Photo: Getty Images

Freddie Slater led a Trident one-two on the second morning of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

He went 1.391 seconds quicker than the laptime that put him on top of day one’s timesheet, and had a 0.331s gap to second place at the conclusion of the three-hour session.

Prema’s trio were the first on track, and all drivers were keen to set down representative laptimes early on after damp conditions the previous morning.

Theophile Nael (Campos Racing) set the early pace with a 1m46.217s, over a second clear of Enzo Deligny (Van Amersfoort Racing).

The time to beat got lower and lower, and after the first 10 minutes a 1m30.084s was enough to put Louis Sharp (Prema) on top. He led Taito Kato (ART Grand Prix) by 0.184s.

As drivers completed their third set of push laps early on, Sharp was relegated to fourth. Noah Stromsted had posted a 1m28.447s to lead Trident team-mate Matteo De Palo by 1.094s, and Slater was up to third.

Improvements were made by drivers again later into hour one, which Gerrard Xie (DAMS) ended on top with a 1m27.792s. He was soon in third though as Tuukka Taponen (MP Motorsport) lowered the pace to 1m27.402, pipping Stromsted by 0.014s.

Approaching the session’s halfway point, Slater knocked Kato off top spot with a 1m27.020s lap that would go unbeaten. Kato’s previous benchmark was beaten by 0.297s, and he failed to improve thereon. With 81 minutes to go, Stromsted edged ahead of him by 0.009s.

Teams opted to focus on long runs for the second half of the session, and there was little change to the order. Behind the top three, Maciej Gladysz (ART GP) trailed Slater by 0.3s in fourth, and Taponen was fifth with the laptime that had put him in first place for a period of running.

Morning session results

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Freddie Slater set the fastest lap on the first day of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at Barcelona.

There were two three-hour sessions, and in the morning there was little track activity in the first 90 minutes. Theophile Nael (Campos Racing) led Kanato Le (ART Grand Prix) by 0.355 seconds with a 1m43.188s lap at that point, and only 14 drivers had recorded laptimes. Fernando Barrichello (AIX Racing) had just triggered the first red flag period on the wet track.

Ten minutes later, Hiyu Yamakoshi (Van Amersfoort Racing) lowered the pace by 1.252s. His team-mate Bruno del Pino then got within 0.061s of the new benchmark, but Yamakoshi improved to 1m41.9s on his next lap. Pedro Clerot (Rodin Motorsport) soon made it a top three covered by 0.098s as most drivers remained in the pits.

Taito Kato (ART GP) was next to lead the way, by 0.951s, and Christian Ho (Rodin) moved up to second but was 2.653s off the pace once Kato improved to 1m39.058s.

When Le lapped 0.831s shy of Kato with 67 minutes to go, only those two were active. Enzo Deligny (VAR) cut Kato’s advantage to 0.215s in the final hour, and the circuit remained quiet. Brando Badoer (Rodin) broke the 1m39s barrier, and had a big gap until Hitech GP’s stand-in driver Tim Tramnitz set a 1m37.188s with 43 minutes remaining.

His team-mate Jin Nakamura lowered the pace to 1m36.795s four minutes later while out alone, and there was so little track action thereon that 11 drivers ended session one sans laptimes. Barrichello meanwhile had several of his deleted due to being underfuelled.

In contrast, half of the field headed straight out in the afternoon session. Gerrard Xie (DAMS) was first to the top, then Louis Sharp (Prema), Tuukka Taponen (MP Motorsport) and Kato before the first runs ended. A 1m29.118s was the time to beat, with 0.071s splitting a top three completed by Le.

A second covered the top 17 half an hour in, with the track never overly busy. There was change at the end of hour one as Le lowered the pace to 1m28.742s, leading team-mates Kato and Gladysz by 0.232s and 0.327s respectively.

Tramnitz rose to fifth with a laptime 0.477s off Le’s best 79 minutes in, and a few minutes later Taponen got within 0.129s of Le.

Niko Lacorte (DAMS) snuck into fourth before the next runs ended approaching the session’s halfway mark, and there was drama when drivers headed back out. Deligny triggered red flags with 80 minutes to go, and before anyone could improve following the restart there was another stoppage caused by Mattia Colnaghi (MP) who was in seventh place at the time.

He was demoted a spot 53 minutes from the end as Brad Benavides (AIX) went 0.033s faster than him and 0.46s slower than Le to rise to sixth.

Kato caused the next red flag interruption, and the next improvements came in the final half-hour. Badoer went seventh quickest, and nobody above him posted personal bests for ending their runs.

There was more change with 10 minutes to go, as Ugo Ugochukwu (Campos) lapped 0.116s off Le’s long-standing benchmark and Noah Stromsted (Trident) was a further 0.066s off in fourth.

James Wharton (Prema) bettered Stromsted by 0.043s with eight minutes left of the day, and a minute later Slater posted a 1m28.411s that put him on top by 0.331s and would not be beaten.

At the same time, Sharp pipped Taponen by 0.003s for fourth before the track began to empty. A second covered the top 21.

Day one results

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Photo: TGR NZ / Bruce Jenkins

Freddie Slater won Formula Regional Oceania’s rescheduled race added to the final round to tighten the title fight.

What was supposed to be race three of round three at Teretonga Park was cancelled due to heavy rain that as well as posing dangerous conditions also put constraints on the schedule to fit it in later on last weekend, so the championship organiser instead added to the season finale at Highlands Motorsport Park as the first race of the weekend on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Since they were not present at Teretonga, HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed’s Liam Sceats and James Wharton did not get to join the reschedule race action.

M2 Competition’s Freddie Slater started on pole, ahead of Kanato Le (Hitech GP), Ugo Ugochukwu (M2), Louis Sharp (MTEC Motorsport) and Yevan David (Kiwi Motorsport).

The field got through the first chicane cleanly on lap one, with Ugochukwu instantly into second. Sharp also passed Le quickly, and Scoular (MTEC) dived down the inside of David at the turn 14 hairpin for fifth place.

Slater gradually edged away from his team-mate and title rival through the first nine laps, then Ugochukwu almost brushed a barrier on lap 10 while Slater set the fastest lap and the lead gap grew to 0.793 seconds.

At that point the fight for victory was decided, and Slater finished the 16-lap encounter 1.978s ahead to close to within 18 points of Ugochukwu in the standings.

David came under attack from Ryan Wood (MTEC) approaching turn 14 on lap 10, then a wide moment next time by allowed Wood and Yuanpu Cui (MTEC) to get past. Wood took the fastest lap once in clean air, but ran out of time to catch Scoular.

Hitech’s Jin Nakamura had a tricky race, starting 13th and only recovering ground to 10th by the end.

Race results (16 laps)

The post Slater wins rescheduled FRegional Oceania race to tighten title fight appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Audi

Sauber’s 2026 rebrand to Audi, which owns the Switzerland-based Formula 1 team, has led to it having a new driver development programme.

From 1993 to 2005 the team ran under the name of its founder Peter Sauber, then competed as BMW Sauber from 2006 to 2010 due to a technical alliance. It later competed as Alfao Romeo, the Italian automobile manufacturer, from 2019 to 2023.

Sauber launched its own junior team in 2019, initially in partnership with Formula 2 team Charouz Racing System, and a karting squad was formed. Both were inactive when 2025 began, but Sauber was still obliged to brand a car in the all-female Formula 4 championship F1 Academy, so supported Rodin Motorsport driver Emma Felbermayr’s entry.

Audi first competed in single-seaters’ top tier F1 existed, then raced in Formula E with the German automobile manufacturer’s factory team Abt Sportsline from 2014 to 2021.

A driver development programme was launched in 2016, with the end goal for its proteges to become Audi factory drivers and to race its touring cars in the DTM, GT cars in international sportscar racing and LMP1 prototypes in the World Endurance Championship. It had already been backing young drivers and bringing them into the DTM for many years.

For its single-seater return, the Audi Driver Development Programme has been created and Allan McNishwill be director. He raced in F1 for Toyota, but is best known for winning the Le Mans 24 Hours twice, taking three American Le Mans Series titles and being crowned 2013 World Endurance champion with Audi.

The ADDP was publicly launched last week, but McNish’s work on it began before that as Audi scaled up its preparations for 2026. He was already consulting Audi on its entry into F1.

“To be entrusted with finding the cornerstones of the future Audi F1 Team is a great honour and a responsibility I am very passionate about,” said McNish.

“We are not just looking for raw speed; we are looking for the resilience, intelligence, and team-driven mindset that defines a future Audi champion. Our goal is to build a pathway that turns potential into precision and performance on the world stage.”

Audi’s F1 team principal Jonathan Wheatley noted that “the ADDP is a clear statement of our long-term commitment to youth and our ambition to be competitive” through to 2030 when it aims to win the F1 world championship.

The ADDP’s first member is Freddie Slater, who currently sits second in Formula Regional Oceania.

He was 2024 Italian F4 and UAE4 champion, and in 2025 made the podium on his FIA Formula 3 Championship debut, was FRegional Europe champion and FRegional Middle East runner-up. His primary programme for 2026 is FIA F3 with Trident.

“It’s an incredible honour to be the first driver selected for the ADDP. Audi is a brand with a legendary motorsport history, and to have their trust and support at this crucial stage of my career is a dream come true,” said the 17-year-old Englishman.

The post Audi launches F1 junior team with Freddie Slater as first member appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: TGR NZ / Joel Hanks

M2 Competition’s Freddie Slater and Ugo Ugochukwu were victorious in Formula Regional Oceania’s races at Teretonga last weekend.

The track was wet for race one on Saturday, meaning everyone headed out on grooved tyres. The formation lap did little to displace water, and when M2’s poleman Ernesto Rivera reached the opening corner he spun off as soon as he turned in.

Slater inherited the lead, and Hitech GP’s Kalle Rovanpera had made the best start from third but was boxed in so was still in that position after turn one and now behind team-mate Jin Nakamura.

The safety car was brought out as Rivera’s car was recovered, and due to the shortness of the circuit it meant the restart was not until lap six of 25. Slater nailed it, building a 1.345-second lead within a lap and extending it to 4.2s after just two more tours.

He was 7.7s ahead of Nakamura when the safety car was called out again on lap 15, as HMD Motorsports with TJ Speed’s Trevor LaTourrette spun off (but going again) and MTEC Motorsport’s Zack Scoular planted his car in the barriers.

Kiwi Motorsport’s Yevan David then went off too, ending a brilliant charge. He had bogged down at the start, dropping to last place, but recovered to 13th on the restart lap, nailed a pass on MTEC’s Yuanpu Cui around the outside of turn three on lap 13 and had then cleared M2’s Sebastian Manson for 10th before crashing out.

Six laps remained at the second restart, and Slater once again pulled away as the track got wetter again. He was 3.1s clear within two laps, and had a five-second gap before the safety car returned with a lap to go after Giles Motorsport’s Nolan Allaer crashed going through turn one. That locked in the finishing order, and therefore victory for Slater.

Jack Taylor (Giles) had taken fifth from Cooper Shipman (Kiwi) with a great move around the outside of turn one on lap nine, while MTEC’s Ryan Wood held seventh at that point. The attacks of Fionn McLaughlin on him instead made the Hitech driver vulnerable to Ugochukwu, and they were at a fighting stalemate until Ugochukwu overtook McLaughlin on lap 14.

He rapidly then made his way onto the rear of Wood’s car, and on the lap 20 restart go alongside him on the outside at turn one but could not pull off the move.

Race two was scheduled for later in the day and also very wet, and Ugochukwu started in first place on the reversed grid thanks to his earlier eighth place finish. A lot of time was spent sat in the grid spot as sweepers tried to remove water from the circuit, then the race was abandoned.

The paddock reconvened the next day to find a wet track again, and qualifying two was the first session.

Le set the pace early on, then Slater was first into the 1m03s. He was usurped by Le, who set a 1m03.402s to then lead Ugochukwu by 0.248s. MTEC’s Louis Sharp was next to the top, by 0.056s, before Le reclaimed top spot once again by lapping sub-1m03s. Shortly after he was down to third as Slater set a 1m02.105s and Ugochukwu went second fastest 0.497s behind him.

Nakamura reduced Slater’s advantage to 0.088s with nine minutes to go, only for the provisional poleman to improve to 1m01.881s and stay ahead by 0.066s over Ugochukwu.

Several drivers had offs, including Slater who caused a red flag period as he could not get his car going again after a clash with LaTourrette.

Both were able to join the field when qualifying restarted, and the next moment of drama was Wood having a big off with four minutes to go. That proved non-disruptive, but Manson and McLaughlin then crashed and red flags waved again. The schedule left no time for another restart, and Slater secured pole for the Spirit of a Nation Cup-awarding race four.

Le qualified third, 0.248s off pole and 0.064s ahead of Nakamura, and Sharp and Scoular set identical laptimes in fifth and sixth. Rovanpera trailed by 0.597s in seventh, Wood was 10th and McLaughlin was 11th.

Race two took place at the expense of race three, and it was still wet at Teretonga by the time it began. Ugochukwu was untouchable throughout, although disruptions to the race made his victory look less dominant.

On lap one he sprinted off, as Slater’s victory hopes ended through contact with Le that sent both spinning off before turn seven. The safety car was summoned as they were helped back on track, and they were several laps down at the back of the pack when racing resumed on lap seven.

Ugochukwu built a 2.86s gap over Wood in two laps, and had a six-second margin before his lead was slashed again when LaTourrette crashed and the safety car reappeared on lap 14. When the field returned to racing speeds at the end of lap 19, Nakamura crashed out of sixth place and so the lap 20 restart only lasted long enough for Shipman to nab third from Taylor.

In the green flag action up until that point, Shipman had been attacked almost non-stop by Rovanpera. He was stronger in the wet conditions and was happy to slide his car as he looked to the left and right of Shipman, and often running right up to his gearbox too.

Once Nakamura’s car was cleared, the field got to race again on the last lap. Ugochukwu built a 1.698s lead and stole the fastest lap from Slater, Shipman attacked Taylor around the outside of turn one and Rovanpera settled for fifth.

The track had dried enough for slick tyres in race four. Problems on the pre-grid meant Le did not get to sample the dry conditions, but once he was wheeled off and the formation lap was complete there were spots of rain again and the start was delayed.

When the lights eventually did go out, Ugochukwu made a stronger launch than poleman Slater but his rival had the inside line so lead into turn one. Ugochukwu then got on the marbles exiting the corner and drifted wide, allowing Scoular by. But Scoular then had his own understeering moment that brought Ugochukwu back up to second, and he kept the position as the safety car was called out due to Rivera crashing.

Sharp ended lap one in third, ahead of Nakamura, Cui and David. They were all gapped by Slater on the lap seven restart, but Ugochukwu eventually responded to the leader and on lap 10 set a new lap record as he closed back in.

They were nose-to-tail again on lap 14 after Slater had a brief off, but both were making errors on the slippy track surface.

Ugochukwu used push-to-pass to help him go around the outside of Slater entering turn one on lap 16, getting the move done early enough to not drift onto the marbles, then Slater went off briefly again at turn five where it was raining.

Sharp was all over Slater through lap 17, and the safety car came out next time by as Manson crashed out and the rain intensified. Red flags waved on lap 20, and everyone got to switch to grooved tyres during the half-hour stoppage.

The race restarted behind the safety car on lap 21, and green flags waved on lap 24 of 29. There was drama immediately as Ugochukwu found the marbles on the wider line through turn one again and he went off. After avoiding the barriers he made it back on track but was now last, while Slater led with a 1.975s gap to Sharp.

It was a dominant display thereon, as Slater was victorious by 5.129s and Ugochukwu’s points lead was greatly reduced as he finished 14th.

Nakamura completed the podium, boosting his own title hopes, and Cui was fourth. Scoular had a dramatic race, finishing sixth on-the-road, being involved in multiple battles but then being penalised for a restart breach so was classified 11th.

Results round-up
Race 1 (25 laps)
1 Freddie Slater M2 Competition 35m30.113s
2 Jin Nakamura Hitech GP +1.088s
3 Kalle Rovanpera Hitech GP +2.138s
4 Kanato Le Hitech GP +2.882s
5 Jack Taylor Giles Motorsport +3.680s
6 Cooper Shipman Kiwi Motorsport +4.458s
7 Ryan Wood MTEC Motorsport +6.475s
8 Ugo Ugochukwu M2 Competition +7.183s
9 Fionn McLaughlin Hitech GP +8.090s
10 Sebastian Manson M2 Competition +8.645s
Fastest lap: Slater, 1m01.538s

Race 2 (24 laps)
1 Ugochukwu 39m29.231s
2 Wood +1.698s
3 Shipman +2.743s
4 Taylor +3.138s
5 Rovanpera +3.250s
6 Manson +3.908s
7 McLaughlin +4.254s
8 Louis Sharp MTEC Motorsport +5.739s
9 Yuanpu Cui MTEC Motorsport +6.597s
10 Yevan David Kiwi Motorsport +7.841s
FL: Ugochukwu, 59.683s

Spirit of a Nation Cup results (29 laps)
1 Slater 38m33.082s
2 Sharp +5.129s
3 Nakamura +5.731s
4 Cui +8.945s
5 David +9.725s
6 McLaughlin +11.333s
7 Rovanpera +12.181s
8 Wood +12.846s
9 Taylor +13.104s
10 Ricardo Baptista HMD w/ TJ Speed +14.653s
P: Slater, 1m01.881s
FL: Ugochukwu, 53.660s

Championship standings
1 Ugochukwu 237   2 Slater 215   3 Nakamura 211   4 Sharp 207   5 Wood 202   6 Le 185   7 Zack Scoular 135   8 Ernesto Rivera 124   9 Cui 120   10 James Wharton 113

The post Slater and Ugochukwu victorious at Teretonga in FRegional Oceania appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater has followed up his Formula Regional European Championship title by being voted driver of the season by the paddock’s team principals and managers.

In a poll conducted by Formula Scout, each of the teams in the championship was asked to submit their ranking of the top 10 drivers for the 2025 season. To maintain objectivity, team principals were not allowed to vote for their own drivers. Points in the poll were awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.

Nine team principals participated, giving a maximum theoretical score of 80 points.

While Slater was unsurprisingly the first choice of many, he was not considered the best by all. As with the two previous winners, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Rafael Camara, Slater fell one point short of a perfect score, as one team manager put him behind Matteo De Palo in second place.

The top positions mirrored the overall standings, although there were significant differences between the individual votes cast.

Trident’s De Palo was a clear second, although one team principal did rank him outside the top three.

R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pedro Clerot were as inseparable in the voting as they had been in the overall points standings and finished tied for third place, although Clerot won a head-to-head comparison by five to three.

While the top five lined up in their championship positions, ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato edged past R-ace GP’s Akshay Bohra for sixth by a single vote.

The performances of Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin clearly got him noticed by his competitors, who ranked him eighth, three positions higher than his championship position.

Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri and R-ace GP’s Jin Nakamura tied on points for ninth.

A total of 16 drivers received at least one nomination, although surprisingly, only four drivers were included in every team’s top 10 ranking.

Those outside the combined top 10 were VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi and Dion Gowda, CL Motorsport’s Michael Belov, ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le and two drivers who competed in fewer than half the rounds, Reno Francot and Ean Eyckmans, both driving for R-P-M.

Formula Scout would like to thank the following team principals and managers for their time in submitting ratings for the poll:

Ignacio Cristobal (Sainteloc Racing), Keith Donegan (RPM), Tristan Gommendy (Prema), David Li (CL Motorsport), Thibaut de Merindol (R-ace GP), Adrian Munoz (G4 Racing), Matthew Norman (Akcel GP), Mathieu Zangarelli (ART Grand Prix) and Luca Zerbini (Trident). Van Amersfoort Racing did not respond and therefore its drivers’ scores have been adjusted accordingly to ensure comparability.

2025 FREC teams’ driver poll results

The post Freddie Slater voted FREC driver of the season by team principals appeared first on Formula Scout.

10. Kean Nakamura-Berta

New entry • Prema’s Italian F4 and E4 champion

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Nakamura-Berta came into 2025 having been dropped by the Alpine Academy after a first full Formula 4 season that didn’t live up to the early promise he’d shown in the Middle East, where he’d run Freddie Slater close for the title.

Prema kept its faith in the London-born Japanese-Slovakian to spearhead its all-conquering F4 squad this year and he became the first driver to win both the Italian and E4 titles in the same season, proving he is the Formula 1 team’s loss.

This year he could only finish third in the Middle East series as R-ace GP locked out the top two, but he started his Italian campaign with a run of five straight victories and never looked back.

He was challenged for pace at times by team-mate Sebastian Wheldon – new to European racing but with a good amount of car experience under his belt – and by former international karting rival Gabriel Gomez of the always competitive US Racing team, but Nakamura-Berta’s consistency was unrivalled.

From his 20 starts in the Italian championship, he won nine times and was on the podium in all but three of his other 11 races – a new record. It was a similar story in the three-round E4 series, where he took four wins and four other podiums.

9. Richard Verschoor

Up 15 • F2 veteran was title contender in best season yet

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Verschoor reunited with MP Motorsport for a fifth and final season in Formula 2 in 2025, self-orchestrating a deal to put himself in a truly frontrunning car for the first time.

During the first half of the season he was making the most of the opportunity. A victory in the Jeddah feature race made him the championship leader, and another in the main race at the Red Bull Ring put him back on top by 24 points at the halfway point of the season.

In the second half of the campaign he was on the podium just once, when he won the Qatar sprint race, as a drop-off in qualifying form – 10th in Lusail was his best starting place in the last six feature races – left him otherwise fighting for the lower points positions.

Stripping the paint from his car from Monza to get down to the minimum weight limit didn’t improve his performances, but did put the tall Dutchman’s stronger earlier season form in context.

It wasn’t a season that was ever likely to earn the former Red Bull junior a shot at F1, but it did land him a contract with McLaren and a step towards a fully deserved future as a professional.

8. Nikola Tsolov

Re-entry • Reinvigorated career with F3 challenge

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Red Bull / Dutch Photo Agency

This was a year in which Tsolov returned to the sort of form that allowed him to take Spanish F4 by storm as a single-seater rookie in 2022 and place 17th in this list.

After Tsolov’s two years of toiling in FIA Formula 3 with ART Grand Prix and his split from the Alpine Academy, Campos Racing convinced Red Bull to support him for his third year at this level and he didn’t let either party down.

As for similarly experienced team-mate Mari Boya, there were some struggles in qualifying early on that left him playing catch-up in the championship, even though he won the Bahrain sprint race and came third at Imola. At Monaco came a pole position and feature race victory, and a procedural breakthrough helped him improve in qualifying at more conventional circuits.

He took another pole position and feature race win at the Red Bull Ring, closing him to just one point behind eventual champion Rafael Camara, only to be disqualified for excessive plank wear.

His title chances never recovered, but Tsolov did secure second in the standings and went on to impress in two early F2 appearances with Campos ahead of 2026.

7. Alex Dunne

Re-entry • F2 rookie thrilled with early wins

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dunne was arguably the standout talent of 2025. In its context, a single performance or sequence of results from a young driver can excite more than a whole championship-winning campaign, and not much bettered Dunne’s early-season F2 form in terms of impression this year.

The Irishman’s potential was well known (he last featured in this list in 27th in 2023) but his step up to F2 came off the back of a pretty low-key single year in FIA F3 and few could have expected him to be a title contender.

Clearly his Rodin Motorsport-run car was fast but Dunne’s dominant win in his first ever feature race in Bahrain was remarkable, and was followed up just two rounds later by a charging drive at Imola that made him the championship leader.

He took pole next time out in Monaco, but things began to unravel when he tried to turn in on Victor Martins at Sainte Devote. The ensuing social media backlash was wholly unjustified, but there would be a few more scrappy moments alongside the sublime over the rest of the year, which cost some points. That’s completely understandable though for a driver who had no prior experience of fighting at the front at anything like this level.

Some outright pace also seemed to be lost across the year, but Dunne was having to single-handedly lead his team without a capable team-mate for most of the year.

6. Jak Crawford

Up 22 • Individual excellence combined with team anonymity

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Inconsistency plagued an F2 season in which Crawford’s individual brilliance not only earned him victories and poles but also lower positions in the top 10 at times when other drivers would likely have not been a points contender at all.

The highs included victories at Imola, Monaco, Silverstone and Baku, but the lows were points-free weekends where DAMS didn’t choose the right direction to go in with his car and there were even deeper rooted problems like engine issues.

This contributed to Crawford only having the 11th best race pace in the field, yet he led more green flag action than anybody else, and the only driver to beat his podium tally and feature race points haul was the champion.

While there wasn’t much more Crawford could do to maximise his car’s potential at times, the third-year F2 driver was not able to take the title fight to a rookie all the way to the finale.

5. Luke Browning

Up 2 • Was a title challenger in first and only F2 season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Browning finished on the podium in five of the opening eight races in his first full season of F2, and by the ninth race – a fourth-place finish in the Monaco feature race – he had taken the championship lead.

Consistent feature race results were the foundation of Browning’s title bid: he finished inside the top six in nine of the first 10, culminating in his one and only victory from pole position at Monza. Even a drop-off in Friday form in the middle of the year couldn’t stop him on Sundays, and his charging wet-weather drive from 12th to third at home at Silverstone was his personal highlight.

He was the closest challenger to eventual champion Leonardo Fornaroli – 17 points adrift – at the point when his season tailed off, with just one point from the final five races. This certainly wasn’t all in his control: a brake issue plagued him in Abu Dhabi qualifying, by which point the title was already lost and he was already looking towards Super Formula for 2026.

Browning finished fourth in the championship but would have been worthy of more. His feature race points tally was the third highest, with just two points fewer than Jak Crawford and 13 fewer than Fornaroli.

4. Freddie Slater

Up 1 • Showed winning ability in F3, FRegional and GB3

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Slater won a third of the races he contested in a part-time GB3 campaign this year, and 40% of his races in the Formula Regional European Championship. In total, his 2025 featured 16 victories, eight other podiums and 12 poles.

The Middle East was where Slater began life as a FRegional and FIA F3 rookie. In the former, he started the region’s championship with two poles that were converted into wins, and while he repeated that winning feat at a later event he missed out on the title. In the latter, Slater qualifed in the top 10, then finished second with fastest lap on debut.

FREC was his primary focus, and he won at six of the 10 circuits on the calendar. Two early retirements and a mid-season disqualification meant he did not clinch the title until the penultimate race, but he still ended the season 36 points clear.

The GB3 outings occurred on non-clashing weekends, and Slater led that championship too as he won the season’s first two races from pole. He won again when he returned to the grid at Spa-Francorchamps, then got two second places in his third and final appearance at Brands Hatch to come 12th in the standings.

Spa was also where Slater’s second weekend in F3 was, and in November he raced in the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix. On the trickiest of street circuits he topped the first qualifying session, was just pipped in the second, won the qualification race then one small error ended his victory chances and his day in the main race.

3. Rafael Camara

Up 5 • Perfect preparations meant F3 title was earned early

Photo: Pauline Ballet

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

After three excellent years with Prema, Camara made the step up to FIA F3 this year with Trident and it led to him comfortably claiming the title as a rookie.

The championship’s new car proved to be of great benefit rather than a new challenge in an inexperienced line-up at Trident, since the team found out the intricacies needed to nail qualifying during the pre-season.

Of course Camara still needed to deliver with the strongest car on the grid, and he did just that by taking pole, victory and fastest lap in the feature race in three of the first five rounds. His team’s advantage waned after that, but Camara still won from pole at the Hungaroring and that crowned him champion with a round to spare.

Even with the rest of the paddock having caught up to Trident, come season-end the benchmark driver on single-lap and race pace continued to be Camara and in such a competitive championship he had a ridiculously high median starting position on Sundays of 1.5.

2. Dennis Hauger

Re-entry • Utilised F2 experience to dominate Indy Nxt

Photo: Joe Skibinski

Photo: James Black

Three seasons in F2 proved unrewarding for Hauger, as his points tally decreased with each campaign and he never came higher than eighth in the standings despite being one of the top talents on the grid. But without those years of disappointment in junior single-seaters’ most competitive championship he wouldn’t have been able to dominate Indy Nxt with ease in 2025.

Hauger’s knowledge of tyre management meant the pitstop-free yet lengthy races in IndyCar’s primary feeder series suited his skillset, and qualifying also proved far easier to get right than in F2. In fact, he was on pole at seven of the first eight circuits on the calendar and often said “it feels natural” to drive Ind Nxt’s car.

His seamless transition into the championship was shown by taking victory, pole and fastest lap in each of the first two rounds, and if there were any questions about whether such dominance would continue into the oval leg of the season he showed he could adapt to the new challenge of those circuits too. He claimed pole for his first oval race, which was the only one one of the four he didn’t finish on the podium of.

Hauger last made this list in 2023, coming in at 31st place, and his high placing this year is in spite of an Indy Nxt grid lacking strength in depth due to such an impressive level of domination.

1. Leonardo Fornaroli

Up 5 • Mr consistency nails F2 title in his rookie season

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

That Fornaroli won last year’s FIA F3 title with consistency and without winning a race was understandably used against him. That he continued with a similar approach in F2 and won the title at the first attempt has to be applauded for what it is.

It certainly cannot be said that Fornaroli wasn’t fast. He had the best qualifying results on average, was second-fastest on ultimate one-lap pace to Victor Martins (who could rarely use that pace in the races) and started from pole in three feature races and from second place in two others.

Critically and most impressively, he qualified inside the top 10 at all 14 attempts. Courtesy of the reversed grid, that helped him to win three sprint races alongside his solitary feature race victory across four consecutive weekends as the season entered its second half. That sequence took him from fourth in the championship and 28 points off the lead to having a lead of 28 points with three rounds left to play.

He was consistent in his race results as well as his qualifying performances, only failing to score points in two of the 25 races that it took him to clinch the title.

Right now, F2 rewards drivers who can score consistently with a fast car underneath them, and nobody could stop the combination of Fornaroli and Invicta Racing.

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2025: 10-1 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

While the final margin was large, Freddie Slater was made to work hard to become FREC champion in 2025

Freddie Slater was many people’s favourite for the title heading into the 2025 Formula Regional European Championship. The Briton had a record-breaking run to the 2024 Italian Formula 4 title with Prema, and remained with the team for the step up to FRegional, hoping to emulate its previous champions Dino Beganovic, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Rafael Camara.

Over a 10-round campaign, the last for the first-generation Tatuus T-318 chassis after seven seasons of use, fortunes ebbed and flowed as five drivers from five different teams set the pace. Trident’s Matteo De Palo matched Slater from round one at Misano onwards, but then a dominant double win for Slater in the Monza season finale crowned him with a big points gap.

Slater and Prema possibly made the task than it should have been. The team seemed to lack its pace advantage from past seasons, and between them the drivers in Prema’s three other cars amassed a points tally that was under 44% of Slater’s own.

“[Winning the title feels] pretty crazy, especially with the year we’ve had. It’s not been smooth sailing – we’ve had many wins but also a lot of downs – and it’s been super close,” was Slater’s assessment of the outcome of his campaign.

After being crowned at Monza, he admitted “we’ve made a lot of mistakes, some in our control, some out of our control”.

Slater thanked his mechanics “for fixing all my mistakes and crashes” but is arguably unduly harsh on himself, such are his high standards. His most significant mistake came on the opening lap of the season-opening race, when he squandered his pole advantage through wheelspin, then was trying to go alongside De Palo through turn one when he was spun out after a hit from behind.

De Palo went on to win, forging a 25-point lead Slater took five races to negate. In round six at Imola, a mistake outside of his control cost Slater 18 points when he was disqualified from second due to missing valve caps on his left-hand wheels.

His only podium-free weekend was at the Red Bull Ring. Technical issues meant he qualified 18th for race one, and finished it in 12th, then he was fourth in race two, when he said “the step we had to take was huge and there is not much chance for overtaking”.

Slater at Misano

Slater was the only driver to win both races in a weekend, doing so at both Paul Ricard and Monza. His seventh victory In the season’s penultimate race secured him the title and showed maturity, speed, intelligence and a winner’s mentality.

While he clearly had enough speed to pressure Evan Giltaire for the lead, Slater bided his time as the Frenchman’s tyres slowly gave up the fight. With De Palo down the order after a grid penalty and first-lap wing damage, Slater knew “I just had to wrap it up today” as he told Formula Scout with a smile that evening, but ultimately couldn’t resist the opportunity to do so with a victory.

Arguably his best drive of the year had come a few weeks earlier at Hockenheim, as he charged from fourth to first on a damp track, passing Giltaire, Akshay Bohra (twice) and De Palo before disappearing into the distance.

Slater managed to retain an air of chilled insouciance despite the pressures of the tight run-in against De Palo, and rarely looked flustered, in or out of the cockpit.

His eight wins matched the tally of Gregoire Saucy in 2021 (the first season following the merger with Formula Renault Eurocup), but five fewer than the 13 that Frederik Vesti managed in the 2019 season, which had three more races. Slater’s overall points haul of 313 beat the 20-race record of last year’s champion, Camara, by four.

Slater will unsurprisingly follow Camara’s path to Trident in FIA Formula 3 for 2026, with his camp confiding that “the deal had been done quite early”. Only a brave gambler would bet against him enjoying a similar season to his predecessor.

At the start of the season, the main opposition to Slater had been expected to come from sophomores Giltaire at ART Grand Prix and Pedro Clerot at Van Amersfoort Racing.

Giltaire had started his year by defeating Slater to win the Formula Regional Middle East championship and thus headed back to Europe in an optimistic mood as the highest-placed returning driver. Clerot had finished the previous season just four points adrift of Giltaire. Both had stayed with their 2024 teams, looking to build on solid rookie seasons.

De Palo

However, De Palo struck early by winning the opening race at Misano and would provide the most constant challenge throughout the season.

His victory on the Adriatic coast was not only his maiden win at this level, and his first in cars since Spanish F4 in 2023, but also the first win for his Trident team in its fourth season in the series. “We felt a lot of emotion,” recalled De Palo, and the outpouring of elation on the pit wall as he crossed the line was certainly uplifting.

Clearly, De Palo gelled perfectly with the team; the switch to an Italian team from Sainteloc Racing seemingly providing him with confidence and reassurance.

Trident team manager Luca Zerbini was not surprised by De Palo’s performance:

“From the very first moment we started to work with him, from testing at the end of last season, on the simulator, at all the technical meetings, we saw that is very good, to be honest,” he said. “In winter testing he was performing very, very well. He felt very good with the team straightaway and vice versa.

“He’s smart, and always happy, I would say. We laugh a lot, because sometimes he says funny things also on the radio. But he feels the pressure, like every driver, of course.

“At the end of the day, when you work hard, and you have a good driver in the car, results will come. So, maybe it was a surprise for a lot of people. To be honest, we couldn’t foresee how good the season would be, but we knew that it was going to be a very good season with him.”

Zerbini believes that this year’s results prove the strength of his team’s set-up and staff continuity.

“Last year could have been much better. [Roman] Bilinski had that road accident and was out for a few races. Even when he came back, he was still not at his best, but we were still performing with [Michael] Belov.

De Palo at the Red Bull Ring

“I’m proud of that because the team is very stable, also from the technical point of view. We have three engineers working together since day one in FRegional and even though they are quite different, they are able to work very well together,” he explains.

On De Palo’s day, he was untouchable. His three subsequent wins at the Hungaroring, Red Bull Ring and Barcelona were dominant. He showed that was prepared to fight his rivals wheel-to-wheel as he demonstrated in the opening corners at Misano and Barcelona.

He was a model of consistency, only failing to score points twice – the second race in Austria and the Monza opener – both due to contact damage. Unlike Slater, De Palo was never able to dominate a weekend, his best overall weekend results being a win and a third.

He was unsurprisingly a “bit sad” at losing out in the final weekend and said he “needed to step back a little.”

When he does reflect on his year, one that secured him a place on McLaren’s driver development programme, he can be rightfully proud, even though the way in which he ultimately lost out was a sad and arguably undeserved conclusion. Next year, he will need to take Slater on again, but this time from across the same garage.

Two drivers tied for third place, Clerot and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny, with the French-Chinese driver taking the position by virtue of his four victories.

Deligny was a driver with something to prove as he also returned for a second season, having been dropped by the Red Bull junior programme over the winter.

His speed was never in doubt. Indeed, he was arguably the outright fastest driver in FREC this season, even having a slight edge on Slater: measured by the average gap to the best qualifying time in each qualifying group, Deligny was marginally the fastest qualifier of the year, despite struggling in the colder morning temperatures at Monza.

Deligny

Significantly, each of the top qualifiers had at least one disastrous qualifying session, whereas in 2024 Camara managed to post a time among the top four in his group at every race.

As the average times clearly show, the gap at the front was minuscule; evidence of the tightness of this year’s championship.

Qualifying performance

What Deligny lacked was consistency, although he had clearly made huge strides in maturity since his disappointing rookie season.

He was off-the-pace at the opening and closing rounds, where his team-mates Bohra and Jin Nakamura mostly struggled too, while a spin at his home event at Paul Ricard in the summer cost him dearly.

On his day, Deligny was blisteringly quick, as his wins at Spa-Francorchamps, Imola, Barcelona and Hockenheim proved. He and Slater put on some of the seasons’ best battles, notably at Spa and the Hungaroring.

The weekend in Budapest showed both sides of his character, driving a beautiful race to lead and then re-pass Slater when a technical issue arose. A third-placed finish was then lost when he was disqualified for driving in a “dangerous” and “erratic” manner on the slow-down lap.

“This year wasn’t easy,” Deligny commented. “I think the competition has been the toughest it’s ever been. We took four wins, nine podiums and four pole positions and still we barely made it into the top three.”

After what he acknowledged had been a “tricky year” in 2024, he felt that he and R-ace GP had made “a big step”, saying: “we worked really hard during the winter on the set-up and tyre management, and our speed was really good.”

His team principal Thibaut de Merindol agrees that “Enzo has improved a lot compared to last year”.

“He always has been potentially very quick. From the first test we did with him during the summer of 2023, he was able to drive the car very fast but it was very all over the place in many aspects. Where he has improved a lot is, I think, that he’s much more mature as a human being. He’s much more integrated in the team in terms of communication, in terms of feeling comfortable with everyone around.

Deligny

“He opened up a lot. We can joke, we can have fun. Last year he was like a very young teenager; very shy, very defensive. So, he made a huge step. Then the work with the team is much more efficient and I think he’s feeling much more comfortable, and then the performance on track comes.

“Overall, looking at the statistics, I think he’s the best performer in qualifying. We made some mistakes, we lost some points, talking about Hungaroring, but he’s on his way to getting better and better, and he did a mega step.

“When he lost Red Bull, I think it forced him to analyse the situation and understand that he had to change something. I’m very happy.”

And with good reason, as R-ace GP managed to wrestle the teams’ championship back from Prema for the first time since 2021, largely thanks to Deligny’s points. He will move on to Prema for his rookie F3 season in 2026.

Van Amersfoort Racing, like Trident, scored its maiden FRegional win with Pedro Clerot in 2025, just as the popular Dutch team celebrated its 50th year in motor racing. To add icing to the birthday cake, the first win came at Zandvoort, just 80 kilometres west of the team’s base at Zeewolde, with a host of former drivers and guests braving the rain to join in the festivities.

Clerot took both poles in the Netherlands but got mugged into Tarzan in race one by a fast-starting Slater. However, he made amends in race two, with team-mate Hiyu Yamakoshi following him home to make it an even more special weekend for the local team.

The team struggled at the start of the year with Clerot failing to score in either race at Spa, his only non-points finishes all year. As he told Formula Scout at the end of the year: “the year has been 90% strong. After Spa, we’ve been fighting for poles everywhere and I’m happy with the progress we’ve made.

“Spa and Misano were not so good – Misano is a very specific track – but in Zandvoort and Barcelona we had the pace.”

Clerot leads home Yamakoshi at Zandvoort

Though he ultimately just missed out on third in the standings, Clerot “looks back very positively on the season and two years of working well with the team, and not disappointment about the championship.” He swaps VAR for Rodin Motorsport for the move up to F3 in 2026.

The last of the five stand-out drivers, Giltaire somehow remained philosophical and in good humour despite a season that started strongly with a win and a second at Misano before plunging into a deep hole. He and his ART team kept battling and managed to dig their way out of the trough to bounce back with a very strong performance at the last two rounds at Hockenheim and Monza.

The car was clearly not a match for the machines of Prema, at least in Slater’s hands, or R-ace GP, and his defence of the lead at Monza on tyres that were losing grip rapidly was heroic.

Formula Scout has documented his struggles during 2025 previously, and it seems at the time of writing that a berth in Super Formula Lights in Japan beckons. But have no doubts – Giltaire, like the four who finished above him, would enrich any Formula 3 grid. Europe’s loss, though maybe only temporary, is Japan’s gain.

So, what of the rest?

Bohra was the only other driver to win a race, the Indian-American taking a perfect pole position, fastest lap and win at Imola. De Merindol sees a similarly positive development in him as with Deligny: “For a rookie, I think he’s done a very good season. Okay, obviously, Freddie Slater is a rookie as well, but we know the amount of preparation, the experience and the background of Freddie, which Akshay doesn’t have at all.”

Like his team-mates Bohra was off the pace at Misano and Monza, but was able to lead the team’s attack in races such as Paul Ricard where Deligny faltered.

Formula Regional Europe welcomed four Japanese drivers in 2025, helped by both Honda and Toyota placing junior drivers in the series. Hiyu Yamakoshi stayed with VAR where he had shone in F4, SF Lights race winner Jin Nakamura joined R-ace GP, while French F4 champion and Taito Kato lined up at ART Grand Prix, alongside sophomore Kanato Le.

Kato

Yamakoshi admitted to feeling extra pressure to beat his compatriots: “they are nice friends, so I don’t want to break our friendship, but racing is racing, so I want to beat them on the track, of course.”

Honda protege Kato was undoubtedly the most impressive, often pushing more experienced team-mate Giltaire hard. From mid-season he was a regular points scorer, aided by the presence in the paddock of Honda guru Takuma Sato, finishing the year with two fourths at Monza.

Yamakoshi had surprised many in Italian F4 in 2024 but could not match those results upon stepping up to FREC. A poor weekend at Misano dented his confidence, although a front row start and podium in the following race at Spa got his season underway. He followed it up with another second place at Zandvoort, and excelled in the wet part of qualifying, but his year rather tailed off thereafter with just one points finish after the summer break.

Toyota junior Nakamura took time to adapt but his season was the reverse of Yamakoshi’s, picking up momentum from Paul Ricard, apart from a terrible weekend at Imola. However, his season lacked consistency with too many mistakes blemishing his record.

He initially found the step down from SF Lights quite “difficult, because of the lack of grip” but the move had been driven by a push to learn “the tracks, the teams, everything” about racing in Europe. The presence at race weekends of Kazuki Nakajima and Kamui Kobayashi from Toyota provided extra support and motivation, making him, he said, “the happiest man in the paddock.”

The attraction for the Japanese contingent overall, he believes, was the “competitiveness of this championship; every team has good performance.”

All four Japanese drivers will move up to FIA F3, with Nakamura the only one to trade teams, moving to Hitech TGR as his backer looks to move him onto the next step towards F1.

Nakamura

Rashid Al Dhaheri looked promising on occasions at Prema, as the step up to a more powerful car seemed to suit his style after F4. If he remains in FREC, the Mercedes-AMG F1 junior could show his potential. He followed Slater home to take second-place finishes at the Hungaroring and Paul Ricard, where he also topped his qualifying group, in a mid-season run of strong results.

For team-mate Jack Beeton the year was a nightmare from beginning to end. Runner-up to Slater in Italian F4, he now struggled to even score points. His Monza weekend summed up his year: crashing at the first corner in race one, incurring two separate grid penalties for misdemeanours in qualifying for race two and then leaving for IndyNxt testing before the second race.

Prema fielded Doriane Pin in a fourth entry from the second round at Spa, with her F1 Academy commitments taking priority. However, amid the constant swapping from F4 to FRegional machinery she struggled to make an impression and ended her campaign after Paul Ricard to focus on her ultimately title-winning F1 Academy season.

The fourth Prema car was run as a wildcard entry for Pin’s then fellow Mercedes juniors Alex Powell and Yuanpu Cui in three late-season rounds. Neither could get a handle on the car in the limited running available.

Prema has been the gold standard in FRegional since its beginning, with the exception of the very start of the Alpine era, so its apparent struggles were surprising. Was Slater’s talent such that he could compensate for any inherent deficiencies in the set-up or were the other drivers unable to extract the maximum from a front-running car?

Having said that, Prema still got close to the teams’ title in a year when no team apart from R-ace GP took wins with two different drivers.

VAR’s Dion Gowda picked up the official rookie title but with most first-year drivers ineligible having driven in the Middle East series, he had close to no competition. Of the other “eligible” rookies only Edouard Borgna did a full season, although offered little challenge.

Gowda leads Bedrin

Nikita Bedrin put in some strong performances at Sainteloc Racing, notably at the Red Bull Ring, but the team lacked any experienced back-up for most of the year.

For RPM and G4 Racing the sooner the year could end, the better. At least both gained entries for the 2026 championship, not without some drama in G4’s case.

Both seemed to operate revolving doors for their driver line-ups. G4 went through six drivers while the Italo-Irish squad managed to get through 10 drivers in the two remaining cars alongside ever-present Giovanni Maschio.

In truth, Keith Donegan’s team was using the latter part of the season as an extended driver test for 2026 and, Jan Przyrowski, Ean Eyckmans, Reno Francot, Tomass Stolcermanis and James Egozi all showed promise on their limited appearances.

Both outfits have the potential to run at the front and win races, and the series would be poorer without them.

Of the two new teams, Akcel GP only appeared on the eve of the season start and disappeared again after Imola, while CL Motorsport went for experience in their driver line up, and series veteran Belov duly delivered once he had joined the Italian-based team from Spa.

FRegional Europe goes into a new era in 2026 – new Tatuus chassis, a new Toyota-based engine from Autotecnica, and increased direct FIA involvement in technical and marketing matters. In addition, it will introduce some reversed-grid races as part of an overhaul of the calendar.

The final round at Monza also marked the 100th race of the championship’s partnership with Alpine, having adopted the Alpine-badged, Oreca-developed engine from 2021 following its merger with the Formula Renault Eurocup.

The end of the partnership with Alpine marks the end of Renault’s involvement in the junior single-seater ladder. The history of Formula Renault dates back to 1971 and counts the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri among its graduates. FRegional Europe had continued the link through the “by Alpine” suffix to its official championship name.

Nevertheless, the championship can go into its next phase full of optimism if the quality of this year’s drivers is a guide.

The post How Freddie Slater ended a Formula Regional Europe era on top appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photos: Macau GP Organising Committee

Pinnacle Motorsport had the pace to win in Macau, but it needed more than that for its 1-2 in the grand prix

There was mixed feelings on the podium of last Sunday’s Macau Grand Prix, as Pinnacle Motorsport’s drivers received their wreaths, trophies and were then interviewed after finishing one-two. Mari Boya had driven a tactile race which earned him the lead twice, but came home runner-up to Theophile Nael who “was not breathing” through the last lap after getting to the front.

He had taken first place through a move that “was 100% determination” after a restart on the penultimate lap, flying past Boya and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny down the straight following Mandarin corner.

“I was just full throttle, six gears, and I was looking to the front. I brake late, and it paid off,” Nael said of the overtake.

He later added a key detail when talking to media, saying “I don’t know why they slowed down a bit too much” ahead.

Boya had led the field back to racing speeds heading into lap 14 of 15, and weaved his way down the straights between the first two corners with his eye always on his left mirror. Deligny took a tighter line into the high-speed Mandarin right-hander, but was too close to Boya’s gearbox after the apex to have room to go either side of him so he had to check up.

The pair had two car lengths in hand over Nael entering Mandarin, but he was on their tail exiting it and Boya’s decision to jink right then to cover the inside to prevent Deligny from taking it left Nael plenty of room to get past both on the outside.

Once ahead of Boya he moved to the right, then Boya tucked in behind as the track tightened so Nael had the inside line for braking into Lisboa. Had Nael been closer into Mandarin, he would have been compromised the same way Deligny was.

While Nael credited that he and Boya had “worked really well together the whole weekend”, to concede the lead — and ultimately victory — to his team-mate was clearly not Boya’s plan.

Mari Boya

“I’m not happy,” was Boya’s first reaction once out of the cockpit. “The slipstream, I don’t understand how it’s so powerful. I was stuck on the straight, so couldn’t do anything. This is racing.”

He later added “maybe tomorrow I will be happier than today” and ” when I will look at the past I will be really happy and proud about this week”, but was frank about his disappointment at the final restart not going to plan.

“I knew I will lead the race after T2. Like I had in mind, I [was] 100% sure if there was a safety car the one that will be in front [would be] me. I looked at thousands of possibilities to restart, and the one that was [resulting in] every time the best was this one,” he explained of his choice to instigate the restart before R bend, weave to Mandarin and then tuck inside.

“Ugo [Ugochukwu, 2024 winner] last year was amazing doing this. [Pirelli] changed the compound, it’s much easier to have the tyre ready and it’s harder to make the difference. So for me it was the best one, the best place to do it. Freddie [Slater] also, I think he knew it was there.

“And in the last one [restart], yeah, nothing more to do. Just waiting for a car to overtake you. You can brake in the middle of the straight, but it’s not fair. This is Macau.”

While that answer suggested he was against the idea of lifting on a straight to slow a driver behind, in comments made to one outlet he claimed “I know how to play my game, and I feel Fernando [Alonso] is the best one doing this type of thing.”

Deligny’s take on the restart was that Boya had lost speed as a tactical decision.

“I made sure to not be too close heading into Mandarin, to not have to brake too early. I tried to manage the gap perfectly, but for some reason he decided to slow down in the middle of the corner, which meant I had to brake as well,” he said.

Fastest laps

Boya’s approach had not only been influenced by watching previous races and Alonso, a driver for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team which now backs Boya’s career, but by restarts and the pace earlier in the race when victory looked far harder to take.

Prema’s Freddie Slater had started on pole after winning the qualification race the previous day, but lost the lead to Boya into the opening corner. The safety car made its first appearance shortly after, and on the race’s first restart Boya weaved his way down the first straights, Slater looked to his outside after Mandarin and as soon as he was fully ahead cut to the inside.

It was a clinical pass, and Slater then built a three-second lead with a pace 0.66 seconds faster than Boya’s before the safety car returned. The subsequent restart was a repeat of the first but with the roles reversed, and when pushing to stay with the leader Slater then crashed at R bend which led to a third safety car period and then the restart which Boya lost the race on.

“I feel I did everything I could. Freddie today was really, really strong. I pushed so, so hard at the beginning to try to catch him,” Boya said of his earlier rival for victory.

“He was with new tyres so it was super hard for me to stay with him. So when I realised I couldn’t follow him, I started to not push, think on [saving] tyres to — if there was a safety car or something — have a revenge.”

While in disbelief at how the slipstream effect eradicated his lead so quickly in sector one, Boya was in praise of Slater’s style.

“He was taking many risks, but he was driving really, really good. I felt he had a lot of confidence today. I saw in the first restart that the slipstream was super powerful. I felt I did a really good job in my first one, and he overtook me super easy.”

Boya added: “[Slater] was incredibly fast in the last two corners [on the restarts], but the slipstream is so powerful that I was able to arrive, risk it a lot on the braking, was moving everything, locking front, rear. I knew that I wanted to win here. It doesn’t matter making P2. The one that is remembered is in P1. And I knew that it was my chance to get past Freddie.

Slater’s crash

“Then he make a mistake in the last corner, and I felt it was for me because I knew I had a gap. But, again safety car, one-lap race, ciao. I tried to do whatever in the last two corners, but it’s too powerful the slipstream.”

There was also plenty of praise for Nael’s drive. He had lost third place to Deligny at the start, and had been pressuring him when Slater and Boya were battling ahead in what the winner described as a “patient” race.

“Both starts, yesterday and today, didn’t went as planned so I just managed to stay calm. I know that we are racing in Macau so everything can happen. Until the chequered flag it’s not over, so I was patient.”

Nael credited Pinnacle as “the car was just flying, the pace was there the whole weekend”, and like Boya was saving his rubber on a hot track once Slater had stormed ahead. But as shown with his storming drive in the shorter qualification race, he actually had a grippier car than his rivals late on.

“I had to manage the tyres as well,” he admitted. “So I kept that in mind. To not overpush, to have still some pace in the tyres at the end of the race. But what I saw from yesterday’s race, the tyre degradation was not that much, so for me it was possible to push until the end.”

Grip matters in the twisty mountain section as much as the straights, most importantly helping drivers avoid the barriers. Confidence through those corners has a big impact on laptime, and can help drivers create gaps that minimise the slipstream effect to cars behind once they get through the Guia Circuit’s five sectors and back to the straights.

“Obviously there’s a lot of simulations done before the event. And we know Macau is notoriously difficult to overtake on,” Pinnacle’s team director John O’Hara said when asked about what had underpinned his team’s excellent weekend.

“Into Lisboa on lap one is your best chance, and on the safety car restarts. So of course that was a factor for us.

1-2 finishes at the Macau GP

The post How two restarts set up the biggest day in Pinnacle Motorsport’s history appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Ahead of the decisive main races of Sunday, who is feeling confident in Macau’s FRegional and F4 paddocks?

The qualification races for the FIA Formula Regional and Formula 4 World Cups both delivered action and intrigue on Saturday, and have set up what should be an exciting Sunday at the Macau Grand Prix.

In the main event, Theophile Nael set a new lap record for FRegional cars around the Guia Circuit by half a second over his KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport team-mate Mari Boya, but neither driver won as a superb start from Prema’s Freddie Slater put him past poleman Nael into a lead he was able to extend to over five seconds during the 10-lap race.

Slater entered the unknown at the front, as disruptions earlier in the weekend meant this was the first time a run of consecutive laps lasting that long had been completed. While he had also contested the grand prix in 2024, the first time FRegional cars were used, that event ran mostly in mixed conditions so there was still plenty of learning to be done in 2025.

On the grid for Saturday’s qualification race, Slater said to get a good start “was the key factor”, but after he claimed the lead a few seconds in he was “just trying to get a read on balance for tomorrow” thereon.

“We’ve got an extra five laps tomorrow, so we need to know what we need to do overnight to make it even better,” he noted.

“It [the car] has had pace all weekend. The track’s getting faster and faster now, the times are coming down with the race runs, and the track’s getting grippy, so it’s good fun out there.”

Slater was able to have more fun in part due to “understanding the car after a full season in this category”, having won the European championship this year with Prema. And while the racing line was very grippy by the end of the day when the FRegional cars took to track, that had more challenging consequences too.

Freddie Slater

“There’s one line, and if you’re not on it you’re in the wall,” beamed the race winner, before later being more analytical.

“There’s a lot of rubber down there now, but then off-line it’s very dirty. It’s quite a fine line between getting it right and getting it wrong now, which is very interesting. Especially for us [single-seaters].”

However Slater’s race could have panned out differently from the front row. After taking the lead, he was susceptible to the slipstreams down the straights before the first braking zone at Lisboa, and at the high-speed Mandarin corner ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire and Boya tried getting alongside him.

The faster Pinnacle drivers then had to clear Giltaire, with overtaking obviously tricky on the iconic street circuit, before they could show their true pace. By the time they did, Slater’s lead was too large to be extinguished before race-end.

“I know they managed to pass Evan during the race, but it’s not really that normal sometimes. The start was crucial,” reflected Slater.

“I had a really good start, and from thereon you’re trying to manage the slipstream and trying to see where to block people out and make sure they’re not getting too big of a run. And Evan was alongside me as well, so it was kind of two cars in the middle.”

On how close he came to losing the lead he had only just gained on lap one, he added: “I looked in my mirror, Mari was quite far away; I looked again, and he was literally on my rear wing. The slipstream is pretty powerful here and it always makes the racing good fun.”

Boya and Nael also very much enjoyed themselves on track, and had plenty of positives to take away from the results despite finishing behind Slater. While the winner’s buzzword was “fun”, Boya’s was “revenge”.

Single-lap pace

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Session
1	Theophile Nael	KCMG/Pinnacle	2m15.561s	Race
2	Freddie Slater	Prema	+0.147s	Q1
3	Evan Giltaire	ART GP	+0.323s	Q2
4	Taito Kato	ART GP	+0.355s	Q2
5	Enzo Deligny	R-ace GP	+0.398s	Q2
6	Mari Boya	KCMG/Pinnacle	+0.468s	Q1
7	Mattia Colnaghi	PHM Racing	+0.475s	Q2
8	Rashid Al Dhaheri	Prema	+0.997s	Q2
9	Matteo De Palo	R-ace GP	+1.090s	Q1
10	Kanato Le	ART Grand Prix	+1.097s	Race
11	Enzo Yeh	PHM Racing	+1.123s	Race

“Yesterday I was a bit frustrated, felt I had a lot more, but today we got revenge, and the weekend is not over yet,” he said after his drive from sixth on the grid to second place. “I felt we had a really good pace, and even for tomorrow we can do better steps. I understand better the car, so now we will analyse and tomorrow we come back stronger.”

Boya admitted to making a “big mistake” on the last lap, pointing to the unknown element of a 10-lap stint, but it was mission accomplished for the FIA Formula 3 regular who finished fourth in the 2023 Macau GP when it ran for F3 cars.

“Since the start I felt I was really on it this race,” he added. “I know what to ask my engineer to maybe be a bit quicker. And being more comfortable on the limit. Because today the last laps were a bit tricky for me. But the beginning of the race was really strong. So happy about the race, and also the conclusions we take for tomorrow.”

While a strong start was as valuable to his result as it was to Slater’s, he claimed his F3 experience worked against him on the run to Lisboa.

“The thing is that I’m not used to racing with these drivers. I’m a bit older than them. So I don’t know really well how to fight with them. Because I don’t know how aggressive they are. So I need to always take a look, like knock on their door, then see what’s next. Anyway I had the pace, I was following pretty easy [with] Giltaire. So I just see where was my strongest points [to attempt passing], and when I see it’s clear I went for it.”

A similar logic was applied by Nael, who graduated from FRegional to F3 this year, in regards to his descent from first to fourth on the opening lap. But he could see the positives, as shown by his first words on microphone post-race.

“To be honest I prefer to start second row for tomorrow. With the slipstream it will help a lot,” he quipped.

Theophile Nael

“I need to work on the start for tomorrow, I will see what happened. But it is [such a long] time that I [have] not drove this car, so the first start is always a bit tricky.”

Nael said specifically “to get used to the clutch was a bit hard”, but he should “be good for tomorrow”. He will be on the same side of the grid for his second start back in the car, and wants to avoid losing out in battle in the all-important main race.

Being on the outside line for turn one proved costly, then to avoid hitting another car “I had to brake, but it’s fair play”. That led to a big loss of momentum down the following straight and he was fortunate to only lose three places.

“The pace during the whole race was really good. I was [able] to improve the two last laps, even the track record I think. So car is feeling good and I’m positive for tomorrow,” he remarked.

Since he bettered his pace as the fuel load lowered and the tyres became more worn, Nael feels confident about the main race’s longer distance but says “there is a lack of bite in the brake” to be aware of at all times as well as tyre degradation.

“I know what to improve on the car as well like Mari with my engineer,” he added. “If we see the pace of today, should be fine.”

Outside of the top three, only ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato in fifth, R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny in sixth and PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi in seventh were within a second of Nael’s pace, with two sub-2m16s laps that were record-setters.

After the F4 race earlier in the day, all the talk was about Emanuele Olivieri’s lap one move for the lead on Sebastian Wheldon around the outside of Mandarina corner. Brave was the word many used to describe the winner’s overtake.

“I got a good jump so I knew I had quite a good opportunity to overtake Wheldon. I thought T2 was easy flat, and also around the outside, but I ended up quite close to the wall. So it was quite a risky move,” he admitted.

Emanuele Olivieri

“After that I just had to manage my tyres. It was quite slippery around, so just bring it to the chequered flag.”

He was chased for most of the race by Fionn McLaughlin, who had fresher rubber after not setting any laptimes in practice, and Olivieri “was quite worried” when “Fionn was so close to me” as he thought he was “struggling around with the rear” tyres and believed the Red Bull junior behind had a pace advantage.

“I think today was the hottest track temperature of the [weekend]. Usually the more hot, the more slippery it is. So we chose to be on old tyres to be all set for tomorrow. I don’t think it was maybe the best choice, but we won the race so I won’t complain too much. But I was quite struggling to actually keep the car on track because I was – I think you can see it on the onboard – really oversteering in every corner. So I was also quite trying to be safe. To not do some silly mistake.

“But the new tyres advantage is giving you quite a lot of laptime, and confidence obviously.”

Olivieri was actually the quickest driver in the qualification race, and took the fastest lap by 0.783s over Yutsai Chan. Wheldon and Kean Nakamura Berta would have been two likely rivals as pacesetters after topping qualifying, but they crashed out at Lisboa on lap one after being passed by Olivieri.

That pair will start 15th and 16th for the main race, while Olivieri goes into Sunday with pole,”a lot of confidence” and has committed to “give it everything” to win the World Cup.

Jules Roussel was runner-up to Olivieri on Saturday, 5.687s behind, after charging up from ninth on the grid and overtaking at the very last corner of the race. To do the same on Sunday if battling for the win would certainly rival Olivieri’s move.

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