, and then some things that were out of my control, I would say.

“But that’s the past and I needed to learn to move on from that. Finishing the year P2 and only a few points behind the championship leader, I was still happy with my performance. I know what I did, what I was capable of that year and we showed everyone that the speed was incredible.”

Because he was limited in terms of budget, Stevenheydens greatly relied on the financial support he got from the RACB, the continuation of which was dependent on him winning the French F4 title. As a result, his 2025 fell into jeopardy before the year even began.

“I lost the backing of the Belgian federation,” he explained. “That kind of messed up my whole season already because the decision was made in December. By December, all the seats in the top teams are gone. And then as well, we were counting on the budget from the Belgian federation.

“It was really difficult. I was just trying to find opportunities. We found a solution with MP, which in the end didn’t turn out completely possible.”

Stevenheydens joined MP Motorsport for the inaugural Eurocup-4 Spanish Winter Championship and finished 13th in the standings with a single podium, which was victory in the Navarra sprint race. He was set to continue with the team for the main Spanish F4 season, but was replaced by Juan Cota a few days before the season-opener at Aragón. All was not lost, however, as he then received an offer to compete in the final round of Eurocup-3’s winter series that same weekend with GRS Team.

He competed in the first two rounds of the main season as a single-car entry before having to withdraw because of budget difficulties. After competing as a guest driver in Spanish F4’s Valencia round with the team, Stevenheydens returned to Eurocup-3 for the final round in Barcelona alongside Formula Regional debutant Maximilian Popov. In the end, he finished 16th in the standings with 16 points from four of his seven races.

“It was a difficult year [but] we worked hard,” he said. “We didn’t always get the results we wanted. We had some peaks like some nice points in Barcelona [and] in the Red Bull Ring we had a P3 in quali and P7 in the race.

“The speed was still there for even being such a small team [and] not having the same resources as the others. We were really maximising everything we got thanks to the team putting in a lot of effort. Since they’re smaller, they really like to focus on the drivers and put everything they have to perform. It was not an easy season, I didn’t really have the budget to do all the races either, just because it was so late. But [I was] still happy about the things I learned last year, even though not all the races were easy.”

Stevenheydens’ P7 at the Red Bull Ring would end up being his best result of the season | Credit: GRS Team

For 2026, Eurocup-3 replaced its Tatuus F3 T318-EC3 chassis with a brand-new car from Dallara. The new 326 is structurally identical to the 324 currently used in Euroformula Open and Super Formula Lights and continues to utilise Hankook tyres. It is powered by the same turbocharged Toyota-TOM’s three-cylinder engine used in both championships.

“The new car that they [brought to] the championship is an amazing car,” Stevenheydens said. “They did a super-good job by choosing to go for the Dallara, with as well the engine working really well. The tyres, we were a bit sceptical about in the beginning because it’s the same tyre as [Spanish] F4, which everyone was like ‘will this work out?’ But it’s actually working really well on the car. The car is really activating the tyre and it’s super-nice to drive.

“I think it’s the most enjoyable car I’ve ever driven in my life. Just the speed we can get, the downforce really working. But then again there’s still close racing. We can follow quite okay and the push-to-pass is super strong, so it really creates some good racing, and at the same time a super feeling for the driver.”

In this year’s winter series, Stevenheydens scored 15 points from four of his nine races to finish 14th in the standings. His greatest haul came from the opening round at Portimão, where he finished P7 in race one and P6 in the sprint race, which later became P5 after a 10-second penalty for Gianmarco Pradel in P3.

His other point-scores came the following weekend at Jarama. After the sprint, he was promoted up one place to P10 thanks to a 5-second penalty for René Lammers in P4. In the final race of the weekend, he inherited four positions to finish P9 in the final classification after Lammers, Bart Harrison, Filippo Fiorentino and Pradel ahead all received 10-second penalties.

The final round at Aragón saw Stevenheydens only take the chequered flag in the sprint, which he finished in P16. He retired from race one on Lap 3 after he collided with Christopher Feghali at Turn 12 and careered into the outside barrier. On Lap 6 of the final race, he tangled with Rafaël Pérard through the final corner, which sent the French driver airborne and broke Stevenheydens’ front-left suspension.

On March 26th, British team Elite Motorsport announced that Stevenheydens and Welsh driver Harri Reynolds would race for the team in the GT4 European Series’ Silver Cup, driving the #77 McLaren Artura.

It was also announced ahead of the opening round that Stevenheydens had been selected to join the Elite McLaren Talent Pathway, a junior driver initiative in partnership with McLaren Customer Racing.

On Saturday, Stevenheydens finished P6 in class and P12 overall in Q1 and Reynolds finished P15 in class and overall in Q2. In Sunday morning’s race, the #77 finished P7 both overall and in class. On Lap 20 of the afternoon’s race, Stevenheydens suffered a suspension failure whilst running P14 and was forced to come to a halt on the inside of Turn 5.

The pair and Elite Motorsport are currently P9 in the Silver Cup’s drivers’ and teams’ standings. Their next round will be at Monza from May 29th to 31st.