Starting in the 2016–17 season, the Formula 4 UAE Championship was launched by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, and its national affiliate the Automobile & Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates (ATCUAE), who acted as the championship's promoter.

[3] Throughout the following two years, the ATCUAE has worked to develop a Formula 4 championship for the UAE, which will be the first in the Middle East and North African region.

[4] In February 2016, the championship was launched in spectacular fashion in front of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, with the public unveiling of the car undertaken by HH Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, the Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development and Chairman of the General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare, and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the ATCUAE.

[5] Following the launch in February 2016, the car was given its first test around the Dubai Autodrome, driven by Dubai-born Indy Lights driver Ed Jones.

[7] The inaugural 2016–17 championship featured eighteen races over six weekends, four of which were held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, with the remaining two at the Dubai Autodrome.