Photo: Sebastiaan Rozendaal / Dutch Photo Agency
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has picked up another accolade after being voted as the Formula Regional European Championship’s driver of the season by its team principals and managers.
In the poll conducted by Formula Scout, each of the FREC teams was asked to submit their ranking of the top 10 drivers for the season. The rules were simple: they could not vote for drivers from their own teams and could only count drivers who competed in at least half of the 10-round season.
All 12 teams participated in the poll conducted after the end of a season in which Prema driver Antonelli saw off a challenge from the R-ace GP duo of Martinius Stenshorne and Tim Tramnitz to secure the title at the penultimate round.
Points in the poll were awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis with a maximum of 110 points therefore available to each driver.
The final scores were as follows:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | 109 |
| 2 | Martinius Stenshorne | R-ace GP | 99 |
| 3 | Tim Tramnitz | R-ace GP | 85 |
| 4 | Rafael Camara | Prema | 69 |
| 5 | Kas Haverkort | Van Amersfoort Racing | 67 |
| 6 | Alessandro Giusti | G4 Racing | 62 |
| 7 | Maceo Capietto | R-P-M | 33 |
| 8 | Sami Meguetounif | MP Motorsport | 27 |
| 9 | Esteban Masson | Sainteloc Racing | 22 |
| 10 | Michael Belov | G4 Racing | 18 |
Unsurprisingly, Antonelli was a convincing winner, although the series’ champion fell one point short of a perfect score as one team principal did not rank him first.
Except for Camara overturning his one-point deficit to Haverkort in the points standings to move up to fourth in these rankings, the top six followed the actual final championship positions.
However, the strong showings of both Masson and Belov, neither of whom did a full season, earned them the the final two positions.
Only five drivers, the top five in the overall rankings, were included in every team’s top 10. Interestingly, while Giusti was included in the top three by four team principals/managers, more than either Camara or Haverkort, he failed to make the top five overall.
Though ineligible for inclusion in the rankings, both Dilano van’t Hoff (MP Motorsport) and Nikita Bedrin (Monolite Racing and VAR) were given “honorary” nominations for their performances. Given the tragic events of the year, van’t Hoff was naturally in the minds and, even more, the hearts of all contributors.
A further eight drivers received at least one nomination: Joshua Dufek (VAR), Lorenzo Fluxa (Prema), Santiago Ramos (Race Performance Motorsport), Nikhil Bohra (Trident), Maya Weug (KIC Motorsport), Laurens van Hoepen (ART Grand Prix), Victor Bernier (MP Motorsport) and Marcus Amand (ART GP).
Formula Scout would like to thank the following team principals and team managers for their time in submitting their own ratings to enable us to prepare this overall ranking:
Dmitry Belousov (Prema), Morgan Caron (Sainteloc Racing), Richard Dent (Arden), Keith Donegan (R-P-M), Sander Dorsman (MP Motorsport), Peter Flythstrom (KIC Motorsport), Thibaut de Merindol (R-ace GP), Adrian Munoz (G4 Racing), Rob Niessink (Van Amersfoort Racing), Mattia Tremolada (Monolite), Mathieu Zangarelli (ART Grand Prix) and Luca Zerbini (Trident).