Photo: Nissan

Formula E’s annual rookie-only practice session takes place at this weekend’s Miami E-Prix, and a group of junior single-seater stars will be taking part.

The most high-profile of that group is 22-year-old Dennis Hauger, the IndyCar-bound reigning Indy Nxt champion. He will drive for Andretti Global, the team he joined last year and dominated Indy Nxt with.

In 2024, the Norwegian drove for Porsche in FE’s rookie test which took place in Berlin.

Lola Yamaha Abt is calling on the services of Hugh Barter again. He drove for Maserati in FE’s rookie test in 2023, then for the Abt-operated Lola Yamaha team in 2025. Barter was 19th in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship, fifth in Indian Formula 4’s 2024 season then won nine races in the Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup for FRegional cars last year but came fourth in the standings after missing two rounds.

Having joined Barter in Abt’s garage at the 2025 rookie test, Alessandro Giusti joins Jaguar for the 2026 rookie practice session. The Williams junior was 10th in the 2025 FIA F3 Championship as rookie with MP Motorsport, and will stay with the team for a sophomore campaign.

DS Penske is one of the few FE teams with their own driver development programme, and its protege Nikita Bedrin gets another call-up after contesting the 2025 rookie test. He primarily competed in FRegional from 2023 to ’25, but made an F3 cameo and will race in GB3 this year.

Nissan will run two familiar faces in Miami, Gabriele Mini and Abbi Pulling, who joined Nissan thanks to the Japanese manufacturer Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.

Two years ago, when both were juniors of the Renault-owned Alpine Formula 1 team, they got their first FE mileage with Nissan. Mini did the rookie test, while Pulling drove in the women’s test which was a day of FE’s pre-season testing.

Last June she became Nissan’s rookie test and simulator driver since June 2025 in a multi-year deal, and therefore drove in the rookie and women’s tests. Mini was fastest in the 2025 rookie test, and did the rookie practice session in Jeddah.

Mini is still an Alpine junior and will race for MP in Formula 2 in 2026, having come 13th in the championship as a rookie with Prema last year. Pulling is embarking on a second season in GB3 with Rodin Motorsport, hoping to improve on 10th in the 2025 standings. She was fourth in the FRegional-spec and all-female W Series back in 2022.

FE’s junior single-seater contingent in Miami is completed by Chloe Chambers at Mahindra. She has contested the past two women’s tests, driving for Andretti in 2024 and then Mahindra in 2025, and has spent the last two years as a Campos Racing driver in the all-female and F4-spec F1 Academy series.

The post Junior single-seater stars to contest FE rookie practice session in Miami appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Getty Images

Nikita Bedrin will make a surprise move to GB3 next year, joining Velocity Racing Development’s line-up.

The 19-year-old Russian raced in the FIA Formula 3 and Formula Regional European championships from 2023 to 2025, taking a win and two other podiums in the former and two podiums in the latter.

He also has experience in FRegional Middle East, where he was a race-winner in 2023 and ’25, and has cameoed in Eurocup-3 so will be well prepared for the upgraded version of Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car that GB3 will use next year.

• Feature: Why Bedrin’s short-notice Melbourne F3 heroics aren’t set to be repeated (2025)

“I’m really excited to be joining VRD for the 2026 GB3 championship. After some very positive testing where we showed strong pace in both wet and dry conditions, it’s clear that we have a strong foundation to build on heading into the season, and I feel confident in our potential together,” said Bedrin, who is a junior driver of Formula E team DS Penske.

“VRD has a great environment and a very motivated group of people, and I’m really looking forward to working closely with the team. We’re all fully focused on working hard and pushing for the best possible results throughout the championship.”

Dan Mitchell, VRD’s team principal, said “signing Nikita is a landmark moment” for the American team’s time in GB3.

Rodrigo and Patricio Gonzalez have also been announced as being part of VRD’s 2026 GB3 line-up.

They both did a half-season in GB3 this year. Rodrigo did one round with Chris Dittmann Racing before joining VRD, while Patricio did all of his races with the team. A sixth place was Patricio’s best result en route to 21st in the standings, and Rodrigo came 23rd with a single top-10 finish.

The pair have also been team-mates at DEForce Racing the last two years in USF Juniors. Patricio was 15th and Rodrigo was 20th in the 2024 points table, then Rodrigo came sixth this year while Patricio was eighth. Both claimed three podiums.

They also stepped up to USF2000 for a part-time campaign where Rodrigo beat his brother to 19th in the standings.

The post Nikita Bedrin makes surprise move to GB3 with VRD for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: McLaren

The entry list for Formula E’s annual rookie test in Berlin is filling up, with several starts of junior single-seater racing down to drive on July 14.

McLaren Driver Development Programme members Alex Dunne and Ella Lloyd will test for their backer’s FE squad, which Dunne is the reserve driver for. The 19-year-old started in that role this year, and has already contested an FE practice session.

“I’m very excited to be getting another opportunity in the Gen3 Evo at the Berlin rookie test next month,” said Dunne, who is currently in his rookie Formula 2 season and is leading the title race. The Irishman raced in FIA Formula 3 last year.

“Since I joined the team as reserve and development driver, I’ve learnt so much about what it takes to get the maximum out of these cars, and I can’t wait to get out on track again.”

Lloyd too has FE mileage already as she drove on the final day of 2024-25 pre-season testing last November when teams were required to run a woman in at least one of their cars for at least one session.

The 19-year-old Welshwoman is in her second year of racing in Formula 4. As a rookie she claimed four podiums in British F4, and came 11th in the standings after missing a round. She is missing rounds again this season while her focus is on the all-female F1 Academy series where she sits fourth in the points at present with one win and three other podiums.

“I’m really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Gen3 Evo car again,” said Lloyd. “I learnt so much at the women’s test in Madrid and I’m excited to have another opportunity to get out on track and put all the preparation I’ve been doing in the simulator into practice.”

Bianca Bustamante also drove for McLaren in the women’s test day, and has now been signed by the Cupra-partnered Kiro Race Co. team (formerly known as Team China Racing, NIO and then ERT) as its development driver and for the rookie test.

The 20-year-old Filipino drove in Formula Regional in 2022, coming 15th in the all-female W Series, then stepped down to F4. She went on to win in F1 Academy and score in a British F4 cameo. This year she’s moved back up the single-seater ladder to GB3, where she is currently 24th in the standings with a best finish of 13th.

“I’m really excited to join Cupra Kiro,” said Bustamante. “In the very short time that we’ve been working together, it’s been incredible to experience the team’s disruptive approach to racing in action and to see the team’s hunger and desire for success first-hand.”

DS Penske has announced the creation of its own driver development programme, and made Nikita Bedrin its first signing and rookie test entrant.

The 19-year-old Russian is an FIA F3 Championship race-winner and cameoed in the 2025 season opener. Since then he has raced in the FRegional European Championship.

The post Bedrin, Bustamante and Dunne down for Formula E’s rookie test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Dutch Photo Agency via AIX Racing

Nikita Bedrin excelled in his FIA Formula 3 cameo with AIX Racing at 2025 season-opening Australian Grand Prix. However, it will not be repeated in Bahrain

AIX Racing is yet to finalise its 2025 FIA F3 line-up, so the team therefore trusted a familiar face for the first race weekend of the year after Jonas Ried drove in the pre-season testing at Barcelona in February. Having not signed a full-time driver the week before the event, AIX called Nikita Bedrin, who competed with the team in 2024, to fill the seat of the #28 in Melbourne.

The Russian had no time to visit the workshop and landed in Australia without any preparation. Nevertheless, he scored a good haul of points. He qualified fourth and went on to finish sixth in the sprint race and fourth in the feature race, leaving him fourth in the standings after the opening round, only two points off second place.

Speaking to Formula Scout, Bedrin explained why he was initially not considering to be AIX’s stand-in driver, gave his impression of the new Dallara F3 2025 and discussed his performance while revealing that more FIA F3 outings are not on the cards for now.

“I obviously knew that there was one seat free, but I was not sure if they had found somebody or not. And I didn’t really want to ask because that would be just a bit, let’s say desperate or like rude to ask directly,” he says.

“From what I heard from other people, they still didn’t find the driver. So, of course, I had some thoughts in my head that I could be a last-minute call, but I didn’t have much expectations, much hopes for that. 

“Lately, there has been quite a lot of changes happening in winter telling me one thing that I will do, and then ending up doing another thing. So I didn’t want to expect anything. I was just kind of living my life day by day and seeing what will come because it’s worse when you expect something and it doesn’t happen, and it’s better if you don’t expect it and it happens.” 

Racing in FIA F3 in 2025 had been “out of discussion for the whole winter”, Bedrin says. However, his desire to continue in single-seaters materialised in the form of a deal to compete in Formula Regional. He first competed in the last two events of the 2025 Middle East championship with Sainteloc, and then he was announced to stay with the team for the full European campaign. At this point, he was “mainly just waiting for my FREC season to start” when everything changed for one weekend. 

Photo: Topspeed

“My manager [Petr Aleshin] told me that there can be a chance that I am racing in Melbourne. ‘We just need to wait and see.’ And at first he said there was like 10, 20% chance. But then on Thursday, the week before, everything was confirmed. 

“It was a bit unexpected because I still had to do a visa and I had to fly there, and it takes about two days to fly. So on Thursday, they told me. On Friday, I had to fly. I got my visa done in one day luckily. So it was very last minute everything.”

Bedrin had no time to visit AIX’s workshop and do the usual pre race weekend preparation in the simulator. And the last time he drove a F3 car — the Dallara F3 2019 — was at Monza in the last round of the 2024 FIA F3 championship over seven months ago. That made his feat even more impressive. 

“I was not really sure what to expect going there because it was quite a surprise,” he confesses. “[During the winter] I was focusing on trying to improve my FRegional driving, and it’s a bit different from F3, the driving styles. So putting all my focus on FRegional, I kind of forgot the speed of a F3. Let’s say it was not so natural as you would expect after being driving it for two years. 

“My main goal was to just try and focus on my driving and focus on myself to try to adjust as quick as possible, and then go from there, go by feeling. And it worked pretty well. In free practice, I collected all the data that I wanted, that I had to test before qualifying to be sure what to do. And then I saw that I had to work on my brake shape quite a lot. And it was a bit of, not an easy task to do for qualifying, but I’ve done pretty well to adapt.”

In spite of the circumstances, Bedrin had headed to Australia with the goal of scoring points, but he “was definitely not expecting to leave Melbourne in P4 in the championship and being two points away from P2”.

“Everybody was telling me ‘don’t stress about it. You had no prep, just enjoy, try to do your best.’ So there was not so much pressure going on, but from myself, I didn’t really want to just enjoy. I wanted to work on myself, basically on trying to adapt as quickly as possible. 

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency via AIX Racing

“Honestly, going into the weekend it was a new car as well. I had never driven it. And I don’t know how the team was in testing as well, because a new car is new for everybody. So I didn’t know what to expect from the team as well. I was definitely not expecting to be P4, but I was expecting to be somewhere around top 10.”

Bedrin was on it from the first timed lap in qualifying. He was second fastest once everyone had completed their flying laps on the first set of tyres, then he dropped to fourth place in a red flag-disrupted second half of the session. Meanwhile, in the races he focused on himself rather than getting carried away by the lure of a potential podium finish. Thus, he secured the points he aimed for.

“In race one, in the first laps, I felt that the balance was not exactly as I wanted it to be,” he explains. “It was a bit difficult to manage it. If I tried to keep up with people in front, I was never going to be able to pass them, that’s for sure. And if I would try to keep up with them, I would just kill the tyres. So, at that point, I just decided to do my race to try to save tyres and see where that takes me.”

Bedrin spent the first half of the sprint race holding off Van Amersfoort Racing’s Theophile Nael, but when it was neutralised on lap 16 of 20, the AIX driver had closed on DAMS’ Matias Zagazeta in the battle for fifth place.

“Most likely, I was going to get P5, maybe even P4. That was a bit more difficult. But after the race, I was like 100% sure I was going to get at least one,” he states before discussing the wet feature race, where he held on to the fourth place he started from. 

“It was impossible to pass because of the spray. In the beginning, I felt like I was a bit quicker than the guy in front. But then I saw that they were using the tyres quite a lot, so I decided to back off again. Knowing the tyres and how the track is, I was expecting them to start going off quite a lot, but once again we didn’t complete the full race.

The strategy? “It was more about me trying to manage the tyres because I don’t think I had the pace to go for an attack mode. I felt like I can try to stay with them and struggle together with them after, or I can try a different strategy. But, you know, safety cars were not in my favour in that case.”

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency via Aix Racing

Bedrin believes that the new F3 car and its predecessor are “actually very similar”. However, he recognised his impression of it could be distorted because of the time it had passed since Monza 2024 and his subsequent FRegional outings. 

“Of course, I had a big break of seven months. So for me, I cannot really say that I felt much of a difference,” he says. “It just felt fast coming from FRegional. But what I noticed, I felt like it was a bit more heavier for what it felt like.

“The combining, usually when you brake and steer at the same time with bigger tyres, you would expect it to be quite difficult to manage the lock-ups. But on the wet, I could combine quite a lot. And I was actually surprised by that because I was not expecting it.”

The current F3 car features 16-inches tyres, and the wet compound looks now more like Formula 1’s intermediate after the reprofiling of its grooves. Bedrin praised the AIX team for the work they did over the winter, getting on top of the new package.

“They’ve done a very good job because you can see in the testing in Bahrain now, also, they were quite competitive. And in Melbourne, the car was for sure good enough for a battle for pole in qualifying. So that’s for sure an improvement for them. Also helps, of course, that it’s a new car. Last year, they started with a massive disadvantage compared to others. Now everybody is on the same page and we can see that they’re quite competitive. So they’ve done a good job. 

“In the case for me to adapt the team, it was pretty easy because everything that I already knew. It’s more hard for the rookies. But for me, I know everything about the championship. The only thing that had different was the engineer that I didn’t work with before. And it took us a few days to get to the same page, but then at the end everything was fine and in a smooth flow, let’s say. So it was pretty easy to adapt back.”

The tally of 17 points scored around Albert Park placed Bedrin in fourth in the FIA F3 drivers’ standings, two points off second-classified Nael. In spite of that, he reveals that he is not going to continue filling AIX’s vacant seat even though he has been offered it.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency via AIX Racing

“It’s a bit disappointing being P4 in the championship and not being able to continue,” he admits. “I was also supposed to do Bahrain now. I was supposed to do testing and race, but I was not able to.”

Other commitments relating to Bedrin’s main program in FREC with Sainteloc have prevented him from being in the F3 cockpit at Sakhir. Freddie Slater took over the car for last week’s test, although he already has a busy racing schedule planned across FREC and GB3, and a driver for next weekend’s races is still to be announced.

Nonetheless, Bedrin does not rule out future appearances should AIX still need a driver and the schedules align.

“Racing is racing, you know, and F3 is a high championship. Of course, I wouldn’t say no.”

The post Why Bedrin’s short-notice Melbourne F3 heroics aren’t set to be repeated appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

AIX Racing has completed its 2025 FIA Formula 3 Championship driver line-up, but only for the Melbourne season opener as Nikita Bedrin stays in the team’s ranks.

“What news! Very unexpected, but super happy to be back,” said the Russian racer. “It will be for sure a challenge to get used to everything again, but I will make the best out of it. Can’t wait to get started.”

Bedrin drove for the German team in 2022 when it was known as PHM Racing, coming fourth in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates, fourth in ADAC F4 and 12th in Italian F4.

He stepped up to Formula Regional with PHM the year after, winning twice in the Middle East championship and coming eighth in the standings. Later in 2023 he joined two other teams for outings in the European championship, and also joined Jenzer Motorsport for another step up the ladder to F3.

In his rookie FIA F3 campaign, Bedrin only scored three times but was on the podium twice and that was enough to put him 18th in the points table. Last year he returned to what was now known as PHM AIX Racing, but moved back down the single-seater ladder to F4 UAE and came fifth in the standings with three wins from three rounds.

That preceded his sophomore FIA F3 season with AIX, in which he improved to five points finishes and claimed a maiden victory in the Hungaroring sprint race. However he slipped to 19th in the standings.

Bedrin’s focus for 2025 is FRegional, having signed with Sainteloc Racing. He contested two FRME rounds, picking up a win and three other podiums with some tyre-saving masterclasses, then will do the full FREC season.

Racing for AIX in Melbourne, and the rest of the year, will be Eurocup-3 runner-up Javier Sagrera and International GT Open race-winner Nicola Marinangeli. He has F3-level experience from racing in Euroformula back in 2022.

The post Nikita Bedrin to contest FIA F3 season opener with AIX Racing appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency

Sainteloc Racing has announced Nikita Bedrin will be part of its Formula Regional European Championship line-up this year.

It will mark the 19-year-old’s first full attack at the championship, having done two rounds in 2023 and then seven in 2024.

His first outing was with Monolite Racing, and resulted in a ninth and a fifth place, then he joined Van Amersfoort Racing for the season finale and came away with a podium. His 2024 campaign with MP Motorsport featured seven points finishes and Bedrin coming 16th in the standings.

Bedrin has had greater success in FRegional Middle East, first with PHM Racing and then with Sainteloc. In 2023 he drove for the former, and came eighth in the championship after converting two poles into two wins. When he joined Sainteloc for the last two FRME rounds of 2025, Bedrin showed suprerior tyre management skills to claim a victory and two third places at Losail and a runner-up finish at Yas Marina Circuit that helped lift him to 11th in the standings despite missing three rounds.

That experience of tyre saving was built from two seasons at the next level in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. Bedrin may have only come 18th and 19th in those campaigns, but still picked up strong results. As a rookie with Jenzer Motorsport he stood on the podium twice, and with AIX Racing claimed a maiden feature race victory at the Hungaroring.

In FREC, Bedrin will be team-mate to Spanish Formula 4 graduate Tim Gerhards and FREC sophomore Yaroslav Veselaho.

The post Sainteloc Racing signs Nikita Bedrin for 2025 FREC season appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRME

Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin ended a two-year wait for his third Formula Regional Middle East victory in the first race at Losail.

Points leader Evan Giltaire started on pole, but the ART Grand Prix was beaten off the line on a wet track by R-ace GP’s Ugo Ugochukwu. At turn one, Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri went around the outside of Giltaire and got the move done and Giltaire found himself under pressure from title rival Freddie Slater.

The battles in the top 10 were neutralised on lap three as the safety car came was summoned due to PHM Racing’s Everett Stack crashing out. Evans GP’s Matteo De Palo also picked up race-ending damage.

Racing resumed on lap six, and Giltaire looked to the outside of Al Dhaheri at turn one but had no luck. Slater then had a got at him later in the lap, but the Mumbai Falcons driver rode over the back of Giltaire’s car and it sent him off.

Remarkably both seemingly escaped without damage, with Kanato Le passing his team-mate Giltaire as Slater dropped to 12th once he rejoined the track.

Le was attacking Al Dhaheri on lap seven, and on the next lap Al Dhaheri defended sternly at turn one. It helped Ugochukwu break 2.4 seconds clear the front, and that gap grew to 3.1s once Giltaire got involved too.

Al Dhaheri defended down the pit straight on lap nine, held off two overtake attempts from Le then got a small gap when the ART GP pair both went off.

Giltaire returned to third, and on lap 11 he swept around the outside of Al Dhaheri for second. Ugochukwu had 4.5s in hand, but that soon going to decrease.

There was a train of cars behind Le consisting of R-ace’s Enzo Deligny, ART GP’s Taito Kato, Bedrin, R-ace’s Jin Nakamura and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ernesto Rivera.

After a four-wide battle at turn one on lap 12, Bedrin was in fourth ahead of Deligny, Nakamura and Le, and just a few corners later he was ahead of Al Dhaheri who was suddenly struggling for pace. Tyre management appeared to be the issue, as Nakamura cleared Al Dhaheri too.

Bedrin then hunted down the top two, passinh Giltaire into turn one on lap 14 and flying past Ugochukwu after going side-by-side with him later in the lap. He ended up winning by 5.535s, and Ugochukwu just held off champion-elect Giltaire.

Kato and Deligny had gone either side of Al Dhaheri at turn one on lap 13 and both cleared him, with Deligny taking fifth on the outside. Slater came home 12th, scoring just one point.

Race results (15 laps)

The post Sainteloc’s Nikita Bedrin ends two-year wait for third FRME win appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

FIA Formula 3 Championship race-winner Nikita Bedrin and Matteo De Palo have joined the Formula Regional Middle East grid at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend.

Bedrin [pictured top winning in F3] has signed with Sainteloc Racing for the last two rounds of the season and will looking to follow up on his past success in the Middle East.

Across three years in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates, but only one complete campaign, Bedrin picked up five wins and came fourth in the 2022 standings with PHM Racing. The next year he drove for the team in FRME and won twice en route to seventh in the standings.

Last year he combined F4 UAE with PHM, FIA F3 with the linked AIX Racing team and FRegional Europe with MP Motorsport, and it did not quite go to plan.

Although he won races in F4, he never finished higher than sixth in FRegional and his F3 win was one of just five points scores in his sophomore season. He came 19th in the standings, one position lower than in 2023 when he picked up two podiums with Jenzer Motorsport.

De Palo is driving for Evans GP this weekend, and will race for Trident in FRegional Europe later this year. He came 17th in that championship last year – with a best finish of fourth – and was fifth in Spanish F4 the year before that.

The pair were on track in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, as two pre-event test sessions took place. Bedrin topped the first, setting a 1m52.309s to lead Mumbai Falcons’ Freddie Slater by 0.392 seconds.

ART Grand Prix duo Kanato Le and Evan Giltaire were just 0.004s and 0.013s slower than Slater, and R-ace GP’s Akshay Bohra was 0.547s off the pace in fifth. His team-mates Enzo Deligny and Ugo Ugochukwu were the only other drivers within a second of Bedrin.

Every driver improved in session two, and Ugochukwu lowered the pace to 1m50.081s. Bedrin was second fastest, 0.38s behind, and Deligny was 0.704s back in third. Evans GP’s Aaron Cameron and Giltaire were 0.89s and 0.919s off the pace respectively in fourth and fifth, and De Palo was sixth.

Free practice followed on Friday morning, and points leader Giltaire returned to being the benchmark man. He set a 1m49.538s on his fifth lap of eight, putting him 0.124s ahead of Mumbai Falcons’ Rashid Al Dhaheri. Slater was a further 0.031s behind, then Le and Kato completed a top covered by 0.434s and consisting of drivers whose pace peaked on their fifth lap of the day.

Bohra was also within half a second of Giltaire, with just a quarter of a second between himself and Deligny in 15th. De Palo and Bedrin were seventh and 14th, both racking up 13 laps and setting their personal bests very late on.

Results round-up
Pre-event testing
1 Ugo Ugochukwu R-ace GP 1m50.081s
2 Nikita Bedrin Sainteloc Racing +0.380s
3 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +0.704s
4 Aaron Cameron Evans GP +0.890s
5 Evan Giltaire ART Grand Prix +0.919s
6 Matteo De Palo Evans GP +1.034s
7 Kanato Le ART Grand Prix +1.111s
8 Akshay Bohra R-ace GP +1.386s
9 Taito Kato ART Grand Prix +1.487s
10 Ruiqi Liu Origine Motorsport +1.536s

Free practice
1 Giltaire 1m49.538s
2 Rashid Al Dhaheri Mumbai Falcons +0.124s
3 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons +0.165s
4 Le +0.298s
5 Kato +0.434s
6 Bohra +0.488s
7 De Palo +0.520s
8 Brando Badoer PHM Racing +0.525s
9 Hiyu Yamakoshi Pinnacle Motorsport +0.528s
10 Liu +0.569s

The post Bedrin and De Palo join FRME grid in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Formula Motorsport Ltd

In the four months since AIX Investment Group acquired the Formula 2 and Formula 3 operations of PHM Racing, the team has already tasted victory in both categories. But its ambitions go much further.

As the rebranded AIX Racing squad’s CEO Morne Reinecke and sporting director Roland Rehfeld explain to Formula Scout, the team has been busy restructuring its engineering capabilities, embedding processes recruiting staff, “making sure we dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s,” in Reinecke’s words.

“The goal is obviously to be a top running team,” he explains. “We want to do this properly and, this being the feeder series from F3 to F2 to F1, if we can get this fully up and running the way we want it, at the top, then there’s no reason for us not to take the next step.”

By which Reinecke means that “effectively F1 is the goal, even if it’s by part ownership or part marketing strategy, but that’s a couple of years down the line.

“Obviously, stepping straight into F1 is not ideal, especially if you’re testing the waters to see from an investor perspective what the yield would be versus what you put in.”

The new owners saw their investment get off to a flying start in F2 with Joshua Duerksen’s podium at Imola, followed a week later by Taylor Barnard’s sprint race win in Monte Carlo, forcing Rehfeld to manage expectations a little: “I said ‘guys, it will not continue like this,’” he laughs. Duerksen went on to take a sprint race win himself, though, in Baku.

“We are in two of the most competitive championships in the world in formula racing, so [they needed to] be ready for that. Now they feel it and they have the right reaction. [AIX] gave us the time and are patient enough [but] sometimes you have to explain these things, but that’s absolutely a human factor, right? And it’s good that they’re taking care,” he says.

The departure of Taylor Barnard to McLaren’s Formula E team has left a large hole, not least emotionally as Barnard had been with the then PHM Racing from its inception in 2022, and still remains part of the now independent PHM Academy, which has stayed with PHM’s founder Paul Muller.

While the recruitment of backmarker Niels Koolen as Barnard’s replacement for Monza and Baku looked like a backwards step, Rehfeld emphasises that this is a temporary move. “We will have our 2025 driver in the car in Qatar,” he told Formula Scout at Monza, where Duerksen came within one off-track moment and an unluckily-timed pit stop of a potential victory.

Rehfeld sees it as “coming maybe from a reactive behaviour in this circus, now to be more proactive and that makes a difference. And that’s the same what we will do in F3.”

The F3 team had to wait until the Hungaroring in July for its breakthrough triumph, with Nikita Bedrin and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak bringing home a one-two in the sprint race, much to the team’s joy and relief.

“I was absolutely happy for all the guys. They were running through a very challenging season so far. Nikita, all drivers and all the team itself,” Rehfeld said, while Reinecke praised the “massive team effort.”

As Rehfeld explained: “When suddenly there’s the result and even a podium, it releases a little bit the pressure. It was first time that we were ahead of the action mentally and also process-wise. At least we can see that, even though it’s quite late in the season, with some hard work on the organising side and the communication side, it starts to work.”

Although the team was unable to build on the win despite a strong qualifying performance at Monza, “it encourages [us], also when we have a kind of reset on F3 next year with a new car,” Rehfeld believed.

“AIX now is very committed on that [which] gives us the ambition and the perspective to know where we can end up next year,” he adds.

The AIX Investment Group, previously little-known outside the Gulf, first got involved as sponsors of Brad Benavides in F2 with the team in 2023, then running under the tag of PHM by Charouz Racing System, adding its support to Charlie Wurz’s Formula Regional Europe campaign.

The relationship deepened, says Reinecke, when “this opportunity came up first to be a title sponsor in November [2023, with the team appearing as AIX PHM Racing] and then from a sponsorship we realised that this is something that we can actually contribute to in a much more active way, and so the negotiations started with PHM and then we took over full management of the team on 1 May [2024].”

“Bruno [Michel, the man behind both championships] and FML [Formula Motorsport Limited] have been massively helpful to us, especially in the beginning, telling us what we should be looking at and doing, so a big thank you to them as well for that,” he added.

The cars’ bronze-gold livery certainly attracts attention on track. “Fundamentally, AIX being an investment firm based in Dubai, we do things a little bit different to the normal paddock with livery and things like that,” he continued. “With all the coverage for the brand [it] makes sense for us.”

Though Reinecke makes no bones about admitting that “for us from an investment business side of things, it’s effectively a marketing exercise, giving us a global audience” that does not necessarily mean that AIX is looking to sell on to the next bidder with cash to spend.

Motor racing history has not been short of investment funds, which have appeared from nowhere, emblazoned their liveries over multiple cars before disappearing again equally suddenly and without trace, other than a mountain of unpaid bills.

But Reinecke emphasises that AIX sees its commitment being for an extended period. “We’re in this for the long haul,” he said, before adding with a smile, “or for as long as they’ll have us.

“You’ll see new guys coming into the paddock and then they leave. We made a strategic decision to invest and to see this through for the long term.”

For Rehfeld, it is important that AIX are hands-on investors, and critically “that the people are petrolheads because at the end you need the kind of extra motivation when you love the sport, and they do definitely. It’s a business [on] one side, but it’s still a sport,” he said.

Nevertheless, the new owners come “from a completely different world of living and economy,” accepted Rehfeld, requiring a process of education if both parties were to gel.

“The good thing is they’re listening carefully, so then you can learn and that’s quite good. For sure, in some ways it needs time to fit together and to build up a philosophy.”

In its Charouz days, the team was often running on a shoestring, surviving from week-to-week. The investment needed to move things forward was sizeable and is still ongoing.

“It’s a money sport, right?” Reinecke asked rhetorically. “That’s the way of life, but obviously we saw where it was lacking, there were some areas where additional investment was required. We addressed that with some structures, putting key people in place which made a massive difference.”

“You can’t win without a fully funded team, a properly-tooled team, a properly-skilled team,” Reinecke commented.

What have been the main investment needs for Rehfeld and the team?

“Basically, it’s about the tools, how to prep the drivers and giving the tools to the engineers firstly [to understand] the car themselves and then to explain it to the drivers,” he said.

On the technical side, Rehfeld has been able to invest in “better tooling, to go deeper in the R&D. And we are still on the path to do even more. Especially in F2, we have done quite an aggressive driver preparation with a very dedicated sim programme that came online for the first time in Imola, utilising all that that we have learned from the in-season testing in Barcelona.”

Rehfeld’s next priority was to bring in the right personnel to complement the team’s backbone of experienced managers “like F3 team manager Kenny Kirwan and Bob Vavrik in F2. Speaking about F2, there are quite familiar faces [also from] the Charouz time – the chief mechanic, engineers and so on.

“On the performance side and in the back office, we were able just now to make some moves. You’re looking for people, but you also need to pay them right and the budget should allow that right now.”

But the key to getting the right people is more than a salary, but “also to convince these people to take part in that journey and the challenge [of developing] from an underdog to an established team,” he noted.

The team is not bound to the PHM Academy in its driver selection. “For sure there’s a connection, but we have connections to other good feeder series teams as well,” he stressed. “What I like is that the market already approaches us right now. That’s quite a good feeling for everyone in the team. I tell the team that it’s their value which makes us interesting.”

Reinecke is already thinking ahead to 2025. “We’re really looking forward to next year with a new [F3] car and then with the engineering base where it is now, we’re really looking forward to some positive early results next year.”

As a former racer, driver coach and AMG Driving Academy instructor, Rehfeld has been around motor-racing long enough to understand that success does not come overnight. “It’s a long path because we know who we are competing against. They have quite a lot of years in advance, but that’s the challenge we take and when we are now able to compete that’s already one step.

“I have to say on the F2 side, we’re already ahead of our expectations. The speed is there and that encourages [us] also for F3.”

For him, success would be “if we can shake the establishment in F2 and F3 for the next couple of years and become a very solid and established competitor in the field, so that we become so – famous is the wrong word – popular that we are able just to develop future champions,” affirmed Rehfeld.

The post AIX sees early return on investment in F2 and F3, but “F1 is the goal” appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Nikita Bedrin took a brave approach from second on the grid at the start of Formula 3’s Hungaroring sprint race, and he was rewarded with his maiden victory.

His AIX Racing team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak finished second, making “history for the team”.

“It was a very good race,” Bedrin told media including Formula Scout. “Especially not starting from pole made it even better winning the race.

“It was a very challenging first-half of the lap of the race, I would say, because it was quite intense going into turn one with having a car [Prema’s Dino Beganovic] on that side of me. It was a bit scrappy to go there, but I still risked it and it paid off at the end because in turn two I was able to take the lead.

“I’m super happy with the race. I was able to keep it. I was not sure if I was going to have the pace for that, but I think I managed very well. I think I’ve barely done any mistakes from my side and really happy to keep the win, especially having some good pace in the last few laps.”

Beganovic tried to retaliate on lap 10 of 18, which almost went wrong for the battling pair.

“He got a very good exit out of turn one, so I knew he was going to try something. I still defended the inside, and he just sent it. And when he first sent it, I was like ‘ah, shit, he got me’. But then I saw him going straight, and I was like ‘okay, if Tas [Inthraphuvasak] doesn’t pass me, then I’m good’. And luckily, he was too far at that time to get close to me and I still managed to keep the lead.

“Adrenaline was going quite high. It was especially when I saw him going straight. I thought he will collect me as well, and we’re going to crash. But we managed to avoid it, so yeah, hard racing.”

Ferrari junior Beganovic ran off-track after what was a tight manoeuvre, dropping to third behind Inthraphuvasak.

“Obviously not happy with the race starting from pole and finishing P3,” said Beganovic. “In the start, I didn’t really have a good launch. Nikita got me in turn two. But then I just tried to get the focus back and fight back. I tried a move in turn two and caught the kerb when I was going to the apex and I lost the car. I don’t regret trying it.”

He added: “It’s a very technical track, and I really enjoy driving here. In the race, it’s a bit more tough because there are not a lot of overtaking opportunities. It is difficult to understand where to attack and how to plan it. I got a good run out of turn one and it was my chance to try at turn two. Obviously I lost the place, but again I don’t regret trying it.”

The post “I risked it and it paid off”: Bedrin’s reaction to maiden F3 win appeared first on Formula Scout.