The 2024 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine is a planned multi-event, Formula Regional open-wheel single seater motor racing championship to be held across Europe. The championship will feature a mix of professional and amateur drivers, competing in Formula Regional cars that conform to the FIA Formula Regional regulations for the championship. This will be the sixth season of the championship and the fourth after a merger with Formula Renault Eurocup which resulted to the change of the engine supplier to Alpine.
The same twelve teams that contested the 2023 season were also pre-selected for the 2024 season. [1] Arden Motorsport and Monolite Racing later relinquished their entries, confirming their withdrawal in April. [2] [3] Iron Dames joined the championship, fielding an all-female lineup. [4]
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Arden Motorsport withdrew from the championship, instead electing to focus on their GB3 and GB4 efforts. [2]
Monolite Racing, a mainstay in the series since 2020, also elected to withdraw, after talks with GB3 race winner James Hedley and Jacques Villeneuve protégé Kevin Foster did not materialise. [7] [3]
Iron Dames, the female talent development project of Iron Lynx, an endurance racing team owned by the same parent company as Prema Racing, entered the championship with two cars. [4]
Reigning Teams' Champions Prema Racing saw two of their driver leave the championship, with reigning Driver's Champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli graduating to the team's Formula 2 outfit and Lorenzo Fluxá joining Cool Racing's ELMS program. [8] [9] To replace them, Prema signed 2023 Euro 4 champion, McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu, and 2023 F4 UAE Champion James Wharton. [10] [11]
R-ace GP will have an all-new lineup in 2024 as their three drivers Martinius Stenshorne, Matías Zagazeta and Tim Tramnitz will all graduate to FIA F3 with Hitech Pulse-Eight, Jenzer Motorsport and MP Motorsport respectively. [12] [13] [14] The team signed three F4 graduates for their 2024 lineup: UAE Formula 4 runner-up and Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen will step up to FRECA after also contesting FRMEC with the team, Red Bull junior Enzo Deligny will debut in the category after coming fourth in Spanish F4 with Campos Racing and Zachary David will join the series after a pair of seventh places in Italian F4 and Euro 4 with US Racing. [15] [16]
Van Amersfoort Racing will see Joshua Dufek graduate to FIA F3 with PHM AIX Racing and Niels Koolen move over to America to join HMD Motorsport in Indy NXT. [17] [18] The pair will be replaced by 2022 Brazilian F4 champion Pedro Clerot, who will graduate to Formula Regional after coming sixth in the 2023 Spanish F4 Championship with MP Motorsport, and Ivan Domingues, who competed with VAR in Italian F4 and Euro 4 in 2023 and already debuted for the team as a guest driver during the final two FRECA rounds of that year. [19] [20] VAR's third car will be piloted by Brando Badoer, another graduate from the team's Italian F4 outfit. [21]
RPM also saw one driver move to FIA F3 and one to America, with Santiago Ramos joining Trident for F3 and Adam Fitzgerald joining Turn 3 Motorsport in USF Pro 2000. [22] [23] The team signed Noah Strømsted, who will step up from Spanish and UAE F4 competition, after a successful guest driver cameo in 2023. [24] Joining him will be Giovanni Maschio, embarking on his second season in the championship after coming 34th with Monolite Racing in 2023. [25] French F4 graduate Edgar Pierre will complete the team's lineup. [26]
G4 Racing will have an all-new driver lineup. The team signed one French F4 graduate to replace another, with Romain Andriolo taking the seat of ART-bound Alessandro Giusti. [27] Alongside him, Pierre-Alexandre Provost will be replaced by Jesse Carrasquedo Jr., who debuted in the championship as a guest driver for VAR for two rounds in 2023. [28] The team's third car will be piloted by Kanato Le, who will become the first Japanese driver to race in the series. [29]
MP Motorsport promoted Valerio Rinicella from their Spanish and UAE F4 outfit after he came third and fourth respectively in 2023. [30] He will replace Sami Meguetounif, who will step up to Formula 3 with Trident. [31] The team also recruited Nikhil Bohra, who will move over from Trident after coming 12th with the Italian team in 2023, to fill the seat of the late Dilano van 't Hoff. [32] MP's lineup will be completed by Nikita Bedrin, who embarks on the 2024 campaign alongside an FIA F3 campaign with PHM Racing, after four guest appearances in 2023 with Monolite and VAR. [33]
Trident signed two new drivers to replace Eurocup-3-bound Owen Tangavelou and MP-bound Nikhil Bohra. The team recruited Alpine Academy driver Nicola Lacorte, who will step up to the category after coming ninth in both the Italian F4 and the Euro 4 Championship in 2023, and Ruiqi Liu, who also contested multiple Formula 4 championships in 2023, culminating in a fourth place in the Formula Winter Series with US Racing. [34] [35]
ART Grand Prix promoted Laurens van Hoepen to their Formula 3 outfit. [36] Alessandro Giusti will replace him, moving over from G4 Racing after taking three victories and sixth place with the team in his rookie season in 2023. [37] The team signed Yaroslav Veselaho to partner Giusti, after he made his Formula Regional debut in the Middle Eastern championship with Xcel Motorsport. [38] 2023 French F4 Championship champion will also remain with ART after joining the team as a guest driver for the last two rounds of the 2023 season. [39] F1 Academy runner-up Léna Bühler will complete ART's lineup, returning to the championship where she drove for R-ace GP in 2021 and 2022 as part of an agreement allowing FRECA teams to run a fourth car for one of the top three F1 Academy finishers. [40]
Saintéloc Racing will field an all-new lineup after Lucas Medina, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. and Esteban Masson left the team, with Fittipaldi Jr. moving to Eurocup-3 and Masson joining Akkodis ASP in the World Endurance Championship. [41] The team signed three F4 graduates: Matteo De Palo, who competed in four different Formula 4-level series in 2023 and came fifth in the Spanish championship, French Formula 4 runner-up Enzo Peugeot and Théophile Naël, who won the Spanish F4 championship driving for the same team. [42] [43] [44]
KIC Motorsport saw Maya Weug leave the team to join Prema Racing in F1 Academy. [45] The team recruited Costa Toparis, who drove for Evans GP in FRMEC at the start of the year and will receive technical assistance from the Australian team. [46] Joining him is Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, who competed in various Formula 4 championships in the previous two years, [47] and Alex Sawer, who competed in the inaugural Indian F4 Championship, finishing 5th in the standings. [48]
Newcomers Iron Dames will field an all-female lineup consisting of 2023 F1 Academy champion Marta García, who was previously slated to drive a fourth Prema entry, [49] and Mercedes junior Doriane Pin, who is also currently competing in F1 Academy. [4]
The calendar was revealed on 13 October 2023. [50] The championship will visit the same ten destinations as the year before. [51]
Round | Circuit | Date | Supporting | Map of circuit locations | |
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1 | R1 | Hockenheimring, Hockenheim | 11 May |
International GT Open GT Cup Open Europe |
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R2 | 12 May | ||||
2 | R1 | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot | 25 May |
International GT Open GT Cup Open Europe | |
R2 | 26 May | ||||
3 | R1 | Circuit Zandvoort, Zandvoort | 8 June | Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters | |
R2 | 9 June | ||||
4 | R1 | Hungaroring, Mogyoród | 22 June | International GT Open | |
R2 | 23 June | ||||
5 | R1 | Mugello Circuit, Scarperia e San Piero | 13 July | Italian GT Championship Porsche Carrera Cup Italy | |
R2 | 14 July | ||||
6 | R1 | Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet | 20 July |
International GT Open GT Cup Open Europe | |
R2 | 21 July | ||||
7 | R1 | Imola Circuit, Imola | 7 September | Italian GT Championship Porsche Carrera Cup Italy | |
R2 | 8 September | ||||
8 | R1 | Red Bull Ring, Spielberg | 14 September | International GT Open | |
R2 | 15 September | ||||
9 | R1 | Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló | 28 September |
International GT Open GT Cup Open Europe | |
R2 | 29 September | ||||
10 | R1 | Monza Circuit, Monza | 26 October | Italian GT Championship | |
R2 | 27 October |
Points will be awarded to the top 10 classified finishers.
Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
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Points | 25 | 18 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |