Photo: Top Speed

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato converted pole into victory in the opening Formula Regional Middle East race at Dubai Autodrome.

Saturday’s action began with the first of two qualifying sessions, and Kato set a 1m53.167s lap mid-session that would not be beaten. MP Motorsport’s Alexander Abkhazava got closest, 0.083 seconds off Kato’s pace, and just 0.013s split Kean Nakamura-Berta (Mumbai Falcons), Rashid Al Dhaheri (R-ace GP) and Yuki Sano (R-ace) who were all within 0.17s of pole.

Half a second split the top 11, and a second covered the top 24 on pace. Pinnacle Motorsport’s title outsider Alex Powell qualified 12th.

Kato was immediately defensive when race one began, moving to the inside, to the outside, back to the inside and then to the outside again on the long run to the opening corner. He also weaved down the back straight, but by then he already had a gap to Abkhazava.

His lead stood at 0.9s for several laps, and he began pulling away further on lap five. But it took until lap 10 to be 1.2s clear, and after building a 1.475s gap it was soon reduced back to 0.9s. Kato had the pace advantage again on the final lap, being victorious by 1.335s.

The fight for third was similarly calm after lap one. Al Dhaheri tried the outside into the braking zone at the end of the back straight on lap one, then tried again through the corner before the esses. Nakamura-Berta ran wide at the next hairpin, and Al Dhaheri got past but then went too wide exiting the corner and the extra steering input required after allowed Nakamura-Berta to get back alongside and reclaim third into the final corner.

Nakamura-Berta defended down the straights on lap two, and soon had a 0.8s gap. In the race’s second half he grew it to 1.2s, and in the final two laps pulled away even more.

Trident’s Maximilian Popov climbed from eighth to fifth on lap one, and had to get defensive at the end of the back straight on lap two as both Sano and team-mate Emanuele Olivieri tried passing him on the inside.

Sano began attacking again on lap 13 of 16, making a dive at the same place. It did not work, and there was another attempt on lap 14 but he still could not break Popov’s defenses.

There was more drama outside of the points. Mumbai Falcons’ Sebastian Wheldon and G4 Racing’s Artem Severiukhin collided on lap six, and MP’s Jesse Carrasquedo parked up at the pitlane exit on lap nine after running in 11th place.

Rodin Motorsport’s Reza Seewooruthun also stopped on track, having previously been chasing Powell. Through the rest of the race, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Francisco Macedo was filling his mirrors and repeatedly tried to get past him using the outside line into turn one. Powell held on to finish 12th and take reversed-grid pole for race two.

Race results (16 laps)

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Photo: FRME

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato topped Formula Regional Middle East pre-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit this week as the grid grew ahead of this weekend’s opening round.

Kean Nakamura-Berta led Mumbai Falcons team-mate Sebastian Wheldon in session one on Tuesday, with Pinnacle Motorsport’s Alex Powell beating Wheldon by 0.053 seconds to top the slower session two.

Wheldon pipped Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dion Gowda by 0.016s in session three, but did not improve on his previous best laptime.

Kato concluded Tuesday by lowering the pace to 1m48.053s in session four, leading MP Motorsport’s Christian Ho by 0.11s and Powell by 0.137s.

Powell set a 1m48.519s to top session five by 0.105s over Trident’s Maximilian Popov, with a 0.285s gap to MP’s third-placed Alexander Abkhazava.

ART GP’s Kabir Anurag was 22nd, but jumped to first in session six with a 1m48.857s, topping the timesheet by 0.184s over Kato while Race Performance Motorsport’s Jan Przyrowski trailed by 0.485s in third.

Anurag improved to 1m48.829s in session seven, denying Wheldon top spot by 0.01s and Ho by 0.027s. Kato was fourth, 0.137s behind.

VAR’s Francisco Macedo set a 1m48.358s to top session eight by 0.212s over Powell and 0.229s to Ho, with a second splitting the top 22.

During testing, nine drivers were announced as joining FRME’s grid. R-ace GP’s line-up now exceeds its car count, as Gerrard Xie will race in rounds one and two then Emanuele Olivieri will contest rounds three and four.

Euroformula and GB3 race-winner Xie spent 2025 in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and last year R-ace ran Olivieri to the Formula 4 Middle East title and second in the FIA F4 World Cup.

The Prema-run Mumbai Falcons team has promoted Salim Hanna, new Williams Formula 1 junior Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon from its F4 squad. Wheldon came third in Italian F4 and fourth in E4 last year, while Hanna was fourth and seventh.

Macedo, who was 14th in Eurocup-3 last year, has joined VAR for FRME and the FRegional European Championship while Trident has told Formula Scout that Luka Sammalisto has left its 2026 FREC line-up but not shared why.

CL Motorsport will run Michael Belov, Newman Chi and Enea Frey in FRME after fielding them part-time in FREC last year.

The ultra-experienced Belov came seventh in FREC’s 2022 season, 11th in FRME predecessor the FRegional Asian Championship and 13th in the FRegional-spec Formula Renault Eurocup back in 2020, and last year was 15th in both FREC and the FRegional-based Eurocup-3.

His 2026 team-mates primarily spent 2025 in F4. Chi came fifth in Italian F4 and ninth in F4 Middle East, while Frey was ninth in Formula Winter Series and 14th in E4.

Test results

The post Kato tops FRME testing in new car as grid grows before round one appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

Taito Kato will warm up for his rookie FIA Formula 3 Championship campaign with ART Grand Prix by racing for the team in Formula Regional Middle East.

The 18-year-old Japanese racer will contest three rounds out of four in the FIA regional trophy, missing the season finale at Losail on February 11-13 due to it clashing with F3’s sole pre-season test at Barcelona.

It will be Kato’s second time racing in FRME, having also been part of ART GP’s line-up in the Middle East last year. After winning the 2024 French Formula 4 title as a rookie, Kato stepped up to FRegional for a double programme. He came 12th in FRME with one podium, and finished in the top three twice en route to seventh in the FRegional European Championship.

“I’m so excited to be competing in the FRME with ART GP. A new challenge awaits me, but I will give my best performance together with my team,” said Kato.

His last FRegional mileage came two months ago when he contested the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding Macau Grand Prix with ART GP. In the opening free practice session he was fastest, but could not quite maintain that frontrunning pace. He was eighth in the first qualifying session, fourth in FP2 and Q2, and finished fifth in both the qualification and main race.

ART GP’s team principal Sebastien Philippe said returning to FRME “allows Taito to start his 2026 season in a competitive environment before moving on to his FIA F3 commitments”.

Kato is a Honda junior, and the Japanese automobile manufacturer has announced the 2026 programmes of the other drivers it supports in junior single-seaters.

Kotato Shimbara, who came fourth in Japanese F4 last year with two wins and three poles, will step up to the F3-level Super Formula Lights with B-MAX Racing. The team will run Sho Momose and Kazuma Kurosawa in Japanese F4, with Momose having come sixth in 2025 with two podiums while Kurosawa graduates from the Honda Racing School to Honda junior status.

Kota Tsuchihashi is the latest winner of the HRS scholarship, but will not be a Honda junior as he is sent to race in French F4.

The post ART GP’s Taito Kato to warm up for F3 with second go at FRME appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

ART Grand Prix has announced that Matteo Giaccardi will be in its line-ups for the Formula Regional European Championship and FRegional Middle East this year.

When the FRME campaign behins next week, it will mark the start of only the second season of racing the 18-year-old Monegasque has done in his single-seater career.

At this point last year he was in shifter karting, and he spent 2024 in a combination of senior and shifter karting classes. That term he came 34th in the Champions of the Future championship, on an OK kart, and 25th in the KZ2 shifter class of the WSK Final Cup.

His graduation to car racing came via the centrally-run French Formula 4 championship in 2025, and he was more competitive than in his international karting career.

Giaccardi made the podium and took a fastest lap on just his second start, and took another podium and a fifth place before a strong final round featuring a maiden victory and another fifth place put him 11th in the standings.

“I’m really proud to be part of ART GP for the 2026 FRegional championships. My main target this season is to learn and improve all year long,” he said of his next career step.

ART GP’s team principal Sebastien Philippe added: “Matteo is at an important point in his development. He has shown encouraging progress in F4 and now needs to take this next step in FRegional. The objective will be to keep learning, build experience, and work consistently with the team to move forward throughout the season.”

In both FRegional series, Giaccardi will be team-mate to Kabir Anurag.

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Photo: Haas F1

Kaylee Countryman will race on Formula 1 and IndyCar’s support bills this year, and with the backing of an American F1 team.

Her primary racing programme will be in the Formula 4-spec and all-female F1 Academy championship, which supports F1 at seven grands prix this year. She will race for French outfit ART Grand Prix, and her car will run with the Haas F1 team’s livery.

The American, who turns 16 today, has some limited F4 experience having tested in Europe with Prema and done two rounds of the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy as a Pinnacle Motorsport driver without scoring points.

“I’m so thrilled that I’ve been given this opportunity to represent Haas F1 Team and ART Grand Prix in F1 Academy for 2026,” said Countryman.

“I look forward to taking another step in my career and learning to work in such a professional environment. I’m particularly excited about the various circuits we’ll be visiting around the world and being part of all that F1 Academy represents.”

Ayao Komatsu, who is Haas’s F1 team principal, added that Countryman’s “personality and passion for this sport are contagious, and we want to ensure she has everything she needs to flourish in F1 Academy, whether that be access to our resources and personnel, or simply advice and guidance”.

While there will be support at a driver development level from Haas, Countryman will not become one of its junior drivers.

Last year Countryman mostly competed on home soil in entry-level USF Juniors cars, racing in the YACademy Winter Series and then coming 16th in the USF Juniors championship with a best finish of eighth.

She also did two rounds in USF2000, the IndyCar-supporting next rung of the road to Indy, and in both championships she raced for Exclusive Autosport. In 2026 she will do four USF2000 rounds with the team.

“I can’t wait to get started on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for my USF2000 campaign,” Countrymans said.

“The team was amazing last year, and I’ve learned so much about racecraft and how to be myself as a driver. I’m so excited to be participating in most of the USF events to get more seat time and learn new tracks.”

The post Kaylee Countryman to race in F1 Academy and USF2000 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.

Photo: Alpine F1 Team

Alpine junior Kabir Anurag has been announced as joining ART Grand Prix’s line-up for a double Formula Regional programme next year.

The 18-year-old Singaporean will race for the team in the Middle East trophy and then the European championship.

He steps up after two-and-a-half years in Formula 4, although did get some experience of more powerful single-seaters in 2025 by entering the final two rounds of the GB3 season and taking a best finish of eighth.

Anurag’s first F4 outings were in 2023, when he raced for R-ace GP and then US Racing across three Italian F4 rounds. He has raced full-time with US the past two years, embarking on triple programmes.

In 2024 he was 14th in Formula Winter Series’ standings, 18th in E4 and 20th in Italian F4, and gained his Alpine backing in April of that year. There were big improvements for 2025, as Anurag claimed two wins and two other podiums en route to fourth in FWinter Series’ points table, took two podiums in E4 where he was sixth in the standings, and was 16th in Italian F4.

He also raced in the United Arab Emirates-based Formula Trophy, gaining experience of the tracks he will race on in FRegional Middle East, with Xcel Motorsport last year. Anurag came third in the three-round series, winning twice.

FRME only recently confirmed which teams will be entering the trophy in 2026. ART GP is one of 11 teams set to be on the grid, which is two more than this year.

ART GP, Pinnacle Motorsport, Prema (which competes under the Mumbai Falcons banner) and R-ace GP are the only outfits from last season staying in the paddock, with Akcel GP, Evans GP, Origine and Sainteloc Racing dropping off the grid.

Joining the field are CL Motorsport, G4 Racing, MP Motorsport, Rodin Motorsport, Race Performance Motorsport, Trident and Van Amersfoort Racing.

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Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Kush Maini has signed with ART Grand Prix to be part of its Formula 2 line-up next season, which will be his fourth in the championship.

The 25-year-old Indian has raced for Campos Racing, Invicta Racing and DAMS in his first three campaigns.

He has claimed two wins and four other podiums in sprint races during that time, and just one feature race podium which came from his sole pole position to date. He was 11th in the 2023 standings, 13th in 2024 and 16th in 2025.

“I’m very happy to be joining such an historic team like ART GP,” said Maini.

“My first contacts with the engineers and mechanics have been very positive. I appreciate the determination and the human atmosphere within the team, and I can’t wait to start working with them and see what we can achieve together.”

Maini will join the team in post-season testing this week, after driving for Alpine in Formula 1’s young driver test. He was one of the team’s reserve drivers for the 2025 season.

ART Grand Prix Team Principal Sébastien Philippe also added:

“Kush has shown real speed and maturity in F2, and his win in Monaco [in 2025] is a clear example of his potential,” said Sebastien Philippe, ART GP’s team principal.

“We are happy to welcome him to ART GP and look forward to working together in 2026.”

Since Maini failed to secure an FIA superlicense this year by racing in F2, he will not continue his Alpine role into next year and instead serve as Mahindra’s reserve driver in Formula E. That was a role he had given up for 2025 to instead occupy the same position at Alpine.

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Photo: Aston Martin F1

Two more drivers have joined F1 Academy’s 2026 grid, both with Formula 1 team support.

Prema has signed Mathilda Paatz, who will don Aston Martin’s colours in the all-female Formula 4 series as she becomes a member of the ‘Aston Martin F1 Driver Academy’ launched this year.

She is the second member of an academy seperate to the team’s main driver development programme, which carried both of its members into F1 reserve driver roles.

“I’m really proud to be representing Aston Martin,” said Paatz. “This is something I’ve worked incredibly hard for and my focus now is on preparing for the season ahead. There will be lots to learn, including several new circuits, but I feel confident knowing I have so much support from Aston Martin and Prema.

“I had a great first day at the Aston Martin Racing Technology Centre in Silverstone meeting so many incredible people from the team.”

The 17-year-old German was 20th in French F4 last year as a rookie, then eighth in F4 Central European Zone with a podium and 31st in the Formula Winter Series this year. She also did four rounds across Italian F4 and E4, and debuted in F1 Academy as a wildcard driver in 2025.

“We’re delighted to have [Paatz] on board for the 2026 season,” said Prema’s team principal Rene Rosin. “We have already started working together. Our goal is to help her fulfil her full potential, support her career and achieve good results.”

Aston Martin revealed that Paatz was signed to race the Prema-run F1 Academy entry it would support “after excelling in a rigorous four-driver evaluation programme” at Mugello in F4 cars. Each driver had a day driving, and Paatz was fastest.

That was overseen by Nuno Pinto, now racing director of Aston Martin’s academy and long-time coach of the team’s race driver Lance Stroll. Paatz’s performance prompted Pinto to sign her to the academy.

Major women’s magazine Cosmopolitan was involved in announcing Paatz, and drinks brand PepsiCo has gone from revealing two weeks ago its Gatorade brand would be primary sponsor of ART Grand Prix signing Lisa Billard‘s F1 Academy car in 2026 to confirming yesterday it would sponsor the Mercedes-AMG F1 team too.

Yesterday also featured ART GP revealing Billard’s first team-mate, Jade Jacquet, who will have F1 patronage as she joins the Williams Racing Driver Academy (WRDA).

The 16-year-old Frenchwoman came 24th in French F4 this year as a rookie, and replaces Lia Block who returns to rallying after two years in F1 Academy and Williams’ ranks.

Sven Smeets, Williams’ sporting director, commented: “Jade has made rapid progress in her motorsport career and has strong potential for the future, already demonstrating her ability to learn and adapt in her transition to single-seaters.

“As a member of the WRDA, we’ll be working closely with her to nurture her development both on and off the track.”

Ex-Indy Nxt driver Carmen Jorda will become head of Alpine’s F1 Academy involvement in 2026, mentoring the driver it supports.

The post Aston Martin and Williams sign new F1 Academy-bound proteges appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Victor Martins won Formula 2’s feature race at Losail, holding off Leonardo Fornaroli who provisionally became champion with a round to spare.

Fornaroli started on pole, but Martins led before the opening corner as Alex Dunne passed Oliver Goethe for fourth.

ART Grand Prix’s Martins built a five-second lead in five laps, while Fornaroli struggled with front-left tyre degradation and pitted on lap six. Like most of the field, he had started on Pirelli’s soft compound tyres.

Martins was left with a 9.6-second lead over Fornaroli’s Invicta Racing team-mate Roman Stanek, who after going wide was passed at turn one by MP Motorsport’s Goethe. The top seven pitted on lap seven, moving Hitech GP’s Dino Beganovic to the front after he had started on the hard compound.

The drivers on the same strategy moved up into the top seven, with Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad, Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett and Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen closest to Beganovic. That order changed when van Hoepen went deep into the final corner on lap eight and Hitech’s Luke Browning went past.

Beganovic was the fastest on track, already 5.4s clear by lap 10 and holding a 10.6s gap when the safety car appeared on lap 15 due to Goethe stopping trackside. Lindblad took the opportunity to pit, meaning he needed to do 17 laps on the soft tyres, as did DAMS’ Kush Maini and AIX Racing’s Cian Shields.

Martins took the lap 17 restart in fifth place, with Fornaroli on his tail then a gap of several seconds to Lindblad in seventh as the field had not been brought back together. Dunne, Prema’s Sebastian Montoya and Campos’s Nikola Tsolov rounded out the top 10, but Dunne and Tsolov had five-second penalties for unsafe releases from their pitstops.

Beganovic pulled away again, creating a 5.6s gap before pitting at the end of lap 27. Hitech did not risk double stacking so Browning then inherited the lead by 11.4s over Bennett, with the pair making their compulsory pitstops on lap 29.

Van Hoepen pitted too, having held off Martins and Fornaroli for several laps by improving his pace. Keeping them at bay ultimately was not enough to help the other late pitters, since Beganovic was a distant ninth. He initially set fastest laps, but then failed to clear traffic once he reached it as Martins kept Fornaroli at bay up front.

Lindblad’s tyre-saving priorities allowed Dunne to open up a large enough gap to keep third after passing him, Montoya was fifth, and MP’s erstwhile title contender Richard Verschoor profited from Tsolov’s penalty to finish sixth.

Browning picked up the final point in 10th, but his title hopes ended along with DAMS driver Jak Crawford’s in 11th place.

Post-race, Lindblad was summoned to the stewards for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly during the safety car period. Should he be penalised, it could put Verschoor back into title contention and second in the standings.

Race results (32 laps)

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