Photo: Diederik van der Laan / DPPA

Running the 2024 Macau GP for FRegional cars has the support of teams, but some points need addressing

The Macau Grand Prix is possibly the most famous and prestigious junior single-seater race in the world, and from 1983 to 2019 (then again in 2023) ran using the prevailing Formula 3 regulations. The FIA even handed it F3 World Cup status from 2016 onwards. From 2020 to ’22 it ran as a round of the Chinese Formula 4 championship, but that was only due to travel restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented international entrants making their way to Macau.

Speeds have increased significantly since the introduction of the current generation of F3 cars in 2019, with Luke Browning’s pole position time last year being 4.475 seconds faster than what Dan Ticktum set for pole in 2018.

“F3 was getting very, very fast; really fast,” the FIA Single-Seater Commission president Emanuele Pirro tells Formula Scout.

He wholeheartedly supports the decision (made before he began in his current role) to take the grand prix away from F3 this year and instead run a race on the Guia Circuit for Formula Regional cars (the fourth tier of single-seaters) with the title.

“[FRegional is] let’s say, the natural step down, a little bit like it was from Formula [Pacific] to F3 in 1983 and I think it fits very well. It is the perfect budget package, has got enough downforce to enjoy the speed and the fast corners but is not super fast.”

Indeed, he believes, the move was “probably the price to pay to keep a circuit like this alive”.

Pirro raced in the Macau GP four times, from 1984 to 1987, taking a best finish of fourth in 1986 for Eddie Jordan Racing.

“I believe a lot in in history and tradition. I think Macau’s a very good trampoline launch for a driver,” he adds. “This year it will be year one for FRegional. Hopefully it will be year one of a long series. Let us enjoy year one to start with.”

Wishing former WSR driver and five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro a very happy birthday.
Emanuele raced for us at the 1984 Macau GP in this Ralt-Toyota. pic.twitter.com/d2ho7Awrl0

— WSR (@Official_WSR) January 12, 2022

The current FIA F3 car is a spec machine used exclusively in one championship, and will make its final race appearance at Monza in two weeks’ time. It will be retired after post-season testing, and its Dallara-designed successor enters use next year.

As a result, Formula Scout understands that F3 itself had reservations about continuing with the Macau event, although Pirro confirms that “already to go back to F3 after the break required a lot of consideration and thoughts; it was not a straightforward green light”.

Pirro hopes that the move will also recreate the original “world cup” atmosphere, with drivers from multiple championships coming together for a one-off event.

This is a key distinction as FRegional is an actual formula, with four different chassis in use and four engine suppliers in the category, although for Macau all entrants will use the same chassis-engine combination.

After F3 became spec in 2019, the World Cup-awarding Macau GP was in effect just an extra round of the FIA’s championship, albeit with some new faces in the cockpits.

The concept of a non-championship event appeals to Pirro: “When you have a race outside the championship, if you somehow fail in the championship for whatever reason, you have another go. So I think in this respect also, Macau can be valuable.”

Since the European championship lost its Monaco round in 2023, FRegional has not been a level where drivers can learn the art of driving on a street circuit. The skill needed to keep the car between the walls has been brought into focus by the conundrum of track limit abuse on ever safer permanent tracks.

Though Pirro is very much a purist, whose values hark back to what seems a different age, he is driven by a passion for the sport and its unique challenges.

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

“The drivers of today sometimes miss the joy and the privilege of driving on some spectacular circuits or corners of the past, which have been modified or cancelled [for] safety reasons. Traditional street circuits, like Macau or Monaco, are an invaluable asset for motorsport because driving between walls, where putting a foot wrong is very expensive and where if you crash, even in free practice, your whole weekend is jeopardised, gives another value to a given performance.”

Pirro then quotes Stirling Moss, a three-time Monaco Grand Prix winner: “’The difficulties of motorsport today and yesterday are probably similar. I can compare it to walking on a tightrope, but in my time, it was like walking across the Grand Canyon and now it’s walking over a safety net. The difficulties are probably similar, but the reward is definitely less.’”

On many of the FIA Grade 1 tracks frequented by FRegional, you need to get the perfect line on every corner to be at the front. But in Macau, “a driver will never do a perfect lap, [so] when you do something close to good, it’s immensely rewarding”.

“So really as a as a driver, I would do the best I could to keep a circuit like this alive,” Pirro reasons.

The Tatuus chassis and Autotecnica-built Alfa Romeo engine combination used in FRegional Middle East is what all of the 2024 Macau GP entrants will need to run, which will give the advantage to the teams with FRME experience.

Had it wanted to embrace spirit of the pre-2019 F3 World Cup, the FIA could have opened the race up to all homologated FRegional machinery, possibly with a Balance of Performance applied to maintain equality, but Pirro is scpetical.

He is not aware of any such discussion having taken place, even before he took over the role, and is not a fan himself of any sort of technical equalisation measures.

“I have read all the dossiers, but this would have been a conversation prior to going into the dossiers,” he explains. “Personally, I think [equalisation] will never work. Even in the World Endurance Championship, the BOP is done in a very scientific and very good way. Yet very few people are happy, apart from the guy who wins, who says ‘it’s just about fair’.”

Photo: FRECA

Technical regulations for Macau haven’t been published, but a push-to-pass system (as seen in FRegional Europe with the same Tatuus car but a Renault engine) is unlikely to be used, but also because Pirro is a strong opponent of overtaking aids.

“For me, the downside at Macau is that it gives so much tow. Forget about the P2P, because even the length of this straight for me in this respect would be [too long]. This is the magic of Macau, super fast and a slow bit. This is why Macau is unique and why I love it so much.”

The weekend’s sporting regulations are out however, and entry priority will be given to “those drivers having achieved the highest positions in the 2024 FRegional championships”. But Pirro is hopeful of keeping the event tradition of drivers stepping up and down the ladder to get a taste of Macau, although drivers who have competed in more than three Formula 2 events will be ineligible for this year’s race.

“Whenever there is a possibility to have drivers mixing up, I think it’s a very good thing. I would be in favour of that,” he says.

“I would really hope so because now motorsport is very popular. There are very many drivers in the junior formulas. You cannot afford to stay more than two years [at any level]. But if you if you repeat the championship, it doesn’t look very good for your career so [each] generation of drivers keeps stepping up together.”

FREC teams excited about Macau despite logistics concerns

Five FREC teams are on the 2024 Macau GP entry list, with Evans GP, currently supporting KIC Motorsport’s entry in FREC, heading to the Far East in its own right.

Photo: FRME

FRegional teams are in no doubt that Macau’s category switch is the right move, although many voiced concerns about the logistics involved, the difficulties in sourcing the required Alfa Romeo engines, and the timing of the event.

However, Trident team manager Luca Zerbini summed up the prevailing support when he said “FRegional is the right car for Macau, to be honest; it’s perfect”. However his own team will be absent, having reluctantly decided againt attempting an entry due to the logistical complications of taking his cars 9,230km, although “hopefully we will join in 2025”.

Prema, which will again carry the branding of the Theodore Racing outfit which was owned by the late Macau GP-organising Teddy Yip, will be looking for its fourth triumph on the city streets of the Far East.

“We have always been great supporters of Macau, it’s a historical race in our DNA,” team principal Rene Rosin told Formula Scout. “Going through the years, with the changing F3 landscape, we moved to the new F3 car, which was maybe a little too powerful for the type of track.”

“In terms of power, [FRegional is] adequate to the track and its characteristics. It’s similar to the previous F3 races that happened before we got there for the first time with the new car in 2019.”

Although team founder Angelo Rosin had run an entry as early as 1984, Prema first competed under its own name in 1988, and had to wait until 2011 to taste victory with Dani Juncadella. And Rosin Jr is one of many who sees the potential for the switch to FRegional to recreate the glory days.

“All the stars of F3 used to compete together. We will always be great supporters of the event, and if having Regional will bring the chance to have a ‘world cup’ vision like back in the day, we will be even more in favour,” he explained.

While it is too early to speculate on a driver line-up, the team has already been inundated with interested drivers.

Photo: Prema

Prema’s main rival in Europe is R-ace GP, which is equally excited about racing in Macau.

“For sure we are happy,” said its team principal Thibaut de Merindol. “As racers, we love to go in Macau. We love to do street races.”

De Merindol also sees the move as a return to the years when Macau brought together top junior single-seater drivers and teams from around the world.

“It reminds me of the old time when it was the real F3, 20 years ago. We are looking forward to it and I think the car will suit the track well,” he said.

“I think it’s a very good opportunity for the FRegional championships in general. It will give bit more visibility and prestige to this [European] championship, which is a bit in the middle of F4 and F3. I think the championship is really good but just the name is in a ‘no man’s land’, so at least I think this will give good credibility and visibility overall to the championship.”

De Merindol is also expecting significant driver interest. “Even from F3. We have received the invitation, so we are selected but now it’s up to us to discuss with the drivers we are speaking with and to define what would be the best line-up.”

Sainteloc Racing’s managing director Morgan Caron sees the Macau GP as a “great opportunity to race on a street circuit”.

“Macau is part of the motorsport history,” Caron noted. “Big names won this race so to add it to the CV is not a bad move.”

His team may be new to Macau, and in only its second year in FRegional, but it hasn’t entered just to get experience or to make up the numbers: “Yes, it’s going to be exciting and challenging, but I think we have the capacity to beat all other teams, and we go to win, nothing else!”

Photo: FRME

MP Motorsport, Prema, R-ace and Sainteloc have experience of the FRME package, while FREC rival ART Grand Prix does not. Its team manager Mathieu Zangarelli told Formula Scout that the team would hire cars from FRME promoter Top Speed.

The Autotecnica engine is also used by cars competing in Eurocup-3, where Sainteloc is also active.

Caron explained that the FIA is determined to ensure a level playing field. “From the information we have received from the FIA what they are doing is very good. All the teams must send their Alfa Romeo engines to Autotecnica before the race, because they want to put all the engines racing in Macau on the dyno to make sure they are all in the same performance window, which is good in terms of in performance and equity.”

So far, teams have been provided with limited technical details, leaving some questions as to “how it will work, whether we will have push-to-pass,” unanswered according to Caron.

Despite the overall enthusiasm, the logistical and financial complications put off top FREC teams such as Trident and Van Amersfoort Racing. The word in the that paddock was that the kit necessary to adapt existing cars to take the Alfa Romeo engine could cost €20,000-€30,000, a not inconsiderable outlay.

“It’s also the transport. If you want to do it with your own cars, I’ve heard that you need to pay your logistics yourself,” VAR’s team manager Danielle Geel pointed out, and also noted the grand prix’s November 14-17 date falls “in the period of our winter testing programme, so logistics-wise it’s a bit difficult”.

For Trident the considerations were the same, which as Zerbini said is a big shame. “Of course, everyone in junior single-seaters is a fan of Macau. It’s a race that everyone wants to do and us a team as well would really love to do that.”

“Logistically, was a little bit difficult, so at the end we had to take the decision not to do Macau. At the end of the day, we decided to keep the focus on the winter test.”

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

The availability of suitable engines was a further complication, and while Trident could have also rented cars from Top Speed “the problem is that then all the tools and everything we should have; it was a bit too complicated”.

G4 Racing did want to be on the Macau GP grid, but was unable to source engines in time.

“The installation kit is not a problem because Tatuus has availability, it is more about the engines. We are still working on that to try to make it happen. The negotiation is still ongoing,” said G4’s team manager to Adrian Munoz to Formula Scout last month, and alluded to a shortage of powerplants “because the base road car engine is not anymore in production and there are still a lot of championships using it, like Eurocup-3 and [FRME]”.

Munoz is convinced though that “the FRegional is the ideal car” for the grand prix: “The current FIA F3 was already driving with less power because it’s really a very [high] performance car for that type of circuit [and] the F4 car used during COVID was too small.”

He also underlined the point that with Monaco no longer on FREC’s calendar, Macau is not just a new challenge for drivers and teams. “It will be interesting to see the car performance in an event like this because this is not a car used to doing street circuits.”

The post Why FREC teams and the FIA think FRegional is “perfect” for Macau appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

After initially looking unstoppable, Rafael Camara’s Formula Regional Europe points lead has been pared back. Formula Scout spoke to title contenders and team managers before their summer break

Prema’s Rafael Camara sprinted out of the starting blocks to dominate the first three rounds of the Formula Regional European Championship season, taking four wins and two second places to establish a commanding 73-point lead.

Despite losing some of his advantage in the following three rounds before the summer break as other teams upped their pace, a fifth win at Paul Ricard leaves him still 50 points clear of fellow Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen, with eight races to go.

Camara is justifiably content with the “very good job [we did] for the first half”, which he attributes to “all the hard work we did in the pre-season and from a positive season last year”.

“I think we worked well as a team and with the car to make sure that we were straight as competitive as possible when we started the season,” he told Formula Scout.

“After that, while the last three races were a bit trickier, we have always been fighting for pole positions and podiums. We just kept our heads down, kept working and now we can enjoy a bit of holidays. We have to come back with the same focus and start the second half with the same attitude [but] I think that’s the same for everyone.”

Prema team principal Rene Rosin has long been a fan of Camara’s, extolling the “amazing job” he is doing this year.

“Since I’ve known Rafa from karting he’s always been extremely fast, extremely competitive. He was the only one fighting with [Andrea Kimi] Antonelli in all the categories he has done,” he said.

“For the first time in his career, he’s repeating his season because it’s something that we discussed quite a lot with Ferrari. We need to make sure that he’s capable of winning, that we know that the experience will help him in the future.”

Photo: FRECA

Camara has contributed almost two thirds of Prema’s 325 points, as team-mates James Wharton and Ugo Ugochukwu have struggled to match the Brazilian’s consistency.

The spread of Prema’s racing activities ensures Rosin is adept at multitasking, often sitting on the pitwall with “the phone with the FRegional and the big screen for Formula 3, Formula 2”.

He says he is “really happy generally about the team, how it’s going, because I have to say even James Wharton is doing a very good job considering the step from F4 to FREC”.

In Wharton’s case, as he recently explained in an in-depth interview with Formula Scout, pace has not been the biggest issue as driver errors and technical issues have taken some of the shine off a strong rookie season.

McLaren junior Ugochukwu has been unable to match his team-mates but as Rosin explains: “Ugo is a bit of an innocent case of the situation at the moment. We ran into some issues that that have compromised his performance and prevented him from showing his full competitive level. We are working very hard to try and solve these issues, that are not coming from our side or his mistakes.

“I’m really sorry for him, because he really deserves to do a very good job but I’m sure that to the end of the season, he will progress as much as possible because honestly he’s also doing a very good season.”

Rosin was reluctant to elaborate on these “issues”, but the team was forced to fit a third engine during practice in Paul Ricard, exceeding the two-engine limit for the entire season.

A provisional penalty of disqualification from the event was suspended, allowing Ugochukwu to compete in France, since “the technical delegate [was] not able to clearly and immediately determine the cause of the possible dysfunction […] of the first two engines”.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

If subsequent analysis determines that either of the initial two engines did not fail, the disqualification will be applied retrospectively, and the team will be required to re-fit one of the original engines.

As in 2023, the closest challenge to Prema has come from R-ace GP, whose lead driver is Prema’s former F4 star Taponen. He had a run of four wins from five races, including a brace at the Hungaroring.

“We improved as a team quite a lot, already a bit in Zandvoort and then in Budapest. Mugello was [another] strong weekend for us,” Taponen told Formula Scout.

“Budapest was a perfect weekend. It was dry and wet conditions, and I managed to do two poles and two race wins. We kept a good momentum to Mugello doing a pole and race win on Saturday and finishing P4 on Sunday, which was a great weekend as well.”

Although acknowledging he has improved during the season, Taponen feels he “improved the most in [FRegional Middle East], always learning a bit more”. He won the title in that championship as a category rookie.

“Here, I have improved as well in every area. The co-operation [within R-ace] has been really good. Obviously, we have had some good and bad moments inside the team as well but most of the time we are working together and trying to do the best on and off track to fight always for the wins.”

“Everything is open,” he added in reference to the title fight. “Rafa got a big advantage at the beginning of the year, but I have closed the gap quite a lot, but we definitely need to find something to fight for the wins at the end of the season.”

That need comes in part due to R-ace “struggling on high-speed tracks” since “the start of the season”.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

“Spa-Francorchamps it was difficult and again in Paul Ricard where the straights are a bit longer, we are missing a bit. The car is really good in the corners, and aero is the same for everybody more or less, but always when we go to the corners we are super quick but then we are missing a bit after. We need to find some more speed for after the holiday.”

Unlike most of his rivals, Taponen did not head straight for the beach, instead making his F3 debut with ART Grand Prix at Spa a week after Paul Ricard. He qualified 13th, one place shy of reversed-grid pole, and two tricky races left him frustrated.

For R-ace’s team principal, Thibaut de Merindol, the season so far has been one of “ups and downs”.

“[We had a] difficult start at Hockenheim. Spa was very difficult for different reasons. Car-wise we were not really good for the first events. I think we managed to assess and correct the situation from Hungaroring, [which, together with] Mugello have been, I think, very strong. Race after race, season after season, we are still scratching our heads to find the little tenth somewhere but okay, it’s never easy, you know?”

Taponen’s team-mates Zachary David and Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny have shown flashes of pace, with David’s Spa podium a highlight.

“We would like to do better with both of them,” de Merindol admits. “It’s also not a concern but for sure a source of motivation for us. We feel we can do better.”

R-ace has been kept on its toes by the resurgent Van Amersfoort Racing, which with its three rookies motivating and pushing each other has become a consistent frontrunner. The Dutch team entered the break just four points behind its French rival.

“This is good. I mean, obviously, it’s more competition [but] I think it’s good for the championship,” de Merindol says of being rivalled by VAR.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

“It’s also good for us because then we need to push ourselves. For sure, VAR did a good step forward. I think now they are really in the mix with Prema and us on every track.”

VAR’s team manager Danielle Geel agrees that a significant step forward has been made.

“We worked hard this winter to make that step, [both] with the drivers and also we had a few new people in the team. We had a lot of work to do, and I think that hard work pays off now,” she told Formula Scout. “We are not there where we want to be yet, but we are going towards the good direction.”

“We already showed good pace in Hockenheim. Especially with three rookies, it is really nice to be in the top 10. In Spa, we had a more difficult race, but in Mugello we really had a strong pace and we were dominant and then in race one [to finish] P2, P3 and P4 with three rookies, that’s a really good performance.

“We are really happy as a team and with the drivers, and it gives us even more motivation to make an extra step in the second half of the season and be as successful as we were for the first half of the season, because we are still not P1 and until you’re on that spot, you always need to work hard. Even if you are P1, you also need to work hard to be in front of your competitors.”

In three of FREC’s past seasons, VAR has ended its campaign with two victories. While it is yet to win in 2024, Geel values the overall consistency “because with this you can collect as many points, and also win a championship”.

Brando Badoer has been one of the standout performers of the season so far, being runner-up five races in a row then collecting a sixth podium straight after. His streak came to an end in an incident-filled opening to Paul Ricard race two.

Until that point, Badoer had scored points in every round. Now only Camara has. A first win, not only in FREC but in three years of racing cars, incredibly remains elusive for the 17-year-old Italian.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Neither driver nor team sense any frustration at so far having missed the podium’s top step, but Geel believes “that he’s getting more and more hungry to get that win”.

“I’m pretty sure that that the win will come this year, but we keep working until we are there,” she said.

“I’m not really frustrated, because it’s my first season,” added Badoer. “I think I’m doing a good job, and I try to work as hard as I can to get the win but let’s see what happens. If we are solid at the front then maybe sooner or later it will come.”

The title is a possibility, he argues, as he sits 77 points behind Camara with 200 left still to score: “There are still eight races left, so anything can happen. We will work race-by-race and try to do it.”

His team-mate Ivan Domingues meanwhile has been one of the season’s surprises, with a string of strong performances that put him atop FREC’s rookie standings. Pedro Clerot has lacked consistency, but enjoyed superb weekends at Spa and Mugello.

Geel is “really happy with how the guys are working with each other, making each other better and also helping each other; where the other ones have weaker points, the other ones have stronger points”.

From outside, the drivers give the impression of forming a cohesive and co-operative team as well as a quick one. Geel also sees that.

“Ivan and Brando knew each other already when they were racing in F4 with us. Pedro was new to the team, but also he is a really good person to have in the team. They all have different characters but that works really fine together. It’s really nice to see.”

ART GP has bounced back from a winless 2023 to take victories with Evan Giltaire and Alessandro Giusti.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Williams junior Giusti came into his sophomore season as one of the title favourites but struggled to get everything together until he stormed to victory in the rain at Paul Ricard to enter the summer break on a high.

The modest Giltaire has been an equal for his more experienced team-mate and predecessor as French F4 champion, winning first time out at Hockenheim, and is highly rated in the paddock.

“Hockenheim was a different weekend to the others. We won a race, but it wasn’t really the performance that we have had the whole season. I have been really working on myself and in this hard category to understand the tyres, the weight of the car, everything,” Giltaire reflects.

“It’s not looking really good at the moment, but I continue to progress, so I am happy about the work we do with the team.

“I did a lot of mistakes in my quali laps in the two or three last meetings, but when I’m fully 100% well in the car and made no mistakes I’m close to Sandro [Giusti] who has a lot of experience compared to me. I have progressed a lot compared to him so I’m happy with my progress.

“Race pace is a bit more tricky than qualifying. I have a lot of problems with degradation but in the battles like [race one at Paul Ricard], where I started 12th and finished eighth, it was a good first half of the race but in the end the degradation caught me [out] and it was a bit tricky at the end but I’m happy with my races.

“I will be stronger after the summer break surely,” he concludes with a smile.

For Italo-Irish team Race Performance Motorsport the season so far has been a frustrating one, with team principal Keith Donegan admitting that it has been at a loss to explain team leader Noah Stromsted’s lack of pace.

Photo: FRECA

The Dane has nevertheless scored all 61 of R-P-M’s points, including a second and a fourth at Spa, then another podium at Paul Ricard. Rookie Edgar Pierre and sophomore Giovanni Maschio have struggled for pace in the team’s other cars.

Trident came into 2024 with high hopes of a title challenge with third-year driver Roman Bilinski. After taking a second at Spa, the British-Pole broke two vertebrae in a road accident, putting him out of action for the four rounds since.

Bilinski had hoped to make a comeback at Mugello but was ruled out by the circuit’s doctors. But he has time to recover before the next round at Imola in September.

“It’s a shame that he had to stop in that moment. He had his accident, and it was in a perfect moment of his season because he did the pole in Spa. He was quite competitive, and he was really excited to go to Zandvoort, which is a quite complicated track, and then Budapest where historically, he was always fast,” dwelled Trident’s team manager Luca Zerbini.

Bilinski had been expected not only to lead the team but help develop his rookie team-mates “because to keep a driver on for his third year, that already knows the team very well, it was a very good help for the other two drivers [Alpine junior Nicola Lacorte and Ruiqi Liu] because even though they are very good, they are rookies.”

After running just two cars at Zandvoort, Michael Belov was drafted in for yet another FRegional return in Hungary.

As he explained to Formula Scout, his career has been frustrated by budget and geopolitical factors, and if his Paul Ricard appearance is his last, he could at least make his mark after topping his qualifying group on both days. He held on to his starting spot to be race one runner-up, before being eliminated by Badoer in race two.

“Michael is a really, really good driver and he’s helping the team now, but also for him was not very, very easy to jump in a car. He had not been driving for months, but he is doing a very good job, so hopefully from now we will get the pace back,” Zerbini told Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Both rookies have made progress, each scoring three points. Expectations were perhaps higher for Lacorte, given his race-winning F4 form, but Zerbini has been particularly impressed by Liu’s improvement.

“[It] was quite a surprise because Nicola was more competitive last year in F4, so it was not a big surprise if he’s able to get the result, but for Ruiqi that was struggling more last year, to see him that constantly now in the top half of the classification [is positive]. They’re improving and growing and at the end of the day, this is our aim to help them to grow. So, we are happy.”

Sainteloc Racing opted for an all-rookie line-up, but an exciting one, headed by Spanish F4 champion Theophile Nael. However French F4 runner-up Enzo Peugeot has often looked the most impressive, scoring in every race at Spa and Zandvoort.

The team’s managing director Morgan Caron reflected on 2024 while chatting to Formula Scout in the Paul Ricard paddock.

“It’s a challenging championship, very competitive once again and on our side basically we have shown good performances. We have three rookies, [which] was a bet on our side honestly, [who] are doing well. A special highlight [has been] Peugeot, honestly, he is the one performing the best from the team. Hopefully we can confirm the pace by making a proper pole position, a podium and a victory.”

“They are all progressing, for sure. There are many areas where they still need to improve but it’s a feeder series. They are there to learn but we are convinced the three rookies can finish the season on the rise.”

Two other teams have scored: MP Motorsport and G4 Racing. Nikita Bedrin has scored all but one of MP’s points but was forced to miss the Hungaroring round due to a calendar clash with his FIA F3 programme for AIX Racing.

After his strong results in a season-end cameo in 2023, Bedrin had been expected to challenge for the title but, in truth, has yet to look like a potential race-winner, admitting to Formula Scout that “switching every time from F3 to FREC is kind of difficult”.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Nikhil Bohra has so far not come close to matching his 2023 results with Trident, and Valerio Rinicella is yet to score.

G4 also runs three rookies, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, is yet to match the peaks of its impressive 2023 with Giusti and Belov. The team manager Adrian Munoz acknowledges the steep learning curve for rookies, particularly on some of the circuits in the season’s first half like Hockenheim and the Hungaroring where opportunities to learn the track are more limited.

“So far, we are happy with our drivers. They have been learning, they are making good steps up. But FREC is every single year quite competitive,” he says. Kanato Le’s fourth place in France gives G4 encouragement for after the summer break.

“Race-by-race we are progressing and understanding where we are, and we keep evaluating where we are at every event and trying to improve for the next one.”

Munoz adds: “[The key with rookies] is trying to manage the expectations because many times when they do well in F4 and they come to FREC in the beginning they think like, ‘okay, this is just a little bit bigger car’. But in the end it’s quite big step – way more powerful engine, bigger tyres and the competition is fierce because there are drivers that are coming from the previous year, other drivers who did F3, [FRegional in the] Emirates or the New Zealand championship.

“Last year with us Alessandro Giusti was improving more from the middle of the season to the end, when he really got more used to the procedures, to the car, to the tyres, to the circuits, coming from a championship like F4 France.

“The three rookie drivers in VAR are coming up very quickly and we aim that in the second part of the year, our rookie drivers will make continuous steps to try to get better results. For me, we were expecting to be on a learning curve, so that hopefully [when] we speak again in Monza, we can see already the progress.”

KIC Motorsport has been co-operating with Evans GP this year, although has so far rotated three different drivers alongside regulars Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi and Hoang Dat ‘Alex’ Sawer.

Photo: Iron Dames

FREC’s newest team, Iron Dames, came from sportscars and has attracted plenty of publicity for its all-female line-up of F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Doriane Pin who took the squad’s best result of 14th at Paul Ricard after missing five races through a combination of fractured ribs and a clash with her F1 Academy campaign.

While rivals have muttered misgivings about a sister team to Prema being given an entry, the team itself has done the maximum to ensure that the two teams are run at arm’s length from each other. And the added media attention has undoubtedly been a massive benefit to FREC’s public profile.

While some of the extreme expectations expressed on social media have been fantastic, the two drivers seem to have kept their feet on the ground, and have been making strong progress, with both looking more comfortable in qualifying at Paul Ricard. And with Iron Dames bringing the field up to 32 cars, the loss of Monolite Racing and Arden in 2024 hasn’t been felt.

“There are not anymore some teams [without a] budget or enough tools,” notes Munoz. “Nowadays, everyone is going to the simulator and there is a lot of simulation tools for the teams. The level is quite good and any single mistake in quali condemns you to be in the back and then you need to really make your way back to the front so I would say that that the championship is in a pretty good situation.”

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Photo: Niels Broekema / DPPA

Alessandro Giusti’s maiden Formula Regional European Championship win at Paul Ricard would not have been possible without the nightshift his G4 Racing mechanics put in to completely rebuild his car.

The rookie had a hefty shunt in practice on Friday, and as G4’s sporting and technical manager Adrian Munoz explained to Formula Scout: “It was quite a big effort from all the team considering how the event started yesterday, so we had to turn around the situation.

“In collective test two [CT2], ‘Sandro was rolled by another competitor, so we had to work overnight to come back, to have a proper car, at least with four wheels. It was completely destroyed.”

“We had to change all the suspension, the bodywork, even the halo. Unfortunately, there was not a spare halo at the circuit, so we had to disassemble one from our spare car. We left the circuit at 3am, slept for a couple of hours, woke up and were back again at 07:30.”

G4’s team principal Patrick Gnos added: “Basically without this big achievement there is no qualifying and there is no win. I think a good 50% is for the team in this result today.”

Both were impressed by how calmly Giusti approached Saturday qualifying “as if nothing had happened” in practice.

“He did a stunning job because he came back, and he was confident in the work of the team. He used the car in quali like it was the day before.”

The pole lap, Giusti told Formula Scout, was “amazing” but “a bit surprising with the car all rebuilt”.

“He was sure that he didn’t need a slipstream from anyone,” explained Munoz. “He had it quite clear, ‘I know what I need to do to get pole position,’ and that is what he did. You need to manage traffic and ‘Sandro did a brilliant job on that.”

In Saturday’s race, Giusti immediately felt he had “very good pace”.

“I made a very good safety car restart [and] just managed the push-to-pass and the pace and took the fastest lap as well. There was no point for it, but it was just for fun.”

Gnos jokes that his driver’s late fastest lap “was just like Verstappen”, although as Munoz adds, laughing, “I am really happy that he didn’t ask for a pitstop!”

Knowing the effort that had gone into getting the car race-ready, Gnos had feared “every second in quali and the race that the car has [a problem]; a connector not working or something and then we go back”.

But there were no more dramas and Giusti took an untroubled triumph, at a circuit where he had two poles and a win last year in French Formula 4. Does he like Paul Ricard?

“Actually, I don’t like this track so much, I think it is a bit boring, but I am fast here, so I like it,” he admitted to Formula Scout. “It’s a good track for me since the beginning of my single-seater career, so let’s continue like this.”

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