Photo: Super Formula Lights
Evan Giltaire and Akshay Bohra’s anticipated moves to Super Formula Lights are now official, with the pair joining B-MAX Racing and TOM’S respectively.
Last October, Giltaire voiced his intent to step up to the third-tier championship from Formula Regional in an interview with Formula Scout.
He then appeared in one of B-MAX’s cars for post-season testing at Suzuka in December, and his 2026 race programme was confirmed by the team last week (February 27).
A key detail in the announcement of that was he had been signed “through a partnership between ART Grand Prix and B-MAX Racing”.
The 19-year-old Frenchman raced for ART GP in the FRegional European Championship from 2023 to 2025, taking two wins, five other podiums and two poles during that time. He came fifth in the 2025 standings.
He also raced for the team in FRegional Middle East, where he won the 2025 title, and twice in the Macau Grand Prix. In last year’s edition he qualified third and finished sixth.
B-MAX has also announced that Rintaro Sato will race for its sister squad B-MAX Engineering in the first half of the season.
The 20-year-old came eighth in Japanese Formula 4 two years ago and in 2025 raced as a Honda junior in French Formula 4 where he was ninth in the standings with one win. He then contested the FIA F4 World Cup in Macau and finished third.
His father Takuma, a Formula 1 podium-finisher and two-time Indianapolis 500 victor who has also raced in Super Formula and Formula E, runs the Honda Formula Dream Project that supports Japanese single-seater aspirants at home and abroad.
B-MAX’s team boss “Dragon” will continue to race himself, as a part-timer in SF Lights and full-time in Japanese F4. Since his debut in SF Lights’ predecessor Japanese Formula 3 back in 2023, the veteran has scored three points across 13 seasons and his best result is a fifth place finish.
He will have three team-mates competing against him for honours in the ‘Masters’ classification this year. They are Yasuhiro Shimizu, whose best results from two seasons are two ninth places, Nobuhiro Imada who has scored two points in his six seasons, and “Ken Alex”. Two years ago, he made the podium in a Japanese F4 race exclusively for entrants in the Independents classification.
Bohra, 18, will mirror Giltaire in stepping up to SF Lights from FRegional. He took a win, five other podiums and a pole in FREC last year, and was 14th in FRME with one victory.
The American-Indian made his single-seater debut in Italian F4’s 2022 finale, then spent the next two years competing in it and other F4 championships. As a rookie Bohra came third in E4 and Indian F4, winning a race in both, then in 2024 two early victories helped him win the E4 title and he picked up a win and seven other podiums en route to fourth in the Italian F4 standings.