2024 International Formula Regional season review

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FRegional was launched as a category in 2018, and its first-generation cars put on a show again this year

This year was due to be the last for Formula Regional as we know it before second-generation cars are introduced but, as Formula Scout was first to report, that plan was pushed back to 2026 with the approval of teams in various championships.

Currently Dome, Ligier and Tatuus supply chassis for the category, which is in its seventh year of competition, and Tatuus was the dominant brand on the market not only in how many of its cars are racing but also the fact that the base design for the T-318 has been modified for different series and for different engine suppliers. But in North America it’s Ligier that rules.

United States

FRegional Americas may have had three half-point races and an odd non-championship encounter in 2024, but the season did start with 15 cars. The only other times the championship has surpassed 14 cars on track were the first two rounds of 2020. Impressively a grid of 15 was also achieved for the season finale, although the top two in the standings were absent.

Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport fielded nine of the entries in round one at NOLA Motorsports Park, and Patrick Woods-Toth comfortably claimed pole. His team-mate Ryan Shehan snuck to the inside of him at the start of race one, but Cole Kleck got even tighter to the inside and took third. By turn six he was in the lead.

Shehan was down to fourth when the pace car appeared on lap three, and after a second caution period the race was red flagged and restarted. DD Autosport’s Kleck won as the action died down entirely.

Race two turned up the chaos again, with the pace car needed on lap one. Crosslink/Kiwi’s Titus Sherlock led at that point, but after racing resumed he had two huge lock-ups and dropped to 11th before another caution period. Kleck was in front when red flags then waved, and a move by Velox USA’s Nicolas Ambiado on Kleck at turn two in the restarted race sent both deep and put Woods-Toth in the lead. Red flags waved again the lap after, and Woods-Toth was declared victor ahead of Kleck.

There was similar action in race three, and Shehan won by avoiding it all. Woods-Toth and Kleck completed the podium, albeit meeting the chequered flag behind the pace car.

The non-championship Laguna Seca event followed, and there were four drivers, two qualifying sessions but only one race due to worsening weather. That was race two, confusingly, meaning Crosslink/Kiwi’s Jett Bowling started on pole. However he immediately lost that advantage to Sherlock, who didn’t look back en route to victory.

That form continued into round two at Road America, where he took two wins and a second place. Woods-Toth topped qualifying and should’ve finished far ahead of Sherlock in race one if not for the pace car, and in race two there were mistakes by the pair and Shehan that led to an odd finishing order. Sherlock led home Shehan by eight seconds, and Woods-Toth was a lapped 12th. Race three, again, was similar. Sherlock won, Shehan had an off but finished second and took the points lead, and Woods-Toth was third before spinning out and causing a caution period that the race ended under.

A first ever visit to Indianapolis Motor Speedway was next up, and Woods-Toth pipped Shehan to pole on the circuit’s road course, and reclaimed the points lead by beating him to race one victory. The calmness disappeared for the other races, again.

In race two there was an early caution period, after which Sherlock took the lead as Shehan sent Woods-Toth into a half-spin. Shehan soon led, as Sherlock suddenly slowed then stopped with a race-ending problem. Bowling inherited second before another caution period, which eradicated the big gaps that had appeared. Nicola Havrda (another Crosslink/Kiwi driver) was third until the final lap when Ambiado passed her. He then spun, and his engine set on fire, so she returned to the podium. Shehan also returned to the points lead by winning, and Woods-Toth recovered to sixth and clinched race three pole by setting the fastest lap. He converted that into victory in a chaotic red-flagged encounter.

The bedlam started early at Mid-Ohio, as Sherlock had a brake failure in practice that led to a high-speed crash, a hopital trip and having to withdraw. Shehan made early moves in both of the event’s races to win twice.

Sherlock returned at New Jersey Motorsports Park, but the grid shank to nine cars. Woods-Toth had his own heavy crash before racing began, which led to his fastest qualifying lap being deleted. He still took race one pole, but once Sherlock got ahead of him early in the race he had enough in hand to keep the lead, and Ambiado took second on the last lap.

Ambiado dominated race two, then Woods-Toth soaked up pressure from him to win race three and reclaim the points lead as Shehan had already ended his campaign. His absence made Woods-Toth’s job considerably easier on home soil at Mosport, FRegional Americas’ first ever races in Canada, and a triple win delivered him the title.

That meant he could skip the finale at Circuit of the Americas, where Sherlock won from pole in race one and debuting USF Juniors graduates Bruno Ribeiro (IGY6) and Brady Golan (Toney Driver Development) evaded the usual chaos to finish one-two. Bowling retired and Sherlock was sixth, meaning both just missed out on demoting Shehan from second in the points.

Four of the series’ racers also appeared in FRegional Western, which never surpassed four cars. Crosslink/Kiwi’s Landan Matriano Lim, eighth in the FRegional Americas standings, took the title with eight wins from the nine races he started, with Bowling the only driver who was able to beat him and doing so at Thunderhill Raceway Park.

At Sonoma Raceway there was no Lim, and Jensen Global Advisors’s Jake Pollack appeared to beat World Speed Motorsports’ Jay Horak to victory in both races. Those were two of Horak’s six runner-up finishes, and he was third in every other race. Lim became champion with a race to spare so skipped the finale, which Atlantic Racing Team’s James Lawley won to come fourth in the standings behind fellow part-timer Larry Schnur (World Speed). The planned winter series didn’t go ahead.

Europe

Created last year as a series for drivers and teams from Spanish F4 to step up into, Eurocup-3 took the Tatuus’s T-318 and put a tuned-up engine in it as well adding a new Tatuus-designed bodykit to improve performance.

It began 2024 with a non-championship event at Motorland Aragon, and the pole positions went to Campos Racing’s Christian Ho and MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella. It was windy in race one and Ho succumbed to pressure from MP’s Javier Sagrera and Rinicella. The latter passed his team-mate two laps from the end for the win.

Ho passed Rinicella straight away in race two, but once the pair started battling it brought Sagrera into play too and he managed to get past both. Rinicella got back ahead of him to lead, then second place went to Ho when Sagrera retired with a car issue. He was already far behind Rinicella though, so couldn’t stop him from winning.

That proved to be a pretty accurate preview of what was to come, as Ho and Sagrera fought for the title and ended the season just two points apart. What wasn’t representative was the utterly chaotic opening round at Spa-Francorchamps.

Live timing was not available, and heavy rain led to practice and qualifying being cancelled. Race one took place on a wet track, with the first three laps running behind the safety car and with MP’s pre-event testing pacesetter Owen Tangavelou on pole. Except he didn’t make it to the grid, so Sagrera led the field into green flag action. The safety car was back out by lap five, and conditions had worsended considerably when the next restart occurred on lap eight.

Sainteloc Racing’s Alexander Abkhazava tried passing Sagrera around the outside at Les Combes but ran out of room, cut the next corner and rejoined ahead. By slowing to let Sagrera back past he obstructed Palou Motorsport’s Kirill Smal, who then went off. Several drivers ran out of grip at the Bruxelles hairpin and went off, and the track became ever more treacherous.

Palou’s Luciano Morano crashed heading up Eau Rouge then was hit at high speed by Drivex School’s Gaspard Le Gallais, who had lost control of his car when he spun at Raidillon. A wheel was ripped off in the collision and it rolled further up the track. Red flags waved, and the race results were taken from the end of lap seven. That meant Sagrera won by 0.9s.

Race two didn’t go ahead, so an additional race was added to the Algarve round. The paddock headed to the Red Bull Ring first, and Tangavelou took a lights-to-flag win in race one. Ho took pole for race two but started slowly and MP’s Bruno del Pino got past him. He then managed the pace to win, as a track limits penalty dropped Ho behind Sagrera and Tangavelou.

Ho was finally able to turn a pole into a win in race one at Algarve, and in race two he had to pass pole-sitting team-mate Valentin Kluss then nail a safety car restart to take another victory. Tangavelou got through a messy race in fifth and with the points lead. Abkhazava, del Pino and Ho disputed the lead in race three, but Ho then retired his car and failed weaving by del Pino led to Abkhazava taking his first win ahead of Sagrera and Kluss.

At Paul Ricard the points lead went to Ho as he took two poles and converted them into a second place and a win. Once again a bad opening lap was his undoing in race one, with del Pino taking the lead and going on to win. Del Pino started race two from the pits and recovered to 10th.

After a run of three podiums in a row but no wins, Sagrera raised him game at Zandvoort by obliterating the opposition in qualifying and then winning twice. Safety car interruptions, red flags and rain made his race one success particularly difficult, then in race two he survived a clash with del Pino to beat him to victory and demote Ho to second in the standings.

Campos’s mid-season signing Jesse Carrasquedo Jr pipped Sagrera to race one pole at Aragon by 0.01 seconds. Sagrera was slow off the line, battling Tangavelou as Ho took second. Tangavelou found a gap between the pit wall and Sagrera approaching the first corner, but as they turned in contact was made that sent Sagrera spinning into retirement. Tangavelou later retired too. The safety car came out, and when racing resumed Carrasquedo resisted multiple attacks from Ho to win.

The retirees bounced back the next day, with Tangavelou taking pole and Sagrera winning race two. A formation lap crash delayed the start, and del Pino went side-by-side with Tangavelou through lap one. That went wrong when they tried to continue it into lap two, del Pino going off and Sagrera moving past into a lead he wouldn’t give up. Del Pino did boost his title hopes though, drawing level with Ho on points after he finished ninth.

Ho reduced Sagrera’s lead by two points at Jerez, starting the weekend off by pipping del Pino and Sagrera to race one pole. Showing he was not under pressure, he then dominated the race as del Pino went points-free after stalling.

It was a different story the next day. Del Pino converted his first pole into a third win, Sagrera was second and Ho was fifth.

Seven guest drivers joined the grid for the Barcelona season finale, and outshining the title contenders at first was MP’s Emmo Fittipaldi. He took pole then fended off Ho in a dicey battle to win race one, with Drivex’s guesting Nikita Bedrin losing third to a penalty. Del Pino moved onto the podium, 11.5s behind the winner, and Sagrera got the points for fifth – the position Bedrin was classified in.

It was now a two-way fight, and Ho put in pole for the decider while Sagrera qualified fifth after Tangavelou was penalised. Ho did all he could up front, taking the point for fastest lap and distancing himself from Fittipaldi in second, and Bedrin was third. Global Racing Service’s Mari Boya, another guest driver, tried taking fifth from Sagrera but it meant little since he got the points for fourth place and with it the title.

The Ultimate Cup Series split its Formula Cup for FRegional cars into two classes this year as teams could choose whether to enter on 13 or 17-inch tyres. Initially the latter option was more popular, with seven of the nine drivers choosing the larger tyres for the season opener at Paul Ricard. But teenaged sophomore Marius Mezard (Sports Promotion) took pole by 1.879s on 13-inch rubber and converted it into a 10.968s victory over French Formula 4 graduate Enzo Richer (Formula Motorsport) in race one. Sportscar regular Milane Petelet (Krafft Racing) was just behind in third.

Mezard had an even bigger gap up front in race two, with Petelet far ahead of Richer in second and third, and it was a similar story in race three with Richer runner-up once more.

There were 14 entries for round two at Algarve, and all but three were now using 13-inch tyres. Adrien Closmenil, a rival of Richer in French F4 last year, beat him to pole by 0.371s and then drove his Winfield Racing School-supported car (with the company preparing to run its own cars in 2025) to race one victory by 7.903s as Richer had to work his way past Petelet for second after falling behind on lap one.

Richer took the lead on lap one of race two then profited from Mezard and Closmenil squabbling behind to have an assured drive to victory. Closmenil secured second place on the penultimate lap and was 0.237s behind Richer at the finish, but then got a 30s penalty which dropped him to 11th.

Race three was a thriller, with Closmenil, Mezard, Petelet, Richer and ArtLine Engineering’s Francisco Soldavini (who raced in FRegional Europe last year) fighting each other almost non-stop for the win. There were officially four different leaders, and Soldavini’s last-lap pass after going four-wide at turn five earned him victory. He beat Closmenil by 0.104s in a photo finish, and Richer was third.

The grid shrank to seven entries at Hockenheim, all on 13-inch tyres, and Soldavini claimed a double pole after going fastest by 0.805s over Richer. He maintained that pace advantage in race one, winning by 8.556s. Rain hit the next day, and the top two had to be careful throughout race two. In slippy conditions there was only two attempts at the lead by Richer, and Soldavini held on by 0.3s.

The track had dried in time for race three, but there was more drama as a mechanical problem forced Soldavini into retirement after a lap and Richer had a 30s penalty for crossing the pit exit line. He went on a charging drive and easily overcame his penalty as he was victorious by 17.675s over team-mate and gentleman driver Aubin Robert-Prince.

Mugello also had no cars shod with 17-inch tyres competing, and the grid grew to 10 cars. Soldavini went off twice in qualifying, causing red flag interruptions, but still claimed another pole. A third of a second behind him in second place was Eurocup-3 star Abkhazava, driving for his family’s Artline team. Richer qualified third and held his position for five laps in race one before crashing out at turn five, leaving Abkhazava unchallenged in second.

Soldavini built a gap on lap one of race two to set up another win, as Richer held off the faster Abkhazava for second, and in race three Abkhazava had a go at his team-mate before settling in behind. Richer was a distant third, and left Mugello chasing rather than leading Soldavini in the title fight.

The pair had another new rival at Magny-Cours, as French F4 race-winner Dylan Estre stepped up to UCS to be team-mate to Richer. Soldavini was 0.4s up on both in qualifying, but on second-best laptimes he was behind Richer and Estre.

It got worse for him in race one as he stalled and immediately lost his pole advantage to Richer. He managed to get back ahead on lap two, only for Estre to misjudge an attempted pass on Richer and instead knock Soldavini out of the race as he locked up. Estre was handed a drive-through penalty but recovered to second as Richer had an easy route to victory.

Rain hit halfway through race two, and the safety car appeared once a backmarker crashed out. Soldavini used the opportunity to pit for grooved tyres, dropping from third to sixth by doing so, but the lack of green flag action after that meant he was locked into the position while Richer won again.

It was soaking wet for race three, and a Formula Renault 2.0 car driven by Nano Lopez took the overall win by 20s. Estre was the FRegional victor by 3.221s over Richer, who grew his points lead over Soldavini in third.

There were 15 cars for the Paul Ricard finale, and the returning Closmenil set the pole position time by 0.473s over Estre.

Richer was almost a second off pole in third, but had the title all but secured as Soldavini was absent. He jumped up to second at the start of race one, but remained unable to match Closmenil’s pace as he pulled away for his second win. At least Richer knew he only needed half a point from the remaining two races to get the title in the bag.

Closmenil was set to win race two until a technical issue put him out with two laps to go, and Estre inherited victory by 1.01s. Richer was second, beating Lopez (now in a FRegional car) in a photo finish.

The champion started the final race from pole, but a car problem dropped him to third. Estre was again the chief beneficiary, but he was tracked down and passed by Closmenil who won by 1.105s.

Japan

Michael Sauter had two podium-free ADAC F4 seasons and came third in the 2023 F4 Central European Zone standings with his family’s team, so his switch to FRegional Japanese Championship late last year was a surprise in itself. But it was a place where podiums were likely given historically small grid sizes, and in the second of two outings he took a win and two poles. It turned out he could maintain that sort of form over a whole season in 2024, winning six races out of 14.

Boosting this year’s grid size was a new driver development programme set up by G Force Engineering, which put Sauter and Formula Ford star Sebastian Manson at the Birth Racing Project team and F4 race-winner Jesse Lacey at Bionic Jack Racing.

Sutekina Racing Team’s cameoing Jiei Okuzumi started the season on top by winning a slippy opening race at Suzuka as Manson and Sauter crashed out. Multiple formation laps and safety car errors were the big stories of the next two races, both won by Sauter. Fuma Horio replaced Okuzumi at Sportsland SUGO, and dominated his debut race. He passed Manson to win race two, as Sauter took the points lead.

His gap at the top of the standings grew with two wins at Okayama, and it would’ve been three if not for a penalty in race two. He had jumped the start, but his pace advantage meant Lacey was the only driver to benefit from his 10s penalty.

Sauter did the double at Twin Ring Motegi, but only after Manson threw away race one victory at the final corner of race one. Horio crossed the line 0.187s behind Manson, then drove into the back of his car and flew over the top of it. Their destroyed chassis skated towards turn one before coming to a stop, and Manson was handed a one-lap penalty which dropped him to sixth. Race two was dominated by Sauter, and he now had one hand on the title with two rounds to go.

Horio was absent thereon, but Toyota entered its junior and F4 regular Yuki Sano at Fuji Speedway and he distracted from the title fight by winning all four of the races he contested and therefore coming fifth in the standings. Sauter meanwhile had a three-race podium-free run, with a crash and a clutch issue in the first Fuji round and then finishing fourth in race one of the season finale. In race two he was third, and Manson became championship runner-up by coming home eighth.

Middle East

FRegional Middle East actually only took place in the United Arab Emirates, and was used as a winter warm-up by drivers whose primary programmes for 2024 included Formula 2 and Formula 3. There were 35 drivers who took part over the five rounds, but only six race-winners.

PHM Racing’s F2-bound Taylor Barnard kicked things off on Yas Marina Circuit’s Corkscrew layout with a double pole, and he turned the first of those into a dominant win ahead of R-ace GP’s Tuukka Taponen and Martinius Stenshorne.

Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad, driving one of Prema’s Mumbai Falcons-branded cars, won from reversed-grid pole in race two as Stenshorne took the points lead. He added to that by winning race three, but his move for the lead on Barnard was deemed to be illegal and a five-second penalty therefore handed victory and first place in the standings to Barnard.

Round two took place at the same track, but on the full layout, and Taponen beat Barnard to two poles in qualifying. However it was Stenshorne and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael he had to fight for race one victory, with three-wide and off-track moments before Taponen established himself in the lead and pulled away. Stenshorne reclaimed the points lead.

Nael was penalised for contact with Barnard (who was suffering from engine issues), which lifted him to third on race two’s grid. A strong start meant he led before turn one, and went on to win. Taponen led Nael in race three, and moved to the top of the points table as a result.

Dubai Autodrome hosted round three. Barnard beat Mumbai Falcons’ Rafael Camara to race one pole by 0.047s, and Camara edged Taponen and Barnard to race three pole by 0.01s and 0.074s respectively. Taponen was all over Barnard through the opening lap of race one, then settled for second behind him until lap 11 when he attacked again.

Barnard again kept him at bay, and soaked up the continuing pressure for his third win. MP’s Nikhil Bohra controlled race two, then Camara won race three but had to pass Taponen twice for it after falling behind on each of the first two laps. Brando Badoer beat team-mate Taylor Barnard to third after their own back-and-forth battle.

The paddock returned to Abu Dhabi for round four, although Stenshorne and Lindblad were no longer racing so it effectively became a two-way title fight. Both topped a qualifying session, and Barnard saw off engine concerns and then Taponen to win race one. Safety car periods filled the reversed-grid race, and the first undid del Pino’s early work to make a gap up front.

His front-right wheel then broke and he crashed out, leading to the safety car’s return and putting Camara in the lead. He went unchallenged at the next restart, then met the chequred flag behind the safety car as more drivers retired. Taponen finished fifth and grew his points lead as a penalty left Barnard in 14th.

Barnard’s weekend got even worse in race three, immediately losing ground and being unable to recover it. Although this time he finished fifth, Taponen’s drive from pole to victory meant the title was all but decided.

Qualifying at the Dubai finale only further cementedthat, as Taponen clinched two poles over Badoer and Barnard struggled to 12th in Q1 then was fifth in Q2. He recovered to eighth in race one, and Taponen cruised to a win that made him champion. Barnard repeated his 2023 placing of seond in the standings by winning race two. He was in fifth after an early safety car period, but after a later restart it became a six-way lead fight and he got the lead after Pinnacle Motorsport’s Boya went off.

The season ended with another controlling drive from Taponen, and Camara secured third in the standings by beating Barnard to eighth place in the race.

New Zealand

There was wet-weather action that helped spice up the FRegional Oceania action at the start of 2024, which pitted local talents against international names who were looking for a warm and dry way to begin their year.

Red flags meant the first qualifying session at Taupo switched from wet to dry, and F3 racer Christian Mansell set the pace. He lost the lead of race one at the start to Roman Bilinski though, and the M2 Competition driver flew away to win by a huge margin. Giles Motorsport driver Mansell responded by topping the next qualifying session, but before he could have another go at starting from pole there was the reversed-grid race. Giles’ Alex Crosbie led at first, but safety car interruptions left him susceptible to attacks at the end and M2’s Gerrard Xie and Bilinski drove by him.

An incident in that race meant Mansell didn’t start race three from pole, but he went from fifth to second on the opening lap, swept past M2’s Liam Sceats on lap four then led the way until Bilinski went by him a few laps from the end.

Bilinski bettered Mansell again in Q1 at Manfeild, and led lights-to-flag in race one. Mansell should’ve been second, but he stopped with an electrical problem and then had to climb back up to fifth from 10th place. That at least gave him a decent starting position for the wet reversed-grid race, which he won and Bilinski finished off the lead lap of due to a rain light issue.

In Q2 it was Bilinski though who had the edge on pace, and in a red-flagged race three which was shortened after being hit by intense rain he was victorious yet again. Mansell was again his closest rival, but left the championship after that.

Sceats now became Bilinski’s closest title rival, but at Hampton Downs both were off the pace in Q1 and Xie took pole on a damp track. Bilinski was 14th fastest, and Sceats was the only driver within a second of Xie so actually earned a front row spot.

The changing weather continued into race one, and Bilinski stormed through the order before a storm hit and red flags waved. Some drivers had opted for wet-weather tyres prior to that due to rain earlier in the day, but Bilinski and Sceats made the right choice on slicks and had gone side-by-side several times before the safety car and then the red flags ended their battle and decided the race in Bilinski’s favour.

Bilinski denied Xie another pole by 0.034s in Q2, and in race two Niko Lacorte led Michael Shin in an M2 one-two. Xie spent most of the race in a battle for third with Kiwi’s Woods-Toth, which eventually allowed Bilinski to go past both, and the race was ended early when Xie drove over the back of Woods-Toth and then into the barriers. He was classified fifth, behind Woods-Toth, and Sceats was sixth.

Xie had to miss race three, putting Giles’ Kaleb Ngatoa on the front row. He profited from Bilinski locking up to take the lead early on, then held off the points leader to win.

The margins in qualifying were close again in Q1 at Ruapuna, as Bilinski edged Sceats by 0.061s. After a lap one incident caused a lengthy red flag stoppage, Bilinski resisted race-long pressure from Sceats to win and Indy Nxt racer Jacob Abel finished third on his comeback to the championship.

There was another lap one clash in race two, between Shin and Woods-Toth, but both emerged unscathed. Shin won by a dominant 12.7s, and Woods-Toth held back Bilinski to be third. Bilinski claimed pole for race three, the Lady Wigram Trophy, but lost the lead to Sceats on lap one and couldn’t get it back. Abel was a distant third.

The final round at Highlands Motorsport Park had an altered qualifying format, and a big title twist. Q1 set race one’s grid, then only the top 13 progressed to Q2. The top eight in that segment progressed to Q3, where it was decided who would start on pole for the season-ending New Zealand Grand Prix.

Bilinski was topping the times in Q1 before crashing out and putting his participation in race one – let alone the rest of qualifying – at risk. He progressed to Q2 due to his pace, but couldn’t take part, so lined up a penalised fourth for race one and 12th for the grand prix after Ngatoa withdrew. MTEC Motorsport’s cameoing Callum Hedge (the reigning FRegional Americas champion and FRegional Oceania runner-up) was fastest in Q2, and in Q3 it was initially Abel who was quickest before Sceats squeaked onto pole by 0.036s over Hedge.

A faultless drive from Sceats to win race one kept the title fight going, and Hedge defended perfectly to keep Bilinski in third. M2’s Bryce Aron led all the way in race two, although at one point he was under pressure from Bilinski. He had spent a long time to get past Woods-Toth, and his attempts to clear Aron led to him dropping back to third, where he remained to the finish. Regardless, the result won him the title.

The grand prix, won convincingly by Sceats, was clean until the race’s final corner. Aron hit the wall and Bilinski had no time to avoid, going into the back of him but still passing him for fifth. Crosbie met the chequered flag just 0.001s behind Aron.