Draft:Tiago Rodrigues (racing driver)

Tiago Golovko Rodrigues (born 19 June 2007), more commonly known as Tiago Rodrigues, is a Macanese racing driver who most recently competed in the Formula 4 UAE Championship with Xcel Motorsport. He won the F4 Chinese Championship in 2023.

Karting
Rodrigues competed in various Macanese championships from 2022 to 2023, notably the AAMC Karting Championship.

AAMC Karting Championship - X30 Senior
Rodrigues participated in the X30 Senior Macanese Championship at Coloane Karting Track for the first time in 2022.

He would finish 2nd and 3rd for races 1 and 2 respectively in round 1, scoring 36 points in the Club Race Championship. At the same time, he was the winner of the National Race Championship. He would finish 4th in both races of round 2 and scored 22 points in the Club Race Championship. In the end, Rodrigues classified 3rd overall and 1st in the National Race Championship.

2022
The first time Rodrigues raced in the KZ category was in 2022. That year, he joined one race of the AAMC Karting Championship which was held in Coloane Karting Track, Macau.

Rodrigues geared up in the Establishment of the Macau SAR Cup, finishing second in Pre-Final and won the Final race.

2023
In 2023, Rodrigues continued racing in the KZ Championship.

In round 1, Rodrigues won the Pre Final race. However, despite starting from pole position in the 17 laps Final race, Rodrigues didn't manage to convert it as a win. Hong Kong racer Liao Yan Yik overtook Rodrigues in the first lap and Rodrigues finished 2nd at last.

Rodrigues then finished 3rd in both Pre-Final and Final races in round 2.

In round 3, Rodrigues finished behind Liao Yan Yik once again in the Pre-Final and Final races and was able to get 40 points on the weekend by ending in 2nd place.

In round 4, Rodrigues finished 3rd in both the Pre-Final and Final again. In the Final race, red flag was issued on the first lap due to collisions with other drivers. Rodrigues failed to win again as the Macanese racer Marcus Cheong continued to extend his lead.

Rodrigues was leading the championship before the final round of the season. However, his car had some technical issues and didn't finish race 1, making him start from 13th in race 2. Rodrigues finished 4th in the final race and became 3rd in the championship. He claimed his championship trophy for 3rd position in the AAMC Prize Presentation Ceremony on 26th January, 2024.

2024
On 2 March 2024, it was announced that Rodrigues would join the championship again.

In round 1, Rodrigues topped the qualifying session which meant that he would start from pole position in Pre Final. He successfully converted to a win and placed himself first on the starting grid of Final. In the first lap of Final, Rodrigues was overtaken by Marcus Cheong, who started from 2nd place. On lap 12, Cheong was passed by Rodrigues. Therefore, Rodrigues crossed the finish line first, but he received a 5 seconds penalty due to causing a collision and classified 3rd.

Positive momentum continued in round 2, where Rodrigues would start from pole position and successfully inverted to a win in Pre Final. Rodrigues would be leading the Final for most of the time, until he was overtaken by the Hong Kong racer Liao Yan Yik and his teammate Marcus Cheong. Rodrigues crossed the finish line 3rd, but classified 2nd due to a penalty given to Liao Yan Yik because of a false start.

Rodrigues was set to start from second in round 3's Pre Final. However, his teammate Marcus Cheong, who qualified for pole position, had an engine failure of his kart and did not start the following both races. Rodrigues won and set fastest laps in both Pre Final and Final. Due to Cheong's absence, Rodrigues became the championship leader with 136 points. He stated that "it wasn't really hard to get (P1) because most of my competitions had very tough races and had some difficult circumstances to deal with" during a post-race interview.

No points were granted for Rodrigues in round 4. Due to the extension of the thunderstorm signal, the qualifying session was delayed and the Pre-Final was canceled. Rodrigues finished second in qualifying. The Final race was canceled as well due to the second hoisting of the thunderstorm signal.

Rodrigues also geared up for the Macau Kart Grand Prix, which had not been held since 2019. He entered the KZ class which was the fifth round of the championship. Rodrigues achieved a pole to win in Pre-Final which set him to start from pole again in the Final. Rodrigues immediately dropped to fourth due to a bad start. He gained two positions back both at turn 2 on the first and second turns of the track. Rodrigues took the lead of the race at the final corner of lap 8, but mistakenly missed turn one and placed himself at the runoff area, dropping him down to fourth. Rodrigues was battling for third position at the end of lap 9, he was side by side with Maximiano Manhao and successfully gained a position as Manhao went wide. Rodrigues initially finished third in the Final, but was given a 5-second time penalty due to an incorrect position of front fairing.

Rodrigues would start from pole in Pre-Final of round 6. Rodrigues would win and set the fastest lap in Pre-Final which allowed him to start from pole in Final. Rodrigues dropped down to fourth at the start but took the lead in lap 3. Rodrigues set the fastest lap of 0:46:587 in Final and won with over a 10-second margin. "I think that the start could have been a little bit better because I started in the pole position but after the start I dropped to the fourth position, but then I made my way up to second. Then, I started catching the driver who was in the first position. He had a problem so he retired and I manage to go to the first position that way. Then, from that went on it was just about keeping the pace, not doing any mistakes and finishing the race." said Rodrigues during a post-race interview.

Rodrigues qualified second in round 7's Pre-Final. He would finish Pre-Final in second. The Final was suspended after two laps and did not resume due to the hoisting of thunderstorm signal. The awards of podium were granted according to the Pre-Final classification. Points were only granted for Pre-Final.

Formula 4 Chinese Championship
Rodrigues made his car racing debut in the 2023 F4 Chinese Championship with Champ Motorsport. He took home his first podium during race 3 of the first round at the Zhuhai International Circuit.

Rodrigues took three wins and four podiums in the second round at the Ningbo International Circuit.

Rodrigues took his first pole position for race 1 at the Pingtan Ruyi Lake International Circuit, however he did not convert that to a win, falling behind Liu Kai Shun in race 1. He would later win race 2 and finish on the podium in race 3 and race 4.

The fourth round of the year at the Zhuhai International Circuit would see Rodrigues take his second pole position, yet he failed to convert it to a win as he finished behind Xu Yingjie, Hu Chengru, and Patrick Tsang.

In round five, Rodrigues was crowned as the champion of the F4 Chinese Championship with 33 points ahead of the Hong Kong racer Liu Kai Shun. By winning the championship, he was invited to the 2023 FIA Rally & Circuit Prize Giving Ceremony which was held in Baku.

Formula 4 South East Asia Championship
Rodrigues also geared up for an assault on the returning Formula 4 South East Asia Championship in 2023. He would finish on the podium in all three races that weekend at the Zhuzhou International Circuit and placed himself on the top of the driver's championship.

Rodrigues didn't participate in the remaining rounds at Sepang International Circuit to save budget for the Formula 4 UAE Championship in the following year. This caused him to gradually drop from the lead to 5th in the final standings.

Macau Formula 4 Race
Rodrigues also participated in the Formula 4 event in his hometown's Macau Formula 4 Race, also known as Macau Asia Formula 4, in 2023. Rodrigues qualified 8th for the qualification race and felt satisfied with it. However, he believed that he could do better. Rodrigues finished 8th in the wet qualification race, and 6th in the final race, behind Taiwanese racer Ethan Ho.

Formula 4 UAE Championship
After saving enough budget for the championship by dropping out of the last two rounds in the 2023 Formula 4 South East Asia Championship, on 8th January 2024, it was announced that Rodrigues would join Xcel Motorsport for the full 2024 season of the Formula 4 UAE Championship.

Rodrigues had a "bittersweet weekend" in the first round of the championship at Yas Marina Circuit. Starting from the 26th position in Race 1, he maneuvered through a total of 33 cars, finishing in 19th place. The momentum continued into Race 2, where Rodrigues started in the 19th and advanced to the 13th position by the end. In Race 3, despite starting from 21st, he crossed the finish line in the 15th position.

During the first race of round 2, Rodrigues had a good start from 14th to 10th but then had collisions with Alvise Rodella, who was his teammate, and Jules Caranta. This made his front wing break. Rodrigues made collisions again in the second last lap, once again with his teammate Liu Kai Shun, from Hong Kong. He finished the race in 30th at last. Rodrigues collided with Peter Bouzinelos in the second race, causing the safety car to be deployed. Rodrigues was retired from the race. This made his position dropped in the driver's championship. In race 3, Rodrigues would finish in 15th.

The third round continued at Dubai Autodrome, Rodrigues finished 10th and 7th in qualifying 1 and 2 respectively. Despite damaging his front wing on the final lap, Rodrigues managed to finish 8th in race 1. In race 2, Rodrigues started from 5th position but got pushed off in the final laps and finished 11th. He would start from 7th in race 3 but collided with Deagen Fairclough on the last lap when fighting for 4th position which made him finish 26th at last.

For the fourth round of the season in Yas Marina Circuit, Rodrigues first qualified 19th for race 1. However, he started from the 21st position at the end as a penalty for causing a collision in race 3 of round 3. Rodrigues would finish 22nd in the race which made him start from the same position in race 2. But, he couldn't convert it to points again by finishing 28th. In the final race of the weekend, Rodrigues showed improvement by starting from 27th and finishing 15th.

The final round returned to Dubai Autodrome on 16-18 February. Rodrigues qualified 15th and 14th for races 1 and 2 respectively. He wouldn't be able to score points in all 3 races as an amount of contact occurred during the races, causing him to lose several positions.

By scoring points once in the season, Rodrigues finished the season in 22nd position in driver classification with 4 points in total.

Career summary
* Season still in progress.

Complete AAMC Karting Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) * Season still in progress.

† — Did not finish, but classified

Career summary
* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula 4 Chinese Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula 4 South East Asia Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula 4 UAE Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish, but classified