15 years ago, young engineers Thibaut de Merindol and Cyril Comte came together to set up R-ace GP
Since its launch in 2011, French team R-ace GP has been a mainstay in Europe’s junior single-seater scene, and now competes in the junior ranks of prototype sportscar tacing too.
It has guided many drivers to success, including current Formula 1 stars Oscar Piastri, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto.
By the end of 2025, R-ace’s time in single-seaters had included running five champions across Formula Regional, Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula 4, winning nine teams’ titles in those categories and 130 races in total. Last year it beat Prema to the teams’ title in the FRegional European Championship, and took double honours in F4 Middle East.
To mark its anniversary, last September R-ace invited former and current drivers, friends and partners to its facility in Fontenay-le-Comte in northern France to take time to celebrate its milestone. Formula Scout was there.
Having met as engineers at SG Motorsport in Formula Renault 3.5, Thibaut de Merindol and Cyril Comte have remained at the helm of R-ace ever since they founded it. Comte is technical executive director, and de Merindol is team principal.
De Merindol admits to having “mixed feelings” about the milestone: “I always have the feeling that we could have done much more during those 15 years. But when we take the time to celebrate those 15 years, you realise that we achieved a quite few things, and we are proud of that.
“More than the trophies or the championship titles or whatever, we are most proud of how we succeeded in building up a real team, a strong group of people, who are committed to a project, which is the team project, and we really share the same values and the same passion.
Photo: Roger Gascoigne
“When you start such project from zero, like we did in 2011 with Cyril, you don’t have any pre-set expectations, you just try to survive. So, your first victory is an achievement. Then your first teams’ championship or driver championship is an achievement. It’s a day-by-day fight, so you don’t know what to expect.”
De Merindol is never satisfied with the status quo, always looking for the next opportunity. Formula 2 and Formula 3 are off the table for now, but entering LMP3 prototoypes into the Le Mans Cup in 2024 was a first step towards racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours and has already reaped the reward of running the 2025 champion.
“The changes are not happening fast enough, but when I look back 15 years, in the end we are going on our journey, and I’m optimistic that someday, circumstances and opportunities will come for us to embark on new challenges, new projects.
“I believe this is our responsibility as a team, to provide our drivers or team members with new projects, so that’s what we are focused on. I feel that our people are very loyal to our team, that we share the same values, have developed good skills, and that we are strong enough now to face those new challenges.”
The 2025 celebrations featured many of the team’s old cars still in their old liveries, including the chassis Piastri drove to the 2019 FRenault Eurocup title and the car that Isack Hadjar won two FREC races in during 2021. That year he was champion in FREC’s rookie classification.
Many teams would have long since sold or scrapped chassis. But FRenault cars in the past colours of Ocon and Gasly are used to train and entertain visitors on the Circuits de Vendee adjacent to R-ace’s factory. They are customers of R-ace Inside, an immersive driving school partnered with the team. Such activities also allow R-ace’s crew to reconnect with past work.
“I think we are quite emotional in the way we run the team. We have fun, we have a good team spirit and maintain the relationship with our former drivers and not only the ones who won,” explained de Merindol.
Photo: Roger Gascoigne
“For example, for me it was very important to have some words from Ukyo Sasahara because, although we didn’t win anything with him, his season with us in 2015 was clearly a key moment for the team.”
FREC switches to Autotecnica-built Toyota engines this year after seven seasons using Alpine-badged units in a commercial deal. That presents something new to work on and look forward to at R-ace.
“I started motorsport 25 years ago in the French Formula Renault Championship,” recalls de Merindol, “and since then I’ve always been racing in Renault championships. So, am I sad to see Alpine leaving? Yes, probably, but I think it’s more a personal point of view because I have my personal history with Renault and Alpine, and I think they really did an amazing job.
“But this being said, I think having the FIA now involved in Formula Regional is the best thing that could happen for the championship.”
As an engineer, he is excited about the challenge of starting “a new project”.
“We have a plan to try to learn this new car as fast as possible, and if possible, faster than the others. It’s a period where we need to focus on that, and it’s a nice one.”
And in racing some fundamentals never change: “It’s never boring. We still need to do a good job.”
Formula Scout heard from some of the team’s alumni and current drivers about their memories of racing with R-ace GP.
Gabriel Bortoleto
(2022: Formula Regional Europe – 6th)
Photo: FRECA
“I really enjoyed my time with them. I learned a lot. It’s a team that is very demanding, that wants you to be performing at your highest level all the time and wants to see you working very hard as well.
“Thibaut, Cyril, Ben my engineer, and all the other engineers as well, everyone is always pushing you to extract your best as a driver.
“Even when things are not going well, you still need to get 100% from your driving and I think this is something I carried over in my career. In a lot of moments, in F3 and F2, when I was leading the championship, but there was a race weekend where maybe our car wasn’t performing the best, I could make a difference as a driver and score important points for the championship, with different driving techniques that I learned at R-ace,
“I have a couple of good memories in particular, like my Barcelona win, which was my first win of the season, and some very nice pole positions like Paul Ricard – that lap was insane and so enjoyable.
“Then Spa where we changed the engine and me and Hadrien [David, my team-mate] both started from the back. We had so much fun coming back with the field and overtaking people.
“Maybe it was not the result I wanted at the end of the year for many reasons, but it was one of the most important seasons of my life.
“Being with R-ace taught me that it doesn’t matter how difficult things are, you can still make a difference as a driver and you can keep learning, you can keep evolving. When you are young, sometimes you think you are driving to your best and that you don’t have so much more to extract.
“When you get a bit older and you join bigger series, you have more data to analyze and then understand how much a driver can make a difference.
“If you are in R-ace it means that you are already a talent because they are very picky with the drivers. You have to just keep working hard, go to the factory, and I know it’s a long way to go there: Oh my God, I still remember the hours and hours it took to get there, and the taxi is very expensive!”
Oscar Piastri
(2019: Formula Renault Eurocup – 1st)
“I learned skills working with R-ace in 2019, my third year in single seaters, with the brand new Eurocup car, that I was able to take with me to the next level.
“We experimented a lot with setups, plus all the data, from which I got so much understanding behind the scenes of why we’re testing certain things. Gaining that background knowledge was really helpful.
“There are a lot of good moments to pick from in 2019, which is a really good thing. We had a lot of race wins, and a lot of tough moments as well, but I think winning the championship was definitely the highlight of that year for sure – it went down to the final race.
“It was the first championship of my career and though I’ve been fortunate to have a couple more since, which was great, that was the first one, so to be able to do that together was a really special moment.
“My advice to others is just to lean on the people that are around you, to try and soak up as much as you can. There’s still people there that I worked with, so I know firsthand the experience and skills that are there.
“It was a great time, working with R-ace and obviously their results are still very strong today.”
Pierre Gasly
(2012: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup – 10th)
Photo: Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull
“I have great memories of 2012, the season we spent together with Thibault, Cyril and the whole team which was my second season in single-seaters, straight after F4, with R-ace and with Red Bull. It was a great learning year, understanding the driving techniques for the car. We shared great moments and created very strong bonds with my team-mates Nyck De Vries and Andrea Pizzitola.
“I remember that there was a lot of pressure, but it changed me a lot. And that’s where we built the foundations for the years that followed. A year full of learning, there were some good things and some bad things, even some clashes. The performance was good, but above all there was a good development throughout the year. We managed to work well which allowed me to go for the title in 2013.
“I still follow the team, look at the results, especially the young drivers coming through. I have very good memories of my time at La Rochelle [the previous base]. Really a beautiful environment, a great racing team and as a young driver, a very nice team. I hope all the future drivers can be as happy as I was, but I have no doubt they will be.”
Esteban Ocon
(2013: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup – 3rd)
“I worked with them in 2013, my second year of Formula Renault Eurocup. That’s really the year when R-ace really taught me how to work in a team, to learn the basics of driving, how to use new tyres, to use the aerodynamics of a car, but also to gain an understanding of engineering. And these are things that have stayed with me ever since.
“It’s the team that won me my first race. I’ll remember it for my whole career of course, my first single-seater victory at Paul Ricard on a wet track. We started eighth I think and won that race. I won plenty more but it’s the first we always remember. It was a great moment with this whole team. But above all, I learned a lot of things and developed as a person from the experience.”
Tuukka Taponen
(2024: Formula Regional Europe – 3rd, Formula Regional Middle East – 1st)
“It’s a very nice team. It was very good to work with them. They teach you the hard way how to get the most out of what you have. Even if you cannot always win, to maximise everything and to keep you mentally strong, they are very good at that.
“They taught me that nothing comes just like that, you have to work very hard for everything. On the sim, we were always very precise with everything. as well as on track and with all the preparations, we repeated them many times. Even it was very clear in the mind that what we need to do and what’s the right way to go. Just repeating those things so they are always in your mind when you have a doubt.”
Will Palmer
(2016: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup – 7th, 2017: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup – 2nd)
“It was clear when I stepped up for the first time that this was a new level of professionalism coming from BRDC F4 where I’d been racing before.
“We started the 2016 season with four days of back-to-back simulator sessions to get prepared and that was really representative of the whole ethos of R-ace GP, of doing everything you can, leaving no stone unturned, so that if things don’t go your way right away, you can’t blame a lack of preparation.
“The Monaco win in 2017 will be a lifelong highlight for me. Standing on the top step on grand prix weekend at Monaco is something I’ll never forget.
“It was great to share that with the team as well. On the Sunday we had an amazing team lunch with champagne sparklers and celebrations all around. That was an amazing memory.”
Emanuele Olivieri
(2025: Formula 4 Middle East – 1st, Italian F4 – 7th)
“I’ve only been driving here just for one year, but I get along very well with the whole team, and I think it’s also great to feel good in the team, work together.
“I changed teams for 2025, and I was not expecting such a good start. The car was mega, the team did a mega job and everything went well and we were able to win, thanks to the team who did an amazing job.”
Ukyo Sasahara
(2015: Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup – 7th, Formula Renault 2.0 NEC – 3rd)
“My season with the R-ace GP back in 2015 in Formula Renault was very special because everyone in the team worked so hard and gave everything we had in the season and that made it such a success for all of us.
“Taking pole and a win at Spa in the Eurocup and finishing P3 in the NEC championship were, for sure, highlights. But looking back to that time, every moment we worked together was a great memory.
“We were always honest with each other, had a passion and a dedication to improve, spending every day working for the victories, and not forgetting to enjoy what we do and smile.
“That made me stronger as a racing driver and also as a person.”