Photo: ACI Sport
Hiyu Yamakoshi will continue with Van Amersfoort Racing as he steps up to the Formula Regional European Championship next year.
The 18-year-old started his car racing career with the team last year by doing Formula 4 United Arab Emirates rounds for Pinnacle VAR. He scored twice, and came 22nd in the standings.
Yamakoshi then did dual campaigns in the centrally-run French F4 championship and in Spanish F4 with Tecnicar Motorsport. Five podiums in the former put him fifth in the standings, and he was 14th in the latter after missing two rounds.
For 2024 the Japanese racer made an F4 UAE cameo with Pinnacle Motorsport, running its cars independently of VAR, before reuniting with the Dutch outfit for full attacks on Euro 4 and Italian F4 as well as a cameo in Spain with the VAR-supported Monlau Motorsport outfit.
Two victories and two other podiums earned Yamakoshi fourth place in the standings of the three-round Euro 4 series, while in Italian F4 he won twice in round two of the season and five further podiums left him third in the points table. For a long time it looked like he was going to be championship runner-up, but VAR lacked the pace of rivals Prema and US Racing.
“I’m really looking forward to racing with VAR again in FREC,” said Yamakoshi. “We had a very successful 2024 together in F4 with a lot of wins and podiums, so I’m hoping to continue this is 2025 with the team and aiming to fight for the championship together!”
VAR’s CEO Rob Niessink added: “We’re delighted to welcome Hiyu to our FREC line-up for 2025. His growth since joining VAR has been impressive, demonstrating qualities we value – focus, resilience, and a true commitment to improvement. We believe Hiyu is ready to embrace the challenges of FREC, and we’re excited to support him in this next phase of his journey.”