20. Mattia Colnaghi

Up 9 • Followed Spanish F4 title with Eurocup-3 glory

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

With two titles in as many years in single-seaters, it’s no wonder that Colnaghi was snapped up by Red Bull before he even had this year’s Eurocup-3 crown in the bag.

After overhauling more experienced competition to become Spanish Formula 4 champion last year, the Italo-Argentine driver had to settle for being runner-up to fellow graduate and MP Motorsport team-mate Maciej Gladysz in Eurocup-3’s winter series at the start of 2025 after a disastrous double non-score in the deciding round.

He started the main campaign with a pole, win and fastest lap at the Red Bull Ring, but was only on the podium twice more across the first nine races, and was trailing Red Bull-backed rookie Ernesto Rivera at the top of the standings at the halfway mark.

After that though, while Rivera was wildly inconsistent – scoring just three times in the last nine races – Colnaghi was never off the podium and put the title out of the reach of the more experienced Valerio Rinicella and Kacper Sztuka with a round to go.

Colnaghi missed the final round to test himself against a deeper field at the Macau Grand Prix, proving his class with an impressive run with with PHM Racing to fourth in the main race as leading rookie.

19. Caio Collet

Up 7 • Indy Nxt runner-up secured a seat in the top tier

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Photo: James Black

Third in Indy Nxt as a rookie in 2024, Collet came into 2025 with his sights set firmly on the title, but had the misfortune to come up against the toughest of newcomers in Dennis Hauger.

Given how well proven Formula 2 drivers have adapted to IndyCar over recent years, Hauger came in arguably overqualified, and Collet and his HMD Motorsports team were left scratching their heads wondering how to keep up with the Andretti driver’s early pace.

They kept plugging away at it though and a breakthrough finally came mid-season at Road America, where Collet put a pass on Hauger to take his first win in nearly a year.

That didn’t exactly open the floodgates, but Collet did convert two pole positions into two victories at Laguna Seca, with a retirement for Hauger there keeping the title alive. Collet made it three poles in a row next time out at Portland, only for Hauger to this time overtake for victory, putting the title pretty much out of sight.

Most importantly though, Collet gets to join his rival on the IndyCar grid next year.

18. Fionn McLaughlin

New entry • Car racing rookie won British F4 title

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: Red Bull

Signed up by Red Bull through its revived Driver Search shootout last year, McLaughlin became by modern standards a relatively late starter in car racing at the start of 2025 at the ripe old age of 17, but he quickly made up for any lost time.

Driving with Hitech GP, he was a frontrunner from the off in the Formula Winter Series, taking a win on his debut weekend on the Algarve and adding two more victories at Motorland Aragon to finish third in the standings.

In British F4, it took him nine races to win, but was never outside of the points over the next three rounds as he traded the championship lead with second year racer Martin Molnar.

McLaughlin’s win in an eventful third race at Zandvoort, when Molnar was among those involved in contact, would prove pivotal. He dropped some points too over the following rounds, but still did enough to ease away in the title race.

There might have been some doubts about the level in British F4 this year, with other drivers holding Formula 1 connections unable to do what McLaughlin did and live up to their hype, but he confirmed his potential at the FIA F4 World Cup in Macau.

Mechanical issues prevented him from doing any proper laps in practice, but he qualified sixth and went on to challenge for the win in the qualification race, only to hit the wall out of second place just a few corners from the end.

17. Enzo Deligny

New entry • The fastest driver in Formula Regional Europe

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

Deligny had lost the backing of Red Bull after a disappointing first season in the Formula Regional European Championship in 2024, but put that behind him with a much stronger 2025 campaign in which he was statistically the quickest driver on the always-competitive grid.

The French-Chinese driver remained with R-ace GP for a second season and team boss Thibaut de Merindol saw a big step in his maturity.

Marginally quicker than eventual champion Freddie Slater on qualifying performance across the year, Deligny claimed four pole positions and four victories during the season. The latter allowed him to finish third in the championship on countback against Pedro Clerot, who was more consistent but won only twice.

That inconsistency prevented him putting up a stronger challenge against Slater in the championship and there was still the odd wild moment, such as disqualification from third place at the Hungaroring for driving erratically on the slow-down lap.

Overall though we saw a much-improved Deligny this year, capped by a clean run to third at the Macau Grand Prix.

16. Dino Beganovic

Up 3 • First F2 campaign featured a pole and a win

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Beganovic wasn’t a factor in the Formula 2 championship fight like some of his fellow rookies were, but he certainly showed strong progression.

Having scored points just four times in the first half of the season, he did so 11 times out of 14 in the second half.

This not to say that the Ferrari junior was lacking performance in the early part of the year. He qualified fifth for the cancelled season-opening feature race in Melbourne, and by round four at Imola had put his Hitech car on pole position. He finished that race third, jumped by team-mate Luke Browning after being delayed in his pit-stop before the red-hot Alex Dunne passed both.

While Browning was now firmly in the tight fight, it took Beganovic longer to consistently find his feet, but fourth in the Silverstone feature race began a more competitive sequence of results. His season – which included two F1 practice runs for Ferrari – peaked on the streets of Baku, where he won the sprint race and came third in the feature race.

15. Thomas Strauven

New entry • Superior in winter and summer in Spanish F4

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

Photo: Campos Racing

The standing and depth of the Spanish F4 championship seems to improve with every season that passes, making Strauven’s dominance of the series in 2025 all the more impressive.

There didn’t seem to be much to separate Strauven and Campos Racing team-mate Jan Przyrowski in terms of pace in the three-round winter championship at the start of the year, with the Belgian’s better consistency helping him to take the title.

The same trend was amplified in the main championship. Strauven had an early edge in qualifying, starting on pole for six of the first eight races, during which time Przyrowski matched him for wins with three apiece. But Strauven was only off the podium once in that time, and already opening up his championship lead.

While Przyrowski then started the next seven races from pole, he didn’t win again. Strauven on the other hand ended the season with a total of 10 wins and seven other podiums from the 21 races, and 157 points more than his nearest rival – which wasn’t Przyrowski but rookie compatriot Ean Eyckmans.

14. Arvid Lindblad

Down 3 • FROC title and early F2 promise were key to F1 chance

Photo: Red Bull

Photo: TGR NZ

Lindblad ends this year with arguably the best prize of any driver on this list, as the only one who will be an F1 driver in 2026.

He took an important step towards that already in the first six weeks of the year when he won the Formula Regional Oceania Championship, giving him enough points for a superlicence. In truth, his prior record was a clear cut above the rest of what wasn’t the strongest field ever assembled in New Zealand, but stepping down a level and getting the job done under scrutiny and pressure is sometimes easier said than done.

Getting it done meant he could step up to F2 with less pressure to achieve results; valuable in the context of the struggles other highly rated drivers have had at that level.

Still, Lindblad did adapt impressively, which likely helped lead the FIA to grant special dispensation for him to receive his superlicence already at the age of 17.

That decision came less than two weeks after he won the Barcelona feature race from pole position. Including that result, across his first six rounds in F2, Lindblad had also won the Jeddah sprint race, come second in the Imola sprint and scored in all but one race.

At this stage he was third in the championship, just eight points from the lead, but he would score only seven times in the last 14 races and end up sixth in the standings. It was a tailing off that mirrored his previous campaigns in FIA Formula 3 and Italian F4, but it’s his quick adaptation at such a young age that should bode well for his next step.

13. Matteo De Palo

New entry • FREC’s surprise Slater challenger 

Photo: ACI Sport

Photo: ACI Sport

De Palo was arguably the biggest surprise package anywhere in junior single-seater racing in 2025.

That’s not to say that his potential had not been completely hidden previously, because his run to fifth in Spanish F4 as a car racing rookie in 2023 certainly showed promise. But there was little in his rookie FREC campaign in 2024 with Sainteloc Racing, finishing 17th in the standings, to put him among the favourites starting this season. After all, his new team Trident had yet to take a driver to victory in three previous seasons in the series.

Together, they put that right in race one at Misano. Maybe more surprising than that home victory was that it wasn’t a flash in the pan.

De Palo’s early 25-point advantage over Prema’s well-prepared Slater was eradicated in only five races, only for the Roman to go and win the next race at the Hungaroring. Slater started to pull away mid-season, but de Palo capitalised on two consecutive non-scores for his rival with a third win of his own at the Red Bull Ring to get in front again. They traded places again either wide of de Palo’s fourth win at Barcelona and he stayed close until the Monza decider, which he had entered only four points adrift.

Newly signed to McLaren’s driver development programme, de Palo’s first weekend in Papaya was underwhelming after a one-off switch to R-ace GP, but it’s with Trident that he steps up to FIA F3 next year – as Slater’s team-mate.

12. Mari Boya

Re-entry • New Aston junior came third in F3, second in Macau

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

49th in this list in 2023, when he was Eurocup-3 runner-up alongside his rookie season in FIA F3, it’s rare for a driver to stay in the latter series for a third season and rarer still for them to then make as positive an impression as Boya did in 2025.

The Spaniard’s appointment as an Aston Martin F1 junior in the middle of the year appeared to be one of the more left-field such signings, but it seemed to help him take a step forward.

At the time, six rounds into the season, he had been sixth in the standings with a couple of third-places to his name in the Monaco and Red Bull Ring feature races. So far, so solid. Next time out at Silverstone he won the feature race, having already finished third in the sprint race.

A second place would come later in the Hungaroring feature race and he ended the year third in the championship – and as the second-highest scorer in feature races.

Boya also made his experience count at the Macau Grand Prix to challenge for victory, ultimately finishing second.

11. Max Garcia

Up 31 • Prodigious rise continues with USF Pro 2000 title

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Photo: Gavin Baker Photography

Garcia will still only be 16 years old when he makes his Indy Nxt debut next year after winning back-to-back titles on the IndyCar ladder.

While his USF2000 title in 2024 was hard-fought against several other drivers, with five wins from 18 races, his run to the USF Pro 2000 crown was far more dominant with nine victories from the same number of opportunities. He was on the podium in all but five races.

Such consistency was highly valuable. As an example, Alessandro de Tullio had three poles and three wins from the first four races, but the rest of his campaign was far more hit and miss and he finished fourth, 153 points behind Garcia.

Round three’s triple header at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was particularly wild and Garcia wasn’t able to avoid being involved, but he still finished all three races in the top four and increased his points lead over de Tullio from 16 to 57.

Written by Peter Allen

The post Formula Scout Top 50 Drivers of 2025: 20-11 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi led a top three split by 0.008 seconds on the final morning of FIA Formula 3 post-season testing at Imola.

Having been last to lap at pace in the previous day’s sessions, AIX Racing’s Fernando Barrichello was first to lay down a laptime when the three-hour session began.

Almost half of the 30-car field was on track after five minutes, and Hitech GP’s Fionn McLaughlin set the first flying lap. He was swiftly beaten by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and AIX’s Yevan David, then Hitech’s Jin Nakamura broke into the 1m33s eight-and-a-half minutes in.

Trident’s Freddie Slater lowered the pace to 1m33.154s, which team-mate Matteo De Palo got within 0.084 seconds of after 11 minutes. AIX’s Brad Benavides then beat Slater by 0.03s, and lapped 0.102s shy of his benchmark day one laptime.

Slater responded with a faster lap, but was one of many to have improvements deleted due to track limits violations.

Benavides was beaten 18 minutes in by Rodin Motorsport’s Pedro Clerot, who set a 1m32.997s. Everyone had now been on track, and 22 drivers had set flying laps.

Campos Racing’s Theophile Nael was next to the top, bettering Clerot by 0.123s, shortly before Slater set a 1m32.688s to move back ahead.

After 25 minutes only Prema’s Louis Sharp was without a flying lap, and Slater had a 0.102s gap to MP’s Tuukka Taponen.

Red flags waved a few minutes later as McLaughlin and team-mate Michael Shin got beached in turn 13’s runoff, then after a restart the session stopped again as Nael crashed at turn four.

Drivers headed back out as hour two began, and Benavides lowered the pace to 1m32.247s. Nael sat fourth, ahead of team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu and improvers Colnaghi and Clerot. Sharp also finally lapped at pace.

Rodin’s Brando Badoer and Taponen got within 0.201s and 0.208s of Benavides, and a minute later Ugochukwu cut his gap to 0.145s.

After a non-improvement, Taponen went 0.001s faster than Ugochukwu next time by before joining most of the field in the pits. Prema’s James Wharton snuck into second as the track emptied, bettering Taponen by 0.01s.

Colnaghi went quickest 80 minutes in, setting a 1m31.824s that went unbeaten. Taponen got within 0.335s of him a minute later, and Alessandro Giusti slotted into fourth after lapping 0.565s off his team-mate’s benchmark.

Ugochukwu went third fastest, 0.406s behind Colnaghi, and Clerot demoted Giusti to sixth 87 minutes in. Benavides then came 0.008s shy of matching Colnaghi approaching the session’s halfway mark.

Trident’s Noah Stromted jumped from 20th to third a few minutes into the session’s second half with a 1m31.961s, and at the end of hour two Slater rose from 17th to fourth then got within 0.002s of Colnaghi in successive laps.

The track was quiet until the final half-hour. With six minutes remaining, Stromsted improved by 0.007s and Ugochuckwu set a 1m32.148s to take fifth from Taponen. Session-ending red flags waved with three minutes left as David crashed at turn six.

Morning session results

The post Top three split by 0.008s on second morning of FIA F3’s Imola test appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Macau Grand Prix

The full entry list for the 2025 Macau Grand Prix has been published, with 27 drivers lining up to win the second edition of the FIA Formula Regional World Cup.

Two-time grand prix winner Charles Leong is returning with Prema, last year’s winning team team R-ace GP is returning with three FRegional frontrunners, while Pinnacle Motorsport, Sainteloc Racing and TOM’S are all entering two cars each.

The other five teams — ART Grand Prix, Evans GP, PHM Racing, Trident and Van Amersfoort Racing — are all fielding three-car line-ups.

ART GP will run its FRegional European Championship line-up of Evan Giltaire, Taito Kato and Kanato Le, who sit sixth, ninth and 14th in the standings there with one round to go. Giltaire and Le drove for the team in Macau last year, with both retiring.

Evans GP will field Hiyu Yamakoshi, 16th in FRegional Middle East at the start of this year and currently eighth in FREC, alongside teenaged brothers Charlie and Oscar Wurz.

Charlie, the older of the two, has spent three years in single-seaters’ third tier and took two FIA Formula 3 Championship podiums this season. He entered Macau in 2023, and retired.

Oscar, the 2024 Formula 4 Central European Zone champion, was 14th in Eurocup-3’s winter series at the start of 2025 and is currently 18th in the main championship. He will miss the season finale since both it and the Macau GP take place on November 14-16.

PHM Racing has signed Euroformula title contender Jose Garfias, Eurocup-3 champion and Eurocup-3 winter series runner-up Mattia Colnaghi and FREC part-timer and FRegional Oceania points-scorer Enzo Yeh. Colnaghi was classified 14th in the 2024 Macau GP.

Noah Stromsted and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who both won races en route to sixth and seventh in the FIA F3 Championship this year, will drive for Trident alongside Reza Seeworuthun. He is contending to become GB3 runner-up at Monza this weekend

Completing the grid with VAR are Euroformula points leader Tymek Kucharczyk, FRegional Japanese Championship leader Kiyoshi Umegaki and Newman Chi. He will be the least experienced driver in the grand prix, having spent less than a year in car racing so far.

In that time the 16-year-old from mainland China has come fifth in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy and Italian F4, and ninth in F4 Middle East. He has FRegional experience from two FREC outings.

The post Wurz brothers to be team-mates and other F3 stars to race in Macau GP appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull

Mattia Colnaghi clinched the Eurocup-3 title with a win in the penultimate round at Jerez, where fellow Red Bull junior Enzo Tarnvanichkul also tasted victory.

MP Motorsport driver Colnaghi had a quiet start to the weekend, going only 14th fastest in the first of Friday’s two pre-event test sessions while team-mate and closest championship rival Valerio Rinicella set the pace by 0.677 seconds over Kacper Sztuka. Colnaghi did lead the slower second session by 0.432s over Sztuka, still more than a second down on Rinicella’s earlier time, but set a new best lap in Saturday morning’s free practice session.

It was Sztuka who hit the front in first qualifying however, 0.026s ahead Campos Racing team-mate Tarnvanichkul, with Jules Caranta completing a Campos 1-2-3 just 0.033s further back in third. Colnaghi had to settle for fourth, with Maciej Gladysz between he and Rinicella.

With Sztuka and Gladysz serving five-place grid penalties carried over from the last race at Spa-Francorchamps, it was Tarnvanichkul and Caranta who shared the front row, with Colnaghi and Rinicella on row two.

Colnaghi – racing in Red Bull colours for the first time – got the best getaway of the front four, and took to the grass trying to get around Tarnvanichkul. He appeared to get to the apex of the first corner first but emerged back in third, with Caranta instead challenging Tarnvanichkul for the lead around the outside onto the back straight.

A brief safety car – after Lorenzo Castillo found the gravel – neutralised the initial fight with Tarnvanichkul quickly able to build a gap of close to a second at the restart.

Caranta did close back in at the end, finishing just 0.281s from maiden winner Tarnvanichkul. Colnaghi finished a second and a half back in third, and one second in front of Rinicella.

Alexander Abkhazava and Emmo Fittipaldi completed the top six. Title outsider Ernesto Rivera had been on their tail in seventh until he dropped out and pitted to retire.

Colnaghi went on to take pole for race two, 0.062s in front of Sztuka and 0.083s ahead of Rinicella. While Rivera was fourth, Caranta was only eighth and Tarnvanichkul 14th.

The two points for pole increased Colnaghi’s championship lead to 54 points, and only needed to add two more points to that advantage in the race to secure himself the title.

He made an excellent getaway to lead Sztuka easily into turn one, while Rinicella didn’t get away well and slipped from third to sixth, with Rivera, Fittipaldi and Francisco Macedo all getting past him.

It was an uneventful race from there, just as Colnaghi would have wanted, and he opened up an advantage of 4.6s over Sztuka by the chequered flag. Rivera completed the podium, followed by Fittipaldi, Macedo and Rinicella.

Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing 31m43.648
2 Jules Caranta Campos Racing +0.281s
3 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport +1.839s
4 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +2.908s
5 Alexander Abkhazava MP Motorsport +7.486s
6 Emmo Fittipaldi MP Motorsport +7.921s
7 Jesse Carrasquedo Campos Racing +9.831s
8 Kai Daryanani MP Motorsport +12.166s
9 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +16.226s
10 Garrett Berry Sainteloc Racing +20.288s
Pole: Kacper Sztuka Campos Racing, 1m37.885s
Fastest lap: Colnaghi, 1m39.729s

Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Colnaghi 33m18.847s
2 Sztuka +4.636s
3 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +7.657s
4 Fittipaldi +8.953s
5 Francisco Macedo Campos Racing +12.571s
6 Rinicella +13.484s
7 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +16.198s
8 Caranta +16.657s
9 Egozi +20.561s
10 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +20.850s
P: Colnaghi, 1m36.646s
FL: Sztuka, 1m39.231s

Championship standings
1 Colnaghi 256   2 Rinicella 185   3 Rivera 176   4 Sztuka 162   5 Carrasquedo 135   6 Caranta 103   7 Egozi 97   8 Tarnvanichkul 95   9 Gladysz 87   10 Cardenas 60

The post Colnaghi crowned Eurocup-3 champion with a win at Jerez appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: MP Motorsport

Mattia Colnaghi led MP Motorsport team-mate Valerio Rinicella by 0.339 seconds in free practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday.

There were two pre-event test sessions earlier in the day, and it was another MP one-two in the first but with Kai Daryanani leading Alexander Abkhazava. Daryanani set a 2m24.457s on a wet track to lead his team-mate by 0.215 seconds, and Drivex School’s Christopher Feghali was 1.193s off the pace in third.

Feghali and Jorge Garciarce are new additions to Drivex’s line-up for this week’s round, replacing Alessandro Famularo and Preston Lambert respectively. Famularo has decided to go to the Red Bull Ring this weekend to step up to Euroformula with BVM Racing, taking over the car that Lambert took to a podium finish last time out in July as a debutant.

Three weeks after that, Lambert had a crash in Eurocup-3’s most recent race at Assen and broke his right hand. That has not only ruled him out of this weekend’s round, but also the following one at Jerez on September 19-21. Drivex has already confirmed Garciarce will be in its line-up the rest of the season.

Lambert and Famularo are currently 25th and 27th in the Eurocup-3 standings, while Garciarce came 14th in USF Pro 2000 this year and Feghali is currently 13th in Spanish Formula 4. Earlier this year he was 10th in its winter championship.

It was dry by the time Eurocup-3’s second test session at Spa began this afternoon, and the pace was lowered to 2m13.382s by MP’s Maciej Gladysz. He had a 0.181s advantage over Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera, with Colnaghi 0.454s behind in third and team-mates Andres Cardenas and Emmo Fittipaldi completing a top five covered by 0.6s.

A further six Campos and MP drivers were within a second of the pace, with Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry best of the rest in 12th.

He was fastest at first in practice, and traded top spot early on with Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul, Fittipaldi and Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi.

Rinicella was first into the 2m14s, and was swiftly bettered by Fittipaldi. Gladysz and Rivera made small improvements to the benchmark laptime, then Rivera made further gains later on that brought him into the 2m13s.

Campos’s Jules Caranta set a 2m13.271s to beat him by 0.561s, but he only spent 10s in first place before Rinicella went quickest by 0.169s.

Rinicella went slower on his final lap, while Colnaghi and Rivera improved. Colnaghi set a 2m12.763s to comfortably go fastest, and Rivera got within 0.042s of Rinicella’s previous benchmark.

Free practice results

The post MP’s Colnaghi leads Eurocup-3 practice as Drivex revises line-up for Spa appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Red Bull

Mattia Colnaghi has landed Red Bull backing to make the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2026 with MP Motorsport.

The Italian-Argentine former karting star was able to graduate to single-seater racing in 2024 with a paid-for seat with MP in Spanish Formula 4 after winning the Richard Mille Young Talent Academy.

He went on to win the Spanish F4 title at the first attempt after overhauling sophomore team-mate Keanu Al Azhari late in the season. This year he has stepped up to Eurocup-3 with MP, and finished second in its winter series and currently leads the main championship by 12 points over team-mate Valerio Rinicella with three rounds remaining.

“I’m super excited about the opportunity handed to me by MP Motorsport and the Red Bull Junior Team,” said Colnaghi. “Joining the grand prix weekends as a Formula 3 driver is a dream come true, and I’m looking to forward to building on the amazing working relationship that MP and I have developed in the past two seasons.

“I’m truly grateful to Helmut Marko and Red Bull for allowing me to demonstrate my racing skills in FIA F3, while staying with MP is the obvious choice. They have become my family in the past two years and have helped me grow as a driver. I believe that working with them in Formula 3 will be just as enjoyable and successful.”

MP chief Sander Dorsman said Colnaghi’s step up to F3 “is a proud moment for us as a team”.

“We immediately recognised his talent when he joined us as a young teenager in the winter of 2023-’24, and it was a joy to see that talent truly accelerate in Spanish F4, resulting in title-winning glory in his first year out of karts.

“This year, he has been outstanding again, also proving his qualities as a sportsman when the going got tough. We will continue to work hard for our Eurocup-3 title contenders this year, including Mattia, before we head towards the 2026 season with the confidence that his immediate future is now firmly set in stone.”

The post Mattia Colnaghi to step up to F3 with Red Bull and MP for 2026 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Eurocup-3

Mattia Colnaghi moved back into the Eurocup-3 points lead with pole for race two at Assen, which he then converted into victory.

A 10-second penalty had cost him race one victory and the points lead on Saturday, but he reclaimed it for the second time of the weekend with the points for pole during qualifying two on Sunday morning.

Campos Racing’s Francisco Macedo was first to set a representative laptime in that session, then team-mate Enzo Tarnvanichkul twice lowered the pace and the benchmark after seven minutes was 1m31.85s.

It took another six minutes to be beaten, and Allay Racing’s Michael Belov was the first to do so. He smashed it with a 1m30.27s lap, and he held provisional pole until Colnaghi edged ahead by 0.014 seconds with a minute-and-a-half left on the clock.

Few had the chance to respond to Colnaghi’s laptime, as shortly after Palou Motorsport’s Zack Scoular caused session-ending red flags.

Valerio Rinicella lost the points lead by qualifying third, 0.142s behind MP team-mate Colnaghi, and trailing by 0.468s and 0.53s in fourth and fifth were Macedo and team-mate Jules Caranta. Both had five-place grid penalties, putting them behind Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos), Alexander Abkhazava (MP), Kacper Sztuka (Campos), Maciej Gladysz (MP) and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr (Campos).

Belov’s chances of victory ended almost immediately, as he was slow off the line and then found his car would not hit racing speeds. He steered out of the way to let everyone past, as Abkhazava leapt up from fifth to second ahead of Rinicella.

Tarnvanichkul also dropped down the order, while Sztuka and Carrasquedo slotted into fourth and fifth. Gladysz went side-by-side with Carrasquedo early in lap three and got past him, and Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi was soon putting Carrasquedo under pressure too.

Gladysz set the fastest lap multiple times in clean air and closed in on Sztuka, as up front Colnaghi pulled 1.5s clear.

The race settled down after that in the points-paying positions, although Sztuka attacked Gladysz on lap 11. A lap later the safety car came out due to Lenny Ried (Palou) and Preston Lambert (Drivex School) crashing out at the last corner.

Racing resumed on lap 16, and four laps remained. Colnaghi had saved his tyres well enough to set the fastest lap as he pulled away again, and won by 1.563s.

Everyone else in the top 10 held position, but Tarnvanichkul was able to make progress outside of the top 10 and after several overtakes got into 13th place. That became 12th when Campos’s Ernesto Rivera, another former points leader, got a 10s penalty for overtaking outside of track limits.

Race results (19 laps)

The post Colnaghi to the front again in Eurocup-3 with Assen pole and victory appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Eurocup-3

MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi reclaimed the Eurocup-3 points lead with a lights-to-flag victory in race one at Assen.

Coming into the weekend as points leader was Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera, and he was the first driver to post a representative laptime in qualifying on Saturday orning. On his following lap he improved to 1m31.686s.

He was beaten in the second half of the 20-minute session, with Allay Racing’s Michael Belov going fastest by 0.3 seconds, and then MP’s Valerio Rinicella lowering the pace to 1m30.777s a minute later.

That lap ended up being good enough for second on the grid, as in the remaining seven minutes only Colnaghi was able to go faster than him with a 1m30.576s.

Rinicella did improve slightly to end qualifying 0.188s behind, with a 1m30.821s putting Belov third. Everyone else was over half a second off pole and in the 1m31s or 1m32s. Kacper Sztuka (Campos) pipped Andres Cardenas (MP) to fourth, and James Egozi (Palou Motorsport) took sixth by 0.017s over Jesse Carrasquedo Jr (Campos).

The top 10 was completed by Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos), Alexander Abkhazava and Emmo Fittipaldi (both MP), with pre-event points leader Rivera 0.921s off the pace in 13th despite a late improvement.

Colnaghi made a great start from pole, so good that he was put under investigation for jumping the lights, and Belov had an off halfway through lap one but retained third.

Two thirds of a second split them as they began lap two, and Belov attacked Rinicella through turns three to five. On the following straight, Colnaghi was having to weave though as Rinicella closed onto his rear.

Belovset the fastest lap on lap four but had fallen 1.15s behind the leader, and by lap eight he was over two seconds behind while Colnaghi had snatched the fastest lap to grow his lead over Rinicella to 0.65s.

He broke the one-second barrier after nine laps, and had a 1.6s gap on lap 14 of 21 when Rinicella took the fastest lap by 0.001s and began closing back in. As Rinicella went even faster he got within 0.7s of Colnaghi, but the leader responded to put 1.12s between them again.

Soon the victory fight was over, as Rinicella took too much kerb on lap 18 and the mistake cost him time. Colnaghi was 2.769s ahead by the finish, and Rinicella had a similar gap to Belov.

Many of the positions behind were settled on lap one, with Cardenas, Sztuka, Carrasquedo completing the top six.

Egozi and Abkhazava went off on lap 10 when the latter made a late attempt at an overtake for seventh, but Egozi held his position to the end.

Campos’s Francisco Macedo was behind them until a lap three spin sent him to the back, and on lap 19 team-mates Jules Caranta fell down the order then pitted after an incident with Abkhazava. Fittipialdi profited to pass Abkhazava for eighth, and Rivera was promoted to the final points position after a race-long defence against MP’s Maciej Gladysz.

But five-second penalties for track limits abuse meant Abkhazava and Rivera were classified 12th and 13th and Gladysz and Tarnvanichkul were lifted into the top 10. Rivera’s non-score demotes him to third in the standings, with Colnaghi now leading Rinicella by

Palou team-mates Zack Scoular and Lenny Ried were close all race, with Scoular getting ahead for 20th on lap 17. But he got a 10s track limits penalty, so finished 25th behind Macedo.

Race results (21 laps)

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Photo: Eurocup-3

MP Motorsport’s Italian stars Mattia Colnaghi and Valerio Rinicella finished one-two in Eurocup-3’s second Monza race.

There was pre-race drama, as a three-place grid penalty for impeding in qualifying meant Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera started sixth while his team-mate Jesse Carrasquedo Jr lined up 15th due to a 10-place grid penalty.

Colnaghi and Rinicella were behind Campos’s Jules Caranta at the front of the grid, but both were past him after the first corner of the race. Caranta reclaimed second from Rinicella at the della Roggia chicane, while Kacper Sztuka and James Egozi went side-by-side behind.

It went wrong for former points leader Sztuka, with the Campos driver plummeting down the order and Palou Motorsport’s Egozi starting lap two in sixth behind MP’s Maciej Gladysz and Campos’s Ernesto Rivera.

Caranta kept second after wheel-to-wheel with Rinicella again at turn one, but Rinicella overtook him at Curva Grande.

Colnaghi now had a 1.6-second lead, and it grew due to lap three drama. Gladysz had a huge lock-up on the run to turn one, and when he saw Rinicella turning in ahead he tried steering right too but bounced over the kerbs and they both went off.

After rejoining and letting the pack behind catch up, Rivera tried passing Caranta but was spun around by Gladysz at della Roggia. Egozi cut the chicane too, emerging in fourth ahead of Andres Cardenas (MP), Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos) and Juan Cota (MP). Rivera fell to ninth and Gladysz pitted for a new front wing.

Egozi overtook Caranta on lap four, Caranta came back past at Curva Grande on lap five, then Egozi reclaimed third at della Roggia on lap six. Caranta would decend further down the order over the course of the race, eventually finishing 10th, and Tarncanichkul slipstreamed past Egozi on lap 11.

At that point he was seven seconds behind the top two, who were split by 1.5s. But as they pulled away from Tarnvanichkul, they also got closer to each other and in the final few laps Colnaghi was weaving down straights in defence.

On the last lap he dropped a wheel into the dirt at two corners, and Rinicella was just 0.238s behind at the finish.

Rivera kept the points lead by finishing fifth, and Carrasquedo got himself to the front of the group of cars fighting over sixth. Also in that group was Sztuka, who dropped to 25th but was back up to 15th by lap six and was on the rear of the pack ahead with several laps to go.

Race results (18 laps)

The post Colnaghi holds off Eurocup-3 team-mate Rinicella in Italian 1-2 at Monza appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Eurocup-3

Mattia Colnaghi got the better of Ernesto Rivera to reclaim the Eurocup-3 points lead with victory in the first race at Paul Ricard.

Red Bull junior Rivera was slow away from pole position in race one, allowing fellow front-row starter Colnaghi to lead clearly into the first turn as Rivera managed to keep Kacper Sztuka and the rest at bay.

The safety car was deployed after Oscar Wurz and Alexander Abkhazava stopped with damage, and at the restart Colnaghi was forced to defend from Rivera down the first part of the Mistral straight.

Colnaghi couldn’t pull away from his rival through the middle of the race, with the gap growing no bigger than 0.7 seconds.

Rivera closed back in on Colnaghi in the closing stages, and got close enough to have a look around the outside of Le Beausset with two laps to go.

This gave Sztuka the chance to catch up, and a lap later he would drive around the outside of Rivera around the Le Beausset to snatch second. Rivera responded by squeezing Sztuka out on the outside of the penultimate corner, with the pair appearing to make contact.

Valerio Rinicella would get up the inside of Sztuka at Le Beausset on the final to grab third, which then became second when Rivera ran wide and off-track into the penultimate turn, falling to fourth.

Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry won the reversed-grid second race from pole position.

The American kept the lead at the start while compatriot James Egozi challenged Francisco Moreno for second, only to end up losing third to Emerson Fittipaldi Jr.

There was again an early safety car deployment while the car of Alessandro Famularo was recovered and it proved to be a length one, with only eight minutes left on the clock at the restart.

Berry would take his maiden victory by one second over first-time podium finisher Macedo, with Fittipaldi completing the podium having previously finished no higher than ninth this season.

Red Bull junior Jules Caranta had a day to forget. He fell down from sixth early in race one, finishing 13th, and it was a similar story in the reversed-grid race, where he sustained damage on lap one running wide in a battle with Enzo Tarnvanichkul and finished 19th.

Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport 33m30.264s
2 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +1.969s
3 Kacper Sztuka Campos Racing +2.552s
4 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +3.018s
5 Jesse Carrasquedo Campos Racing +3.049s
6 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +3.070s
7 Maciej Gladysz MP Motorsport +3.887s
8 Francisco Macedo Campos Racing +6.716s
9 James Egozi Palou Motorsport +8.323s
10 Andres Cardenas MP Motorsport +8.884s
Fastest lap: Rivera, 2m00.980s

Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Garrett Berry Sainteloc Racing 23m37.204s
2 Macedo +1.067s
3 Emerson Fittpaldi Jr +1.776s
4 Gladysz +3.357s
5 Egozi +4.150s
6 Rinicella +4.841s
7 Tarnvanichkul +6.670s
8 Rivera +7.587s
9 Colnaghi +8.570s
10 Kai Daryanani MP Motorsport +12.925s
FL: Colnaghi, 2m00.816s

Championship standings
1 Colnaghi 87   2 Rivera 84  3 Sztuka 76   4 Rinicella 71   5 Gladysz 52   6 Carrasquedo 50   7 Jules Caranta 47   8 Egozi 41   9 Berry 31   10 Tarnvanichkul 28

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