The FIA Formula 4 initiative was announced by Gerhard Berger and the FIA Singleseater Commission in March 2013. The programme established strict cost caps: cars could not exceed €30,000 to purchase, and a driver's full annual budget was limited to €100,000. The Spanish championship was intended as a "second phase" launch, following the inaugural "first phase" championships — the Italian F4 Championship and Formula 4 Sudamericana — which began racing in 2014.
The Real Federación Española de Automovilismo (RFEDA) officially announced the Spanish championship on 14 November 2014. An early plan engaged French constructor Mygale to design and build the cars, but this arrangement was ultimately abandoned before the originally targeted 2015 launch. The inaugural season was cancelled and delayed by a year.
When the championship did launch in 2016, Finnish motorsport promoter Koiranen GP had taken over as the series organiser. Koiranen's involvement brought a change in technical specification: rather than the abandoned Mygale plan, the Spanish series adopted Tatuus cars with Abarth turbocharged engines and Hankook tyres, sharing its technical regulations with the SMP F4 Championship, which Koiranen also promoted at the time.
Koiranen promoted the Spanish series for its first two seasons before stepping back. The current promoter is Agrupación Deportiva F4 Spain.
From 2016 to 2021 the series used the Tatuus F4-T014, a carbon fibre monocoque chassis powered by a 1.4-litre turbocharged Abarth engine — the same package employed in the Italian F4 Championship, ADAC Formula 4, and the UAE Formula 4 Championship during that period. From 2022 onwards, the series switched to the newer Tatuus F4-T421, aligning with the second generation of FIA Formula 4 machinery adopted across multiple championships worldwide.
The F4 Spanish Championship has served as a proven stepping stone toward the upper levels of junior single-seater racing. Multiple champions and frontrunners have gone on to compete in Formula 2, and several have reached Formula 1. The series maintains formal recognition of this pipeline, tracking drivers who have graduated to Formula 2 and noting those who have ultimately reached the top level of the sport.
As one of Europe's established Formula 4 championships, the F4 Spanish Championship benefits from the breadth of the Spanish motorsport calendar and its access to circuits such as the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Jerez, and others that hold historical significance in the sport. Its transition from an aborted Mygale-based concept to a successful Tatuus-based operation illustrates how the FIA Formula 4 ecosystem adapted during its early years, with hardware partnerships and promoter structures evolving to ensure viability. The series continues to attract both Spanish domestic talent and international drivers for whom Spain's F4 calendar provides a competitive European proving ground.