Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Trident has announced that Kai Daryanani has joined the team to race in the Formula Regional European Championship and FRegional Middle East this year.

The 20-year-old Indian arrives at the Italian outfit after a busy 2025 in which he raced for three different teams.

He started off in FRME with Evans GP, and came a lowly 22nd in the standings. Next up was GB3 with JHR Developments, and Daryanani took two podiums en route to 11th in the points table.

Alongside that he raced for MP Motorsport in Eurocup-3, making a winter series cameo and coming 17th in the main championship as a part-timer. In 2024, Daryanani won the Formula Trophy title and was eighth in AU4.

“I’m extremely proud to be joining Trident for the upcoming FRegional season,” said Daryanani.

“I’m excited to work closely with the team to push myself and fight for strong results. I’m grateful for the trust they’ve placed in me and can’t wait to get started.”

The FRME season begins next weekend, and Trident’s three-car line-up will be completed by Andrija Kostic and Maksimilian Popov. Both had already been confirmed as racing for the team in FREC this year.

When Popov was announced last October, Trident’s FREC line-up was completed since it had already signed Kostic and Luka Sammalisto. The team has not stated whether its contractual situation with any of those drivers have changed.

Kostic came 10th in E4, 11th in Formula Winter Series and 17th in Italian Formula 4 last year. Popov was sixth in the FWinter Series and Italian F4 standings, and eighth in E4.

The post Kai Daryanani joins Trident for double FRegional programme appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Russian drivers Michael Belov and Maximilian Popov will join the Eurocup-3 grid this weekend for the season finale at Barcelona.

It will be Belov’s third outing in Eurocup-3, having raced for Drivex School in the Jerez round last year and picked up a fifth place and a seventh, then joining Allay Racing’s line-up earlier this year at Assen and finishing second on his comeback race.

The 23-year-old will reunite with Drivex this weekend, and it has not been confirmed if he is replacing someone in the team’s line-up. Drivex has regularly fielded five cars, but only one of its drivers has been full-time and last time out at Jerez its line-up shrank to three cars.

Belov, who did three FIA Formula 3 Championship rounds in 2020, has spent six years racing in single-seaters’ fourth tier and his most successful was in 2021 when he came eighth in the Formula Regional European Championship with two wins. This year he was 15th in the FREC standings, and as he missed the opening round it means none of his five seasons there have been full-time.

Popov will be making his Eurocup-3 debut with the Global Racing Service team.

The 17-year-old single-seater sophomore is entering the finale as preparation for joining Trident in FREC next year.

In 2024 he drove for PHM Racing in four Formula 4 championships, and took a win F4 Central European Zone but struggled for form in the more competitive E4, Italian F4 and F4 United Arab Emirates.

He switched to Van Amersfoort Racing for 2025, starting off in the Formula Winter Series where he came sixth with two podiums.

A big improvement was made in Italian F4, and Popov was the second-highest non-Prema driver in the championship as he made the podium five times and came sixth in the standings. Over in E4, he had one podium and was eighth in the points.

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Photo: Trident

The Formula Regional European Championship and Italian Formula 4 held a collective post-season test at Mugello this week.

On Tuesday they shared the track for two sessions, then had four sessions each on Wednesday. F4 drivers were alone on Thursday, which had a morning and afternoon session.

Maximilian Popov was fastest on day one. In session one he set a 1m42.550s to lead R-ace GP’s Rashid Al Dhaheri by 0.285 seconds and Trident team-mate Andrija Kostic by 0.306s. There were eight drivers on track, and Tatuus was also testing its new-for-2026 second-generation FRegional car.

Popov improved slightly to 1m42.501s in the afternoon, with Al Dhaheri 0.187s behind and Race Performance Motorsport’s drivers also within half a second of him.

The pace was lowered to 1m41.291s by Popov the next morning, putting him 0.386s ahead of the driver of R-P-M’s #74 car as everyone improved. A 1m41.633s put the driver of R-P-M’s #210 on top by just 0.01s over their team-mate in session four, with Al Dhaheri and Popov 0.163s and 0.174s behind.

Laptimes were a lot slower in session five, with R-P-M’s #74 driver by 0.099s ahead of Popov at the top, as in session six where Kostic posted a 1m42.144s to sit 0.187s ahead of Popov.

In F4, the driver of AKM’s #55 had set the pace on Tuesday morning with a 1m51.018s, leading Cram Motorsport’s Rafael Vaessen by 0.106s, then Vaessen set a 1m50.914s in the afternoon to move ahead of them by 0.16s.

The F4 entry list grew from four cars to 31 on Wednesday, and the driver of Jenzer Motorsport’s #21 car set a 1m50.360s early in the day. Closest to him was Prema’s Niccolo Maccagnani, who recently did private Formula 2 testing at Monza, 0.975s off the pace.

Maccagnani improved to 1m49.427s in session four, pipping team-mate Alp Hasan Aksoy by 0.009s while US Racing’s Ludovico Busso was 0.544s back in third as a second split the top seven.

In session five, Maccagnani lowered the pace further to 1m49.302s, leading Jenzer’s #21 driver by 0.156s, the driver of US’s #998 car by 0.373s and US’s Noah Killion by 0.412s. The top 10 were covered by a second, and all but seven drivers set personal bests.

Wednesday concluded with Busso topping session six. He set a 1m50.420s, and PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese and R-ace’s Emilty Cotty were his closest rivals. A second seperated first and 15th place as only two drivers improved.

It was grippy on Thursday morning, and 22 of the 26 drivers on track found gains with a close top 15 again. Killion posted a 1m49.158s that would go unbeaten, and he ended up fastest by 0.077s over Maccagnani and with a 0.329s gap to US’s Ary Bansal. Just 0.069s split he and three team-mates behind.

There were 11 improvers in the afternoon, and Jenzer’s #21 driver topped the timesheet with a 1m49.337s that put them third overall. They were 0.021s quicker than Bansal, with gaps of just 0.033s and 0.093s to Aksoy and Busso. A second covered the top 13.

Test results

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Photo: Trident

Trident has now announced its 2026 Formula Regional European Championship line-up in full, with Maximilian Popov joining the team.

The 17-year-old will be team-mate to Andrija Kostic and Luka Sammalisto, who like him are stepping up from Formula 4.

“I’m really excited to join Trident as we head into a new season with a brand new car. I’m ready to give it my all and show what we can do,” said Popov.

Next year will be the Russian’s third in single-seater racing, and Trident will be the third team he has raced for.

In 2024 he drove for PHM Racing, starting off in F4 United Arab Emirates where he was a points-free 27th in the standings. His form improved in Italian F4 and E4, coming 21st in the standings of both with 13 points across the two championships.

An F4 Central European Zone cameo proved far more fruitful, as he claimed a podium on debut, won on his second start and came 11th in the points table despite contesting only one of the six rounds.

Popov was able to carry that kind of form into 2025, which he has spent with Van Amersfoort Racing. His year began with the Formula Winter Series, in which he came sixth with two podiums.

In Italian F4 he made a big improvement, making the podium five times and being the second-highest non-Prema driver in the championship as he came sixth in the standings. Prema has been less dominant in E4, where Popov sits eighth in the points but is contention to be championship runner-up.

The post Maximilian Popov completes Trident’s 2026 FREC line-up appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Alpine junior driver Kean Nakamura-Berta will continue racing with Prema in Italian Formula 4 and the renamed E4 championship in 2025.

The London-born, Japanese-Slovakian driver graduated to cars a year ago after a glittering karting career, in which he won the CIK-FIA World Championship for OK Junior karts in 2021 and was European champion in the senior OK class the year after.

After contesting two rounds of F4 South East Asia with Prema at the end of 2023, he went on to fight team-mate Freddie Slater for the 2024 F4 United Arab Emirates title, winning two races and finishing just four points short.

In his subsequent European campaigns he came sixth in Italian F4 with a win at Paul Ricard, and in Euro 4 – which becomes E4 next year – he placed third overall and took the rookie title after an outright victory in the final round at Monza.

“I’m excited for another year,” he said. “Doing a second year in F4 I know what I’m aiming for this time, we’re not finishing second or aiming for anything but lower than first, it’s the aim. Just try to win everything. We will have the most experience and there are no excuses, I’ll have to do my job and win as many races as possible. Of course I’m happy to be racing with Prema again, it’s an amazing team, it’s always fun, I’ll make some new memories. Can’t wait to start the season.”

Van Amersfoort Racing has announced Maximilian Popov, Dante Vinci and Payton Westcott for triple campaigns in Formula Winter Series, E4 and Italian F4.

Maximilian Popov came 21st in Italian F4 and E4 in his rookie year of cars with PHM Racing, with which he also took in a F4 Central European Zone cameo.

Australian driver Vinci made his F4 debut with VAR in the Italian F4 finale at Monza, finishing 19th in the last race. Westcott, who comes from the USA, has been racing OK-N class karts in the Champions of the Future Academy Program, as a recipient of the F1 Academy Discover Your Drive scholarship.

Maffi Racing retains 2023 World karting champion Kirill Kutskov in its line-up after he became F4 CEZ runner-up with the team this season, and is also retaining Nathanael Berreby for a second year. Both will spend 2025 racing in Italian F4, which Berreby came 32nd in as a rookie while Kutskov contested the finale and scored enough points to be 24th in the standings.

The Technorace team is also set to return to the grid for the first time since 2020, when it competed in partnership with BVM Racing, by fielding Francesco Coppola. He was runner-up in the Formula X Pro Series for first-generation Tatuus F4 cars this year.

The post Kean Nakamura-Berta continues with Prema F4 squad in 2025 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: F4 CEZ

PHM Racing’s Andrej Petrovic, Maximilian Popov and Kamal Mrad won Formula 4 Central European Zone’s races at the Red Bull Ring as Jenzer Motorsport’s Oscar Wurz grew his points lead.

Friday featured two 25-minute test sessions and a 27-minute practice session. Popov led the way in testing, setting a 1m31.521s to edge Enea Frey by just 0.004 seconds. Petrovic and Mrad were 0.259s and 0.32s behind in third and fourth, with BVM Racing’s Shimo Zhang completing a top five covered by 0.336s.

Conditions were worse for practice, and a 1m46.004s put Mrad on top by 0.093s over guest driver Ethan Ischer. Petrovic was third again, 0.485s off the pace.

The track was nice and dry again for qualifying on Saturday morning, and Mrad set a 1m31.704s to pip team-mate Davide Larini to race one pole by 0.02s. Ischer was 0.187s behind in third after failing to improve on his last laps, Petrovic was fourth, and the top seven was rounded out by Luca Viisoreanu, Popov and Frey. The 24-car field marked a 10-car increase on the season opener.

Larini took the lead from Mrad on the opening lap of race one, and on lap two there was drama as Ischer pitted and Max Karhan crashed, prompting the safety car to appear. Frey passed Popov for fourth just before that, and Oscar Wurz overtook Viisoreanu for sixth.

Racing resumed on lap five and Kirill Kutskov retired, meaning the safety car immediately returned.

The next restart was on lap eight, and Mrad fell from second to fifth. That did not make life easier for Larini, who traded fastest laps with the chasing Petrovic until he got past at turn three on the last lap. They went side-by-side through the final two corners and Petrovic prevailed by 0.01s.

Popov took third from Frey, Wurz and Viisoreanu demoted Mrad to seventh, and Ischer recovered to eighth after Matus Ryba was penalised two seconds for track limits abuse.

The finishing positions set race two’s grid, but Petrovic immediately threw away his pole advantage by stalling. Larini inherited the lead, then the safety car appeared due to Nathanel Berreby spinning out. After the restart, Popov passed Larini and went on to win by 0.778s. Mrad was gapped in third, and Ischer was fourth.

Race one’s top six were then reversed for race three’s grid, and Viisoreanu made the most of his pole starting spot to lead the first 11 laps of the race. But with four to go he was overtaken by Kamal Mrad, who had started seventh but made it up to third on lap one and had passed Wurz on lap eight of 15.

Wurz also managed to pass Viisoreanu, after making contact, to finish second.

Fourth place made Larini the weekend’s top scorer, and Wurz grew his championship lead during the event by 34 points.

Kutskov had a race-ending incident for the third time in three races, resulting in the safety car being summoned mid-race.

Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Andrej Petrovic PHM Racing 25m51.363s
2 Davide Larini PHM Racing +0.010s
3 Maximilian Popov PHM Racing +2.061s
4 Enea Frey Jenzer Motorsport +2.699s
5 Oscar Wurz Jenzer Motorsport +3.801s
6 Luca Viisoreanu Real Racing Team +4.821s
7 Kamal Mrad PHM Racing +5.185s
8 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +7.867s
9 Jonathan Correrella Gender Racing Team +9.072s
10 Matus Ryba Jenzer Motorsport +9.277s
Pole: Mrad, 1m31.704s
Fastest lap: Petrovic, 1m32.632s

Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Popov 24m21.958s
2 Larini +0.778s
3 Mrad +3.851s
4 Ischer +4.711s
5 Frey +9.263s
6 Petrovic +9.414s
7 Shimo Zhang BVM Racing +10.548s
8 Wurz +12.586s
9 Viisoreanu +13.990s
10 Miroslva Mikes JMT Racing +19.228s
FL: Petrovic, 1m32.209s

Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Mrad 25m55.916s
2 Wurz +0.574s
3 Viisorenau +1.345s
4 Larini +1.808s
5 Frey +5.343s
6 Petrovic +6.592s
7 Popov +7.377s
8 Andrija Kotic Jenzer Motorsport +9.152s
9 Zhang +9.464s
10 Ryba +10.358s
FL: Mrad, 1m32.652s

Championship standings
1 Wurz 102   2 Kirill Kutskov 58   3 Larini 48   4 Popov 46   5 Mrad 46   6 Petrovic 43   7 Zhang 41   8 Mikes 36   9 Frey 34   10 Viisoreanu 27

The post PHM Racing drivers share wins in F4 CEZ round two at the Red Bull Ring appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: FRME

German team PHM Racing has announced five drivers for the upcoming Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season.

The most experienced member of the team’s line-up is Nikita Bedrin, with the 17-year-old Russian stepping down the single-seater ladder to take part.

He drove for PHM in F4 UAE back in 2022, then stuck with them at the start of last year as he moved up to Formula Regional Middle East. The category rookie claimed two wins and two poles, and came seventh in the standings. Following that he made another step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport, and two podiums put him 18th in the standings.

His F4 UAE team-mates for 2024 are far less experienced.

James Egozi started last year in karting, winning the WSK Super Master Series for OK karts. The 16-year-old American then moved into cars with PHM, coming 14th in Italian F4 and eighth in F4 Central European Zone where he won the only two races he contested at the Red Bull Ring.

His countryman Everett Stack did two thirds of the 2023 United States F4 season and failed to score, and will be hoping to land some top-10 finishes in the UAE.

Kamal Mrad is another who combined karts with cars last year, and he did one Italian F4 round and one Euro 4 round with AKM Motorsport before embarking on an extensive testing programme in late 2023.

The least experienced of the five drivers PHM has signed so far is Maximilian Popov, a karting graduate from Russia.

In 2021 he won the Italian championship for OK Junior karts, and came third in the Champions of the Future series. He has spent the last two years in the senior OK category, and started off on a high by finishing second in the WSK Champions Cup. Results were harder to come by after that, although he ended 2022 by coming ninth in the WSK Final Cup and he was seventh in the 2023 South Garda Winter Cup. Popov has been doing F4 testing with PHM since last November.

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